IV. Why did the Roerichs allow contact with Alice Bailey?
Alice Bailey did maintain some contacts with the Roerichs. At one time, she taught her Yoga School in a 29-story skyscraper in New York, where the Roerich institutions were located (7–8.12.1954). Apparently, for many years, Alice Bailey purchased books of the Living Ethics for analysis with students and even once offered the Roerichs to publish new books from the Agni Yoga series (12.07.1938). It is in connection with these contacts that Helena Roerich wrote: "...in life we must meet many and different people, otherwise we will not learn to recognize the true faces and will not find tolerance and the ability to cooperate wherever there is an opportunity to push something for good. One is close collaboration, the other is some cooperation" (8.10.1938).
To some people, these facts seem strange and incompatible with the numerous negative reviews of Helena Roerich about Alice Bailey. The straightforward logic of such people requires a direct and open struggle.
The extensive correspondence of Helena Roerich leads to several assumptions at once why the Roerichs allowed such contacts (we will formulate these assumptions thesis-like, but if necessary, we can support them with numerous quotes from Helena Roerich's letters and books of the Living Ethics):
1. Helena Roerich often writes that it is sometimes necessary to implement the plans of Masters with very imperfect people and even with representatives of hostile groups – "genies build temples". It is possible that Alice Bailey was just such a "genie" for the Roerichs' cause. What benefit could Alice Bailey bring to Roerich's projects? Probably, Helena Roerich did not exclude that some people will approach the teaching of Living Ethics through the organization "Arcane School", because it was about her that Helena Roerich once said: "...and a smoking candle can sometimes light a beautiful lamp and even... a whole bonfire" (12.09.1952). Indeed, judging by the letters of Helena Roerich, the school of Alice Bailey conducted classes on the analysis of Agni Yoga books; and many people who learned about such classes came to the Roerichs and asked them to establish such groups; in the printed publications of the "Arcane School" the books of Agni Yoga were analyzed... Obviously, this work had a certain value, especially since the Alice Bailey’s school, apparently, was one of the few channels for distributing books of Living Ethics in the world, especially in the 1940s–1950s, after several of the closest employees left the Roerichs and, due to the war and the defeat of the Latvian Roerichs society, almost completely stopped correspondence with European countries.
2. Helena Roerich has repeatedly written that karmic connections are very complex, and sometimes it is not only impractical to "get rid" of a hostile element or engage in an open fight with it, but even dangerous – sharp movements can lead to such unexpected consequences that their harm will be much more serious than from careful work at the correct distance.
3. It is possible that the presence of the "Yoga school" in the 29-storey Building was due to reasons that are now difficult to establish. Probably, there was a hope at least partially to "neutralize" Alice Bailey, i.e. to neutralize some negative psychospiritual qualities of her body. According to Helena Roerich, about this purpose in his time, C. W. Leadbeater was approached by H. P. Blavatsky: "Ledb[eater] was very harmful due to his psychism, developed at the expense of spirituality. Gr[eat] Mas[ters] wanted to neutralize it by holding him near the aura of Mrs. Blav[atsky] for some time"1.
|
Once again, we emphasize that the above is just our assumptions. We do not insist on any of the points and do not claim that this list exhausts all possible options. We just want to show the reader that there are many different explanations for some of the contacts of the Roerichs with Alice Bailey, which are quite compatible with the negative statements of Helena Roerich about her activities. Thus, the facts of interaction of the Roerichs' organizations with Alice Bailey and "Arcane School" cannot prove that in different periods the Roerichs treated the teachings of Alice Bailey and the "Tibetan" differently.
Notes:
1 Е.И.Рерих – М.Е.Тарасову от 29 августа 1934 года // Рерих Е.И. Письма. Т. 2. 2-е изд., испр. и доп. / Ред.-сост., примеч. Т.О.Книжник. М.: МЦР; Благотворительный Фонд им. Е.И.Рерих; Мастер-Банк, 2013. С. 333.
|