Puti blagosloveniya (Russian: Пути Благословения), known in English as Paths of Blessing or Ways of Blessing, is a collection of essays, prose pieces and a short narrative tale by the Russian painter, writer and public figure Nicholas Roerich (