Portrait by his son, Svetoslav Roerich

THE INVINCIBLE

By NICHOLAS ROERICH

1974

NICHOLAS ROERICH MUSEUM

New York

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PREFACE

Nerushimoye, the book by Prof. Nicholas Roerich, was published in Russian in 1936 in Riga by Uguns — the publishing house.

The preface to that book is significant enough to repeat in this English edition:

"In the present eleventh volume of his works, called by the author Nerushimoye ("The Invincible"), N.K. Roerich, indefatigable and widely recognized as a cultural leader of humanity, remains faithful to his task and to the goal that he sets before himself. He stands invincibly on watch over culture; invincibly and yet steadfastly he molds the steps of the consciousness of the new man; invincibly and strongly he lays the stones into a beneficent, true, spiritual culture as the basis of the structure of new life; invincibly and fearlessly he battles with ignorance, superstition, and prejudices and, in spite of the attacks of numerous adversaries, he continues to carry out unalterably the ideas of a peaceful, cultural structure of life.

"Vigilantly watching all that happens in life upon our planet, the author in this work also reacts constantly, like a sensitive barometer, to all events and manifestations of life, positive as well as negative. Any and all, the great and also the smallest manifestations of life find a living response in his many faceted heart, and a just, impartial evaluation by his all-embracing mind. There is no realm of knowledge or sides and issues of life that would be unattainable to his understanding and are not widely examined in his numerous letters and articles.

"Standing on guard over culture, Roerich dedicated his entire life to the battle with ignorance, for culture is to him the hearth of Light, a constant saturation and transmutation of consciousness by the light of higher knowledge and active love".

"In this incessant drive for the annihilation of darkness is disclosed the astonishing quality of his spirit, which ever delighted his friends — to approach everything without negation and intolerance, to observe in each cultural endeavor something positive, and to incorporate this actuality into the common evolutionary treasury of the world. This is precisely that high ideal of cultural constructiveness which N.K. Roerich brought into being in the many organizations and societies in which he realized a League of Culture — precisely that affirmatively synthesized undertaking in which is revealed that all-creative spirit of unity, cooperation, and service, and where are put together the bases of the best future for humanity."

There is little we can add in 1974 to this just evaluation. Let The Invincible summon forth and exalt the best qualities of the human spirit.

CONTENTS

Preface

FEARLESSNESS

Free, unlimited science — Long forgotten discoveries.

AESOP'S FABLE

"Tell me thy company, and I'll tell thee what thou art." —

Bestiality and brutality — Earthly and spiritual indebtedness.

THE FAR-SEEING EYE

The traveler in Asia — Watchfulness — Speed of transmission of news in remote parts of Asia and Africa.

CULTURE, THE VICTORIOUS

Culture and civilization defined — Festivals dedicated to culture — Coarseness excluded — Establish real days of culture.

SELF-DESTRUCTION

Unexplainable clashes — The masses wish to learn — Simple, hearty word is needed — Newest and most ancient now combined.

BENEVOLENCE

Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Peking saved by Tashi Lama — Good signs — Antagonists of enthusiasm — Confusion and fear — Rapture.

THE UNREPEATABLE

The Radlov expedition — Destiny of antiquities — Marauders — Grave gold — "Stone babas" — Vandalism — Destructive fanaticism — Know more.

ANCIENT SOURCES

Truth of ages in commands or proverbs and fairy tales — Importance of details — Poor translations — The art of thinking — Need for quality.

WORTH

Changes of government — The realm of the heart — The Chalice of Great Service —Epics.

MADNESS

Tiredness — Colds — Depression — Change of labor — Symptoms of madness — Striving for equilibrium — Cruelty.

STARS OF DEATH

1936-1937 — Sunspots — "Stars of death" — Rays from Regel — Stars of blue color — Hallucinations — Experiments with transmission of thoughts — Responsibility for thought.

ATTENTIVENESS

Effects of weather on sick organisms — Taking medicine — Effect of thought on plants — Difference in weight of dead body — Weight of higher energy and of thoughts — Photographs of invisible world — Attentiveness.

KITAB-UL-AGHANI

"People cannot find the Sea of Knowledge if they do not renounce all else." — Coming of a prophet — Prayers in the desert — What virtue is.

