The identification of a person with God (gods, mythical Ancestors) through the identity of a name or image (mask), through the identity of energies, situations and actions is the main religious activity. Realize your kinship or unity with That which is above suffering, and you will receive deliverance from suffering.

All religions proceed from the idea of the hierarchy of being. There is a secondary, created, imaginary, fractional-plural world, a world of shadows and images, a world of "caves", a world of ambiguity, suffering and unfreedomyyy. And there is a genuine, One, Free, Eternal Being. A gap arose between these two planes of existence. Man is on the fault line. He is burdened by the fact that he falls into errors, that he sometimes loses even knowledge about himself. He is burdened by the fact that he is possessed by death and passion, hunger, thirst and sexual addiction. He is burdened by the fact that according to the conditions of his life, he is not God. The way to eliminate the original corruption of human existence is to restore the presence of the Divine in oneself and in the world. Therefore, religious worship seeks means to attract eternal divine energies into our world, the world of people (or to expand their presence at least in the inner world of man) and through this to bring liberation, strength and immortality to religious man...

Thus, the sign of religious activity is the striving to achieve a specifically religious goal, which is recognized as contact with the superhuman spiritual world, understood as having significance for determining the fate of man after the death of his body. The activity aimed at establishing such personal contact is religious practice (religious rite, ceremony, worship). The conceptual understanding of this kind of activity is a religious doctrine. Dissemination of information about religious doctrine aimed at attracting people to participate in religious practice is religious training, upbringing, preaching.

I hope that with this reflection I have responded to the remark of the Vice-President of the ICR, L. V. Shaposhnikova, who said in one of her speeches: "There are several decisions of all sorts of theological seminars, which were held under the leadership of the Patriarchate, that the Roerich movement is a sect. But, excuse me, the deacon did not even formulate: what is religion?" 257.

In turn, I could ask the Roerichs what definition of religion they use. How do they manage to understand religion in such a peculiar way that their own activities turn out to be non-religious?

For more than one year I have been collecting a collection of those definitions of religion given by Roerich activists.

Here is the judgment of S. R. Ableev, "Vice-Rector of the Law College of the Russian Section of the International Police Association": "Four most important features are characteristic of the orthodox religion: 1) the elevation of Faith to the principle and subordinate position of Knowledge; 2) the possibility of a "miracle" is admitted, that is, a supernatural, non-causal phenomenon inexplicable by the powers of reason; 3) the presence of rites, rituals and cult; 4) the presence of the Holy Scriptures and subsequent dogmas, which are regarded as the absolute and immutable truth in the last instance. By none of these signs does the Living Ethics fall into the category of religious teachings."258

Mr. Ableev defines the term that he himself introduces - "orthodox religion". If it is applied not to the "artifact" created by him, but to religion as such, then this definition will not work. The shaman will not say "I believe"; He is more likely to say "I know" (I know that if you say such and such a spell, there will be such and such a result). In general, only a developed religion, capable of developed philosophical reflection and intellectual honesty, can define the object of its hope as faith, and not as indubitable "knowledge" or as a self-evident adherence to the "law" (it is no accident that in the first six books of the Old Testament there is no word "faith" at all). It is precisely primitive religious-magical practices that are incapable of taking this step...

In addition, there is much in the theosophical doctrines themselves that cannot be verified, clarified and confirmed according to the criteria by which in modern science a certain thesis is transferred from the category of believed "hypotheses" to the category of proven knowledge. How to characterize from the point of view of scientific methodology the statement that "The anthropoid type of apes originated from the copulation of man with female animals"259? There are also many demands for faith and obedience, rejection of all doubts in Roerich's texts:

"So, let us proceed to the transmutation of all our energies. Let us begin with the most stubborn energy of egoism, that fierce dragon of egoism with all its tail—self-conceit, selfishness, apprehension, doubt, and the like—and replace it with the wings of affirmation of unity, full solidarity with all co-workers, recognition of Hierarchy, joyful consolidation of deeds given, gratitude for just instructions, and let us conclude with trust to the end. All this transmutation is so facilitated when hearts burn with devotion and love for Him Who called us to build and showed us the way to the Towers!" 260. "And now I would like to ask, or rather I pray, all those close to you, in view of the terrible times, to be imbued with a feeling of great trust in the Great Lord, such a trust that does not admit of any deviations, any fleeting doubts and aspirations. By the way, let us also recall the feat of H. P. Blavatsky, who was an example of complete trust and loyalty. Her lion's heart knew neither fear nor doubt. She bravely bore her commission, and where something was unclear to her, she walked just as firmly, for a great unbreakable faith lived in her heart. Are there many disciples who have never allowed in the depths of their consciousness the stirring of a small snake of doubt or condemnation?" 261. "The corrosive worm of discontent must be expelled from every cooperative" (Brotherhood 1,544).

"Urusvati (this is the occult name of Helena Roerich, as she is called by the spirits conversing with her – A.K.) can calmly accept everything. As much as self-confidence in action is blessed, so much is self-conceit destructive. You have no conceit."262 "You will be told about terrible occult secrets, but you will approach simply, firm in yourself. We learn the unknown as we approach it. There is no need to talk about it in advance, because we do not even know its boundaries" (Signs of Agni Yoga, 303) zzzz.

In general, all occult, theosophical, yogic treatises are filled with advice of spiritual fearlessness: start experiments, enter the realm of spirits without looking back, and do not worry about anything. "Without miracles, without bowing, you will find a clear reality, and with the pickaxe of the tester you will open the closed depths" (Community, 121). This is a very interesting formulation of the problem: one must enter the world of the Highest, but "without bowing"; to enter the Temple — but not to venerate the Shrine... However, the spirits who met Helena Roerich made such an impression on her that she could not bow at all: she had a feeling of her own literal inflexibility. "After a certain step one must not bend, for like mercury in the glass of a thermometer, a column of energy rises" (Signs of Agni Yoga, 302)bbbbb.

In principle, "without bowing" is indeed the basis of scientific research. A psychologist who studies "altered states of consciousness" (even from his own experience) should keep records of his own experiences and analyze them in this way. Like a doctor who has inoculated himself with a disease, calmly and objectively notes the signs of its course ("fever. … a rash appeared... by morning there were nightmares..."). But if this doctor treats his nightmares as the source of the highest truth, if for him the visions he has experienced become the criterion of truth, then in this conviction he will cease to be a doctor, having already become a patient...

In principle, "without bowing" is indeed the basis of scientific research. A psychologist who studies "altered states of consciousness" (even from his own experience) should keep records of his own experiences and analyze them in this way. Like a doctor who has inoculated himself with a disease, calmly and objectively notes the signs of its course ("fever has risen... a rash appeared... by morning there were nightmares..."). But if this doctor treats his nightmares as the source of the highest truth, if for him the visions he has experienced become the criterion of truth, then in this conviction he will cease to be a doctor, becoming a patient...