Album TS Adyar
Dated 20 November 2024
In honour of his legacy, today's post is dedicated with deep gratitude to one of my most beloved friends and an Aurovillian elder brother of light (and a true companion of Ruud Lohman, consecrating himself to building a living physical garment of the Divine Mother—the Matrimandir since 1974.) on the occasion of his birthday.
Greetings to all friends from TS @ Adyar.
Sharing a magic of a changing eternity (a memory in the heart of time);
At an ongoing course on TSD in the SOW as a member of the Adyar Lodge of the Theosophical Society, two days back I met an old German theosophist friend. He brought good news, saying, "The original 'Messenger' painting on the tempera (gifted by Nicholas Roerich while he was staying here for three days in 1925) that had faded is restored just two weeks ago. It is now waiting in the Adyar archives and library building to find a new spot for permanent exhibition once again."
The persistent thrill of a transfiguring touch of Nicholas Roerich's original tempera painting 'Messenger' is nothing less than fixing the eternal’s touch in time-made things. Like bathing in its immense intuitive Ray.
Tracking the history from an article of April 1925 in The Theosophist journal:
Almost 100 years ago, on 17th January, in the Jubilee year (1925) of the Theosophical Society, Nicholas Roerich comes to Adyar.
In his hands he bears a gift and a torch. The gift is a painting in tempera, “The Messenger,” the work of his own hands, the creation of his own genius, the testimony of his faith, the witness of his love, the earnest of his dedication to the Great Cause and its Greatest Servants. The torch is the torch of beauty.
Roerich, in one beautiful and dignified sentence, makes his presentation:
“In this Home of Light, let me present this picture of ‘The Messenger', dedicated to Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, as the nucleus of a future Blavatsky Museum, whose motto shall be—Beauty is the Garment of Truth.” Roerich said: "To my mind, East and West are only conventional understandings; these divisions are not important. If we are still to speak of unification, the first condition is through Art. Through Beauty we shall reach a true understanding of religion and discover the easiest way of solving the complicated social problems. Where Beauty is manifested, there complications disappear. In the West we have civilisation. In the East there is culture. First comes civilisation, then culture. To my mind, they are only steps.
We know that Art is always prophetical of the next human movement. If we already think of synthesis in Art, it means that the synthesis of Humanity is coming. To attain synthesis, the first condition is to avoid all prejudice. Only by the open door and the open eye can this be brought about. The whole world is our body. Before we can use it, we must open the eye and the door."
A messenger and a vaster being from the immortal light, how was she looked upon by other great initiates who followed in her footsteps, bringing the torch of truth on the various rays?
She was the one to whom Alice Bailey dedicated her magnum opus 'Treatise on Cosmic Fire'. The One, who was acknowledged as a remarkable woman by the Rishi Sri Aurobindo himself. Probably a doorway into (the right-hand path) of occultism for sweet Mother Mirra Alfassa? The One, who was a spiritual mother to Vicente Beltran Anglada. The guru of Agni Yogis Helena and Nicholas Roerich. Falling at her physical feet to seek blessings, Damodar Malavankar left Adyar permanently in an attempt to climb the Tibetan peaks no mortal feet have ever trod (becoming the only Golden Child to pass his probation of seven years in those days).
Yet in vain now seems her splendid sacrifice and a prophetic utterance (Lucifer June 1890): "Indeed, the modern Eastern student's unwillingness to think for himself is now as great as Western exactions and criticism of other people's thoughts," as all Eastern and Western disciples continue repeating those mistakes unable to overcome their own glamors.
I sit contemplating with inner tears of joy and gratitude on a bench (where J. Krishnamurthy/Krishnaji spoke on 28-12-32, 4-1-33 gifted by members in Barcelona, Spain) and recollect such mighty lines from the epic 'Savitri':
"A fire has come and touched men’s hearts and gone;
A few have caught flame and risen to greater life.
Too unlike the world she came to help and save,
Her greatness weighed upon its ignorant breast
And from its dim chasms welled a dire return,
A portion of its sorrow, struggle, fall.
To live with grief, to confront death on her road, —
The mortal’s lot became the Immortal’s share."
- The Symbol Dawn, The Book of Beginnings, Savitri, a mantric epic by Sri Aurobindo.
"But when God’s messenger comes to help the world
And lead the soul of earth to higher things,
He too must carry the yoke he came to unloose;
He too must bear the pang that he would heal:
Exempt and unafflicted by earth’s fate,
How shall he cure the ills he never felt?
He covers the world’s agony with his calm;
But though to the outward eye no sign appears
And peace is given to our torn human hearts,
The struggle is there and paid the unseen price;
The fire, the strife, the wrestle are within.
He carries the suffering world in his own breast;
Its sins weigh on his thoughts, its grief is his:
Earth’s ancient load lies heavy on his soul;
Night and its powers beleaguer his tardy steps,
The Titan adversary’s clutch he bears;
His march is a battle and a pilgrimage."
- The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain, The Book of Fate, Savitri, a mantric epic by Sri Aurobindo.
"How can the heavens come down to unhappy earth
Or the eternal lodge in drifting time?
How shall the Ideal tread earth’s dolorous soil
Where life is only a labour and a hope,
A child of Matter and by Matter fed,
A fire flaming low in Nature’s grate,
A wave that breaks upon a shore in Time,
A journey’s toilsome trudge with death for goal?
The Avatars have lived and died in vain,
Vain was the sage’s thought, the prophet’s voice;
In vain is seen the shining upward Way.
Earth lies unchanged beneath the circling sun;
She loves her fall and no omnipotence
Her mortal imperfections can erase,
Force on man’s crooked ignorance Heaven’s straight line
Or colonise a world of death with gods."
- The Gospel of Death and Vanity of the Ideal, The Book of the Double Twilight, Savitri, a mantric epic by Sri Aurobindo.
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