FAIRY TALES

Pearls to be found in fairy tales — Epic works — Need to publish fine examples of Russian literature in popular form — Translate these into many Eastern and Western tongues — Treasures of Eastern and Western wisdom must be issued in Russian — The Bhagavad Gita — Accessibility needed.

SEROV

His sincerity and honesty — His portraits — Always remained himself.

THE WINGED PLAGUE

Suddenness of its appearance — Experiments to determine height above Earth at which all life ceases to exist- — Role played by storms and cyclones in spreading infectious diseases — Upon some wings salvation comes flying — Threatening subterranean and submarine processes — Investigation of thought.

INEXHAUSTIBILITY

The physical and spiritual planes — Psychic energy — Attentiveness — Enthusiasm. STEADFASTNESS

Issues from equilibrium.

EPIDEMICS

Of madness — Madness of public officials.

ARTISTS

Russian artists, musicians, composers, writers, philosophers — Franco-Russian understanding through culture.

TACTICA ADVERSA

Genghis Khan — Coordinated actions — Value of mobility — "Give a thief a rope" — Justice.

OEUVRE

Judgments about creative process — Separate works only petals of entire oeuvre.

THE MOST SIMPLE

Questions and answers — Flaming hearts — Simplicity understood in heart.

LIGHT REALIZED

Radiations of human body — The aura — Condition of blood — Role of medicine — Magnetic currents — Light rays — And sound — Expansion of consciousness.

CAREFULNESS

Watching oneself — Squandering other's forces — Rash actions — Cautiousness — And cooperation — Unexpected tests.

WILD ANIMALS

A feeling in animals akin to man — Killing must be abandoned — Meat eating — Dogs.

THE INVISIBLES

Invisibility — Folklore enters life — Benevolent properties of human spirit — Straight-knowledge — Teachings of hermits — Strange ailments — Thoughtlessly provoked energies — Results of mechanization of industry.

NEW LIMITS

Actual and apparent death — Noting down facts — Examine reality without negations —Recognition of the past.

FRAGRANCE

Chinese gardens and women — Condemnation — Destination of women.

WAVES OF LIFE

Lucky days — Life's three kinds of rhythm.

SOURCES

Languages — Ornament, music, art an expression of human feelings — Research of these.

FORWARD

Sven Hedin an example of striving and invincible labor — True creativeness is optimistic. EASY DIFFICULTIES

Difficulties created by imagination — Two types of people, some come to surface, others sink — Need for contact with nature — Adaptability — Mirages — "Blessed be the obstacles."

MYSTERIES

On Karakorum Pass — Hidden treasures — Great Guardians — Subterranean folk —Secret magnets.

MONSALVAT

Exercises and sports — Greek games and Roman circuses — Importance of thought —Life of labor and usefulness — Sports causing illnesses — Limited thinking — Spirit alone shall receive the crown.

THE BANNER

The Pact and Banner of Peace — Safeguarding cultural values — Choice between Light and darkness.

ESSENCE

Essential nature of people is good — Experiment with projecting subtle body — Ignorance — Power of good thoughts — Unusual manifestations — Apparitions — There is no death.

PYRRHIC VICTORIES

Depletion of forces — Spirit must be cognized — Spiritual battles — Dark enemies — Straight-knowledge — Napoleon and Kutuzov.

THE TRUE FORCE

Experiments with suggestion — Power of thought — Primitive state of thought.

ATTRACTION

Attachment to places — Journeys — The longed-for home — Attractions and antagonisms to people.

RUSSIA

A many faceted image of Russia — V.V. Stasov — Roerich's painting, "The March" — Tolstoy — Moussorgsky — Elena Ivanovna — The Kutchka — Peredvizhniki — National art — Roerich's painting "Three Joys" — Calls.

THE INEXPRESSIBLE

Absolutes — Some factors elude formulation — A new infinity — Shifting the consciousness — Art of thinking — Arresting thoughts — A sigh — Voluntariness.

RECIPROCITY

The basis of agreements — Violence ends in destruction — The human heart — Brutalized ignorance — Responsibility — Tests in daily life.

ANTAGONISM

Its source small and shallow — Obsessive aversions — Irrational partiality — Careful attitude about conduct, thoughts, and words.

DELAY

"Delay like unto death" — Reasons for delay — Need to think about effect on the future — Everything must be cultivated and tested.

ANONYMITY

Anonymous creativity — Mongolia — "Stone babas" — Roerich's painting "The Guardians of the Desert" — Bronze figures — Nestorian crosses — Learning associated with great antiquity.

