Roerich Elena Biography

Roerich Elena Ivanovna - philosopher, writer, wife N. Roerich truly great is always seen at a distance. In the case of the creative heritage of the Russian philosopher and writer Elena Ivanovna Roerich, this is exactly what happened. Much of what was created by this outstanding woman in the first half of the twentieth century was included in the cultural and spiritual life of Russia relatively recently and aroused deep and genuine interest among many of our compatriots, striving to find answers to exciting issues of being.

On the line of her mother, Elena Ivanovna was a cousin of great Russian commander Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov and a distant relative of the outstanding Russian composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky. From childhood, Elena showed outstanding abilities, by seven years the girl read and wrote in three languages. Already from his youth she was seriously interested in literature and philosophy.

At the end of the Mariinsky gymnasium, she received a musical education. Her teachers predicted her pianist's brilliant career, but life ordered otherwise. In the year, the portrait of E. on the estate of his aunt Princess E. Putyatina Elena Shaposhnikova first meets with her future husband, young artist N. Roerich, who became a like -minded person for her, sharing all her aspirations.

Thanks to mutual love and the high ideals of life, this union was unusually durable. In joint creativity, co-creation, in essence, their whole life passed. In August, they have a son Yuri, in the future-a world-famous-native scientist, and in October, Svyatoslav, who chose the same path as his father. After the revolutionary events of the Roerichs, who lived in Finland since the year due to the state of health of Nikolai Konstantinovich, were cut off from their homeland.

Their further path lay through Sweden and London, which was connected with proposals to take part in exhibitions, as well as in the preparation of scenery for the opera theater. In the fall of the year they come to the United States. The scope of cultural activity expanded with the direct participation of E. Roerich by a small group of its students in America is amazing-the institution in New York, Nikolai Roerich Museum, the Master Institute of the United Arts, the Corona Mundi International Art Center, became a starting point, and their influence spread beyond the limits of the country, and became international.

Numerous societies, creative clubs and educational institutions, acting under the auspices of these organizations around the world, united under the general dome of culture not only creative people, but also all those who sought to embody humanistic ideals and improve life. In the years, Elena Ivanovna takes part in the unique Central Asian expedition for hard-to-reach and poorly studied areas of Central Asia, organized by her husband.

Roerich and Yu. Roerich on the RAE route. The expedition left India Sikkim, then went to Kashmir and Ladak, crossed the Chinese Xinjiang and reached the Soviet border in the Tien Shan region. From there, three of its members: E. Roerich, N. Roerich went to Moscow, where important meetings took place. From Moscow through Altai and Buryatia, the expedition reached Mongolia, crossed it and entered Tibet, aimed at visiting Lhasa.

In front of Lhasa was stopped by the Tibetan authorities and spent about 5 months in summer tents on a frosty snowy Cantang plateau. The caravan died on Cantang, the conductors fled or died. By spring, the authorities came, and the expedition moved further through Transhimalaye to Sikkim. In the year, during the stay in Mongolia of Ulan Bator, the book of Elena Ivanovna Roerich “Fundamentals of Buddhism” is published, which interpret the fundamental philosophical concepts of the teachings of the Buddha, such as reincarnation, the law of karma, nirvana, as well as its deepest moral side, which refutes the main stereotype of Western thinking that man in Buddhism is an insignificant, forgotten god creature.

Upon returning from the Central Asian expedition in the year, the Roerich family settles in the ancient picturesque valley of Kulu West Himalayas. Since that time, Elena Ivanovna has almost completely devoted herself to the work of the main work of her life-a series of books of the philosophical and ethical teachings of the living ethics, or Agni Yoga, which had begun in London on March 24.

The process of creating books took place under direct leadership and in close cooperation with a group of anonymous philosophers, called, by virtue of their spiritual development, Mahatmas or great souls, or teachers. Mother Agni Yoga. Living ethics books for many have become desktop. They put forward ethical problems as the most important condition for the further spiritual and cultural evolution of mankind and are addressed, first of all, to the earthly, real living conditions of each person.

Their appearance was directly related to the processes that took place in science, culture and spiritual life of the first half of the twentieth century, including the so -called “scientific explosion”, which laid the foundations of a new integral approach to the study of reality surrounding us. Many outstanding minds of that time Russian scientists V.Vernadsky, A.

Chizhevsky, K. Tsiolkovsky, as well as the cosmic philosophers I. Ilyin, P. Florensky and N. Berdyaev argued that the fate of mankind is inseparable from the life of the cosmos and the coming era would be the era of human cooperation with other worlds. Based on the ancient knowledge of the East and the achievements of the modern science of the West, considering a person as part of the cosmos, living ethics reveals the features of the cosmic evolution of mankind and creates a new system of its knowledge.

A special place in it is occupied by the laws of space. These great laws determine the movement of planets and the growth of natural structures, the origin of stars, human behavior and the development of the universe. Outside these laws in space, nothing exists. Human life, historical and social, is due to the same cosmic laws, and while humanity is not aware of this, it will not be able to improve its life, approved in the books of teaching.

The teachings of live ethics.