Agni Yoga and Life

(Helena Roerich, founder of the Agni Yoga Society)

Agni Yoga is a Teaching that educates the soul and gives us direction so we can graduate from this earth school into graduate school: the higher worlds.

Throughout the Agni Yoga Teaching you will find many instructions on how to graduate with honors. The keynote for graduation into the Supermundane life is Self-perfectment. Self-perfectment is light. The opposite of Self-perfectment is “Self-Indulgence.” Self-Indulgence is darkness; Self-perfectment is Light. Man either creates or destroys.

We have one of two life-direction choices. One choice leads to a dead end—to self-indulgence. M. M. says, A person can build one’s life in such a way that each day will, as it were, be the end.[1]

The second choice—which is the choice of Self-perfectment—is of course the choice of preference where a person can illumine his life in such a way that each hour will be a beginning. [2]

This instruction in Agni Yoga reminds me of the question: “Is the glass half full or half empty?” The first choice of self-indulgence is to build one’s life where he sees the glass as half empty; the second choice is to live life in such a way that the glass is half full. You either approach your life destructively and negatively: or creatively and constructively.

As you read the books of Agni Yoga, you discover that at the heart of this Teaching there is an emphasis upon fire and upon evolution. Fire is about the creative life; evolution is about Infinity.

Fire is Life. The Fire of Space is the source of all life in any form. The ancient writings instruct, “Fire is Creative.” Creative Fire permeates all Space. In some Teachings the Creative Fire is called Kriyashakti: the Life-giving divine Fire, in all forms of life.

When we draw from the Life-giving Fire in the Universe, we direct our consciousness to the path of Self-Perfectment. It is the Flame in our heart, which links us with the Creative Fire in Space, with the Heart of the Universe. This same Creative Fire is also located within our own nature, “as above so below.”

We each have a Divine Spark, a seed of life. The Fiery Seed of Life is our spirit. It is indestructible because it is sacred. This is a very important point to remember. Your spirit is sacred and as such is indestructible. However the radiation of the fiery seed changes, depending on the growth of our consciousness, the expansion of our consciousness. The energy around our fiery seed is consciousness.

This fiery seed is sometimes called the human soul. The human soul has a purpose, which is perfectment. It is through Self-perfectment—the fiery seed will evolve. The purpose of each incarnation is to evolve on the path of Self-perfectment.

We must each evolve, progress, and advance. As our consciousness expands, our fiery seed will evolve and strive toward infinity. The human soul, plus the vehicle with which it is identified, becomes the command post from which the soul operates. It is this identification that creates the tests and traps for the evolving human soul. It is from this command post that we construct our glamors, desires, illusions and vanities, building our life in such a way that each day will, as it were, be the end. After the soul constructs a glamor, a habit, a vanity—it believes that is who he is. It says, “I am that.” He becomes the glamor, he becomes the illusion, he becomes the vanity or the habit or prejudice or this and that.

However, by making a conscious decision to travel the path of Self-perfectment and to illumine his life in such a way that each hour will be a beginning, the person creates an environment for his soul to evolve, to strive toward perfection, to strive toward graduation into the Supermundane life—the life of an Agni Yogi.

The Supermundane world is in the higher strata of the Universe; it is also within ourselves if we know how to contact this level of fire. All strata of the Universe are permeated with fire. The Subtle World is a world of fire, but this world reflects the earth and is a fire by friction. The Supermundane is the highest world of Creative Fire, electric fire.

If one wants to travel beyond this earthly plane of existence, beyond the school of pain and suffering, from tests and trials, we are told that it requires breaking through and transforming the identifications the soul has constructed. It requires dis-identification from one’s habits, old outworn beliefs and ideologies, from fanaticism, pride, and vanity. Until this “awakening” occurs, the soul will be trapped and each day will be, as it were, an end, for the soul loses his freedom by identifying with his not-self—with his maya, glamor and illusions.

To graduate to the Supermundane world you must go through solar fire, the fire of the spiritual Hierarchy. This means you must create an environment where the fiery seed of the human soul can make contact with the spiritual Hierarchy of Earth. What is the Hierarchy?
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In the biblical sense the “Ladder of Jacob” symbolizes the Hierarchy. Each fiery seed, each human soul is impregnated, imbued by a Ray of the Hierarch, which gives the soul a “knowingness” about its life direction. When the soul makes contact with the Ray, he will have a yearning to change his life, to find his Teacher. He will search for the Mountain. The mountain in Agni Yoga is a symbol of the Teacher. When we reflect upon the Hierarchy, we think about the Brotherhood, about the Christ and his disciples. Agni Yoga calls the Hierarchy the “guiding hand.”

The task of the Teacher is “to give you indications within those limits which are permitted. He will uplift you, cleans you of outworn habits. He will warn you against all kinds of treason, superstition and hypocrisy. He will test you openly and in secret. He may also say Farewell, passer-by.” [3] The Teaching says, Friends, if you wish to approach Us, elect a teacher on earth and place in Him your guidance …. [E]ach one should have a Teacher on earth.” [4]

When you make a contact with the Christ or Master in your heart, you may remember having a dream where you had attended an inner plane classroom or you may remember being in an Ashram. You may recall speaking to someone, teaching someone, listening to a lecture. Such an experience will give you deep joy.

Striving toward Self-perfectment, creating an illumined environment for your soul to evolve, making a contact with the Hierarchy and the Teacher will give you a fiery inspiration to dedicate yourself in service to all you meet. “Let the greatest among you be the servant to all,” said Christ.

When we study Agni Yoga, we study life, beauty, culture and creativity. We study how to improve on the life, how to heal, how to love, how to build right human relations. Some religious and spiritual Teachings prepare you for death, but they don’t teach you how to “live.” Agni Yoga believes in the continuity of life, in the continuing life of the spirit. It teaches us how to release the spirit that is enslaved in its past.

We are striving to the future, building a new consciousness, building new viewpoints, building new bodies in which to strive into the future to the Supermundane Worlds.

The Agni Yoga Teaching is the teaching of life applied to each necessity. It provides a solution to the daily problems. It does not teach Self-Indulgence; it inspires us toward Self-Perfectment.

With love,

Joleen

[1] Fiery World, Volume I, para. 308.©1943,1969 Agni Yoga Society,

.[2] Ibid.

[3] Agni Yoga, para. 103.©1952 Agni Yoga Society, Inc.

[4] Ibid.