THE COMPLETELY NEW

Rhine's experiments with thought transference — Phenomena encountered by Prof. Dyhrenfurth in the Himalayas — Electrical apparatus — Should record observations. IMITATION

Close to emulation — Slander — Properties of ignorance — Gratitude — Betrayal — Do not be embittered — Strive for quality.

VIDEBIMUS

A deadly saying — Isabella d'Este — Cesare Borgia — Delay — And neglect — The earthy burden.

SERENDIPITY

Accepting success — It must be caught — Need for quality — Filling space the greatest responsibility of humanity — Pessimism — Dark forces — The destined.

COMPARISON

Need for support of medical research — Great sums available for military purposes —Creative cultural activity should be increased.

GATES INTO THE FUTURE

Durability — Art materials — Colors — Tempera — Oils — Italian and Flemish primitives — Van Eyck — Icon painters — Teaching art — Quality.

THE GREAT IMAGES

Heroes and heroines of antiquity — Images, from recent past — Judgment — A remarkable feminine image — Finding the good signs.

FREDUM

The price of peace — Honor and dignity — Conquest a medieval concept- —Byzantium — The dead word — Protection of cultural treasures — Tolerance and patience needed.

SIGNIFICANCE

Idle talk — Simplicity — Coarseness — Thought energy — Should be silent —Converse meaningfully and think constantly — Sleep.

ARCHIVES

Fragmentary notes — Preserving archives in great order — Clarify circumstances —Correct errors.

KING ALBERT

Institute in Bruges — A heroic knight — Life is dismal without a hero — Heroism —1914 — Roerich's painting "Fire."

UPON THE FACE OF EARTH

Russians who have contributed through their work to many countries — Creativeness for good — St. Sergius — The cooperation of peoples.

WELCOMED LABOR

Improves results of work — Person who speculates on a fall — Lack of desire for labor — A holiday of the spirit — Beautiful marathons — The seed of the spirit.

"THIS, TOO, WILL PASS"

Learning patience — Tolerance — Sincerity — No place for condemnations — Dispersing darkness — Achievement — Creating good — Thresholds — Instilling vigor.

LET US REJOICE

Joy and depression — Purpose of meetings — Inception of valor — "The first glimmer before the dawn" — Useless complaints — Messengers — Building the temple — Evil is transitory, good eternal — True joy.

THE MIDDLE AGES

"The All-Seeing Eye" a Masonic symbol — Dark periods — Superstitions — Confusions — Poisons — Sowers of darkness — First impressions — Inquiry — Friends of culture on watch— Disperse darkness — The heart.

PROPHECIES

Dr. Thomas Midgley — A new supply of energy will have to be found — Inhabitants of other planets — Improvement of health — Spiritual development — Psychic energy —Sleep and narcotics — Earth and infinity.

CATACOMBS

Psychology of catacombs — Rome — Persecutions — Carrying the chalice — Service to humanity — These times a special period — Difficulties — Readiness.

THE DROUGHT

Destruction of Quetta — Prophecies about Kali-Yuga — Present signs — Derision by ignoramuses — Archaeology — Spiritual drought.

THE LETTER

Striving — Children full of inner burning — "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you" —Dark forces — Discuss the Forces of Light — Prejudices — Fidelity so needed. REGENERATION

The idea — Seeing that which was to be — Blok — "The Annals of Russian Art" and Russian history — What we Russians need — Regeneration — Thought about culture — Creativeness.

SEALS

Ancient Chinese seals in Ireland — Ancient international relations — Archaeological findings — Forgotten discoveries — Usefulness of travel — Marco Polo — The price of peace — Archaeology.

ESSENTIAL NATURE

Degrees of ascent — Forcing — Naturalness — Rebellions — Prejudice — Narcotics —Natural condition of the essence — Sweat of labor — Definitions of good.

TESTS

Everything tested endlessly — As in the body, so in the spirit — Dark conduits — Man seldom inactive — Constant labor of the spirit — "All worlds on trial" — Planet exposed to danger-Contemporary life — Man makes own destiny — Warnings — To love. IMAGES

Tests through fear — Knowledge essential — True visage always revealed — Masks —Tolerance of evil — Fearlessness a natural quality — The hero.

INVINCIBILITY

Stability of construction — Doubt and envy — Obsession_ The enlightened heart — True cooperation — Good is victorious.

