"Neither our philosophy nor ourselves believe in God, least of all in Him whose pronoun requires a capital letter" (p. 23).

Such a judgment is for every orthodox Theosophist a truth that does not require any proof. Suffice it to refer to the above words of the President of the Theosophical Society, Annie Besant, who taught: "Atheist is one of the most glorious titles of mankind, a badge of distinction of world heroes, martyrs, saviors of the world. No philosophy, no theology brought anything worthy to the world in comparison with the good news of atheism."

"Our doctrine," says the book "The Chalice of the East," "knows no compromises. It does not affirm, it does not deny, because it gives only what it knows as truth. That is why we deny God, as philosophers and as Buddhists. We know planetary and other spiritual existences, and we know that in our system there is no such being as God, personal or impersonal. The word God was invented to determine the unknown cause of those effects which, without understanding them, man admired or feared. And since we assert, and are able to prove what we assert, i.e., the knowledge of this cause and causes, we can insist that there is no God or Gods behind them" (pp. 24-25).

"The God of the theologians is merely an imaginary power—a power which has never yet manifested itself. Our main task is to liberate humanity from this nightmare, to teach man virtue for its own sake, to teach him to live life relying on himself, instead of leaning on the theological crutch that for countless centuries has been the direct cause of almost all human misery" (p.

«... He who reads our Buddhist scriptures, written for the superstitious masses, will not find in them a demon so vengeful, unjust, cruel, and stupid as that celestial tyrant upon whom the Christians lavish their servile adoration so generously, and the theologians heap up all those perfections which are refuted on every page of their Bible" (p.

Through the efforts and with the close participation of Roerich, the above-quoted "Chalice of the East" saw the light of day in order to cloud the already clouded brain and soul of modern mankind with the intoxication of theosophical philosophizing. But it could not be otherwise: Roerich, as a true Theosophist, cannot but have a negative attitude towards any religion, since according to the teaching of Theosophists, positive religions with precisely established dogmas are a path traveled and "there is no religion higher than the truth". And since "Theosophy is truth," it follows that "there is no religion higher than Theosophy."

In a letter of instruction sent from India, Gor. In 1924, in the name of his brother Vladimir Konstantinovich and intended for the Harbin Lodge of Rosicrucians, Nicholas Roerich instructs how to act in order to "benefit humanity".

"You have a Sign and a Book, which means that you have a complete connection with the Source still invisible to you and your brothers in spirit, scattered in different parts of the world. The main thing is to try to free yourself from prejudices, understanding them broadly, understanding that sometimes the ignorant foreigner and the full-time theologian are both equally low in relation to prejudices. And how joyful it is to feel that the inner being is freed from prejudices. And how much is becoming available and possible.

Therefore, work hard, look for new worthy people, look closely at the young... " (Harbin Time, No314, November 20, 1934)

Orthodoxy, as we profess it, is indifferent to Roerich, rather hostile. Freemasons call God the Great Architect of the Universe, in Roerich's view God is the Great Artist of the Universe, a synonym for beauty.

"Beauty is God... and a new path of Beauty and Wisdom will come. A new world is coming. He walks amidst amazed and shocked eyes. And in the new world, in its new colors, a new life will take shape."

"Among the monstrous mental heaps of unlived rags, signs of synthesis are already visible." (Nicholas Roerich, Ways of Blessing, pp. 7-8.)

In all Roerich's works, despite their mystical tone, the most important thing for a Christian is missing – the confession of Jesus Christ as taught by the Holy Church.

Roerich finds it possible and not reprehensible to speak about the unknown absence of Christ and about the coming Messiah, i.e. to repeat the truisms of theosophical wisdom.