Seven Pillars of Agni Yoga
Joleen D. DuBois
President and Founder, White Mountain Education Association, Inc.
I began studying Agni Yoga in about 1985. I had been reading the first two books of Leaves of Morya’s Garden, and then I moved into reading about the Letters of Helena Roerich, letters she had written to her students. During that time, I had this strong impulse to learn more about her life. I really wanted to learn more about her before I made this incredible commitment, for the rest of my life, to dedicate myself and my life to Agni Yoga.
Over the years of studying Agni Yoga, I learned that there are seven particular themes, which I am calling the Pillars of Agni Yoga. And I am very much involved in putting them into my life. They have given me a sense of direction, where to go and what to do, in terms of living Agni Yoga, living the Teaching.
These seven points, seven fundamental Principles, are called Beauty, Joy, Freedom, Creativity, Self-Perfectment, Striving, and Service. If we take these seven pillars and make a note of them, or a mental note of them, when we are reading through all these beautiful books written by the Master, we are going to see the repetition of these Principles:
Creativity
Creativity means living a life in which we strive to create ourselves on higher and higher levels of beingness, and in that, we create more beautiful music, more beautiful art, and more beautiful writing through creativity, which is the process of self-perfectment. So, creativity must involve our whole life.
Beauty
Beauty is the outer form of God’s Purpose. As our soul adapts itself to the Beauty of God, it becomes a form of beauty. The form then recreates itself in all the tapestry of our creative endeavors. Beauty expands our consciousness and causes us to move up the ladder of evolution, Jacob’s Ladder. As we establish communication with the Source of Beauty, the beauty of our soul is released.
Freedom
A disciple of Agni Yoga has a love for freedom. In their leadership, the disciple places a high value on freedom and, taking their inspiration from inclusiveness, will try to lead according to the Law of Freedom. I think this is one of the more difficult components for a parent, teacher, or leader to follow. My premise is that the more freedom we have cultivated within our own consciousness—freedom from bias, freedom from prejudice, freedom from control, freedom from being dominated, freedom from our personal will—the more we will be able to lead others through the Principle of Freedom.
Joy
Joy is a field of creativity that is found in our heart. We cannot imitate joy. We can pretend to be happy, but we can’t pretend to be joyful. Master M. says, "Joy is a special wisdom." That wisdom is born in the heart. So many people have a difficult time trying to define joy, or even recalling moments of joy, because they are trying to identify joy through the intellect. Joy bypasses the brain function, the concrete mind. We don’t stop to say, "Am I in joy?" We are joy. It is an element that fills our entire constitution. It goes into our heart, and the heart pumps joy throughout our entire lymphatic system, through our glands, and through our organs. Joy assimilates the Sun’s energy, and then we have creative energy.
Self-Perfectment
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. The keynote for graduation to the Supermundane life is self-perfectment. Self-perfection is light; the opposite of self-perfection is self-indulgence. Self-indulgence is darkness. We have one of two life-direction choices. One choice leads to a dead end, to self-indulgence. M.M. says, "One can still build one’s life each day as it were the end." The second choice—the choice of Self-Perfectment—is, of course, the choice of preference, where one can "so illuminate one’s life that each hour will be a beginning."
The human soul has a purpose, which is perfectment. We must each evolve, progress, and advance. By making a conscious decision to travel the path of self-perfectment and to illuminate our life in such a way that "each hour will be a beginning," we create an environment for our soul to evolve, to strive toward perfection, to strive toward graduation into the Supermundane life—the life of an Agni Yogi.
Striving
Every single day of our life and future lifetimes can be spent in striving, and each step in the process of our striving will take us to greater and greater heights. What helps a person soar to the Higher Worlds? Striving is the key to breaking away from the Earth’s sphere to the Higher Worlds—it is what gives the spirit the strength to do so. The lesson tells us "the greatest task" is to teach people to aspire while on Earth. Aspiration is the striving of the spirit toward Light, Beauty, Goodness, and Truth. A person’s consciousness determines the condition and strength of its spirit.
We must strive on the path of perfection step by step; we must strive to conquer our immediate problems, challenges, and obstacles; we must strive to destroy our present limitations, and then, without leaving any gaps behind us, move to the next step. If we leave one problem behind, it will turn into an even larger problem on the path ahead of us. This is how we can strive in harmony with the Law of Perfection.
Service
Each day, we can ask ourself how we can help another person, or ask forgiveness for someone we have harmed in the past, or even forgive ourself for various things about which we are carrying guilt. Service means that we are giving ourselves to others as a soul, that we are creating a soul-to-soul relationship, and in so doing, we are creating right human relations.
Helena & Nicholas Roerich
Helena Roerich (1879–1955) was the author and recorder of the Agni Yoga series, transmitted in collaboration with the Masters of the Agni Yoga Hierarchy. Her extensive Letters provide additional guidance on the path of Living Ethics.
Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947) was a Russian artist, explorer, and peace activist whose Himalayan paintings have become iconic symbols of the spiritual path described in the Teachings. He founded the Agni Yoga Society, Inc. in New York in 1920.
Together they worked to make the Teachings available to the West, presenting a synthesis of ancient Eastern wisdom and modern Western thought. Nicholas was also the originator of the Roerich Pact, an international treaty for the protection of cultural property.
Their lives and the Teaching they transmitted remain inseparable—the paintings, the letters, and the books form a unified body of spiritual instruction for those on the path of conscious evolution.
The Agni Yoga World Community
The AYWC exists to connect independent study groups, organizations, and individual seekers across the globe—sharing news, events, translations, and insights to support each other on this path. We hold no hierarchy, charge no fees, and require no membership.