GOLDEN PRAGUE

Thirty years ago — Beginning of foreign exhibitions — Traveling rare — Settledness — Slavs — Advance of culture — Masaryk — "The Pact and Banner of Peace" — General Kletchanda — Memories — Joy of the spirit.

DEFENSE

Defense of Motherland — Culture — People not satisfied with abstractions.

COMBATING IGNORANCE

Knowledge an expanding process — Science — Infinite learning — Inspiration — Thought transmission — Martyrs of science — Astrology — Human radiations and psychic energy — Clairvoyance and clairaudience — Denial of Truth — Good, culture, and enlightenment.

GORKI

His death and funeral procession — Tributes to him — Last minutes — Attitude toward other writers — Hindus — Roerich's painting "The Doomed City" — Gorki as Harun-al-Rashid.

MIR

Peaceful labor — Homer — Endless war — Prayers for peace — Bloody food and killing — Defenders of culture — "Festival of-projectiles" — Dangers of new war — Defense justified, assault condemned — Universe and peaceful creativeness.

SIGNS OF THE ERA

Liberated science — Spiritualization of science — Battle with ignorance — Power of thought — Psychic energy — "Know thyself — Seekers of knowledge — Unity a real force — Experimentation with psychic energy.

FEARLESSNESS

Science, if it is to be redintegrated should primarily not be limited, and thus be fearless. Any conditional limitation will be an evidence of mediocrity, and thus will become an unconquerable obstacle on the path of achievement.

I recall a conversation with a scientist who so insistently wanted to be the defender of modern science that he even attempted to diminish the significance of all ancient accumulations. Whereas, precisely, each young representative of modern science must first be open to everything useful and more so to all that bears the testimony of ages. All negation is contrary to creativeness. In his enlightened, constantly progressive movement, a true creator, first of all, is not negative. A creator has no time for condemnation and negation. The process of creativeness proceeds in an unrestrained progression. Therefore it is painful to see how a man, because of certain prejudices and superstitions, entangles himself with phantoms. In order that no one might suspect a scientist of being old-fashioned, in his fear he is ready to inflict anathema and oblivion upon the most instructive accumulations of the experiences of antiquity.

Verily, a free, unlimited science reveals again to humanity many long forgotten useful discoveries. Folklore again marches hand in hand with the disclosures of archaeology. Song and legend strengthen the pathways of history. The pharmacopoeia of ancient peoples revives again in the hands of an investigating young scientist. No one will say that all this ancient pharmacopoeia should be applied literally, for many of the hieroglyphs and inscriptions are deliberately symbolical. The very meaning of many expressions has been lost and changed through the centuries. But the experience of thousands of years nevertheless offers an unlimited field for useful research. Thus, much of that which is forgotten must be rediscovered and benevolently explained in contemporary language.

Turning to archaeology, we see that many excavations of recent years have astonished us by the refinement of meaning and forms of numerous, often fragmentary remnants. This refinement, this subtle elegance of antiquity, once again points to the cautious, reverent attentiveness with which we should touch these ancient testaments. We dream of forgotten lacquers, of the lost technique of jewel-mounting, of means of preserving materials unfamiliar to us. Finally, we are compelled to recognize many ancient methods of healing those scourges of mankind which are equally frightening at present. When we hear, and become convinced, of ancient methods successfully applied in the cure of certain forms of cancer, or tuberculosis, or asthma, or heart disease, is it not our duty to give most benevolent attention to these echoes of accumulated wisdom from ancient times?

Negation, which is limiting, must not have any place on the horizon of young scientists. Only mediocre thinking can cut off and impede progress. Absolutely everything that can help evolution should be welcomed and heartily accepted. All that can serve for the development of human thinking — all must be listened to and accepted. It is unimportant in which garment or hieroglyphics the fragment of knowledge is brought. The benefits of knowledge will have a revered place in all parts of the world. Knowledge is neither old nor young, ancient nor new. Through it there is accomplished a great, unlimited evolution. Everyone who obstructs it will be the progeny of darkness. Everyone who according to his strength will assist it will be a true warrior, a co-worker of Light.

Peking

December 22, 1934

AESOP'S FABLE

Tell me thy company, and I'll tell thee what thou art." Some dogs once barked at a caravan. First let it be said, and justly, that not one of the dogs could have been of use to the caravan. Is it not remarkable that in the entire dark pack, although it was obviously a natural assortment of fitting companions, not one animal was fit to be acquired? There were small ones with crooked legs; red, and piebald ones, and black, slobbering mongrels; some limping, some without tails. This seeming variety was but one of purely outer appearance; the inner distinction throughout this entire batch of hounds was quite uniform — the same baseness, the same cruelty and blood-thirstiness, the same cunning and two-facedness.

Is it not astonishing that the pack came running from many different points — the well-fed, the hungry, greyhounds, and awkward cripples — all following an animal instinct to come running and bark at the passers-by as if so commanded. The traveler wonders by whom and by what means this vermin-ridden pack has been gathered, and why just this ugly brood, stained by their own bloodshed and by all kinds of beatings, must gather into a pack and, with tails flying high, rush through the village. Besides, this is not springtime. The cats have not yet begun their roof-top serenades, but the pack is already on the loose and runs about, growling and yapping. And how did it come to pass that not one thoroughbred joined this rackety pack?

There are, after all, certain laws of nature through which, in the human and likewise in the animal kingdom, "a fisherman sees another fisherman from afar." Old treatises about the natural selection of species are not far removed from truth. Indeed, sometimes "there is no family without a black sheep," but, also perhaps more often, "an apple does not fall far from the tree." And if the trunk of the tree is worm-eaten, the fruit from such a tree is bad.

Some Coachmen like to flick barking dogs with a wicked whip, and others smile, "Let him howl at the top of his voice." But if a mastiff gets under a side horse the coachman may remark only, "The beast got its due."

Bestia is a Latin word. It means a beast, an animal. It spread over the face of Earth, because this definition was needed in the most diverse circumstances. Bestiality and brutality have frequently struck human thinking. Mankind has tried by all possible means to get rid of beastly instincts. The worst of human conditions have been rightly termed bestiality and brutality.

It is said that want and suffering purify human consciousness. One may ask. What kinds of suffering are still needed? What other deprivations must humanity go through in order to remove itself from low bestiality? Someone warns that many more catastrophes must sweep over our beclouded Earth. Someone affirms that certain islands will sink, that new seas will rise; but how vast must the areas of these new aquatic expanses be before people will think Seriously about this! It is deplorable to think that people become so easily accustomed to even the most terrible state of affairs. It is as if there were some sort of demand for a hastened progression of reactions for the purpose of perplexing the contemporary mind in order to compel it to think about the paths of the near future.

It is said that most of today's young people look first of all for the sports and film pages in the newspaper. It is said that many of them have difficulty in enumerating the greatest philosophers, but at the same time will name without one mistake the prize fighters, sports celebrities, and moving picture stars. Maybe it is not quite so, but the stories told by professors and schoolteachers make one ponder about the contemporary trend of thought. Likewise, all this makes one reflect about what has pushed the present generation to such extremes. Whoever reads about the last years of the Roman Empire or about Byzantium finds perhaps to his amazement many parallels with today. Among these the most striking will be the gravitation toward the circus, prize fights, races, and all kinds of lotteries.

Very soon every village, and perhaps every street, will have its beauty queen, or its remarkable arm or leg, or its own special kind of hair! It is as if human imagination cannot be inspired by anything else, while at the same time the unsolved purely mechanical problems impede the flow of progress.

Countries, institutions, private persons, are living beyond their budgets, multiplying the grand total of earthly indebtedness. This material insolvency is not limited to earthly, mechanical conditions only. It will pass into another, far more dangerous, indebtedness; and if the planet becomes a spiritual debtor, this frightful debt can become an overwhelming impediment to all success.

"Dogs are barking — the caravan goes on," says optimism; and pessimism recalls how packs of wild dogs once devoured the watchman of a powder magazine. All that was left of him was his rifle, his cutlass, and a few buttons. And after this incident any passer-by could without interference set fire to the powder magazine and cause irreparable harm. But let us follow the ways of optimism, and let us accept each dog's bark as a sign of some new movement, useful undeferrably needed.

At times, even the worst pessimistic signs will be only that natural selection which, for the good of the constructive process, has to take place in any event.

Monsters are especially terrible when they are hidden in darkness. But when they sooner or later crawl to light, then oven their ugliest grimaces cease to be terrifying. To know will already be to advance.

Peking

December 23, 1934

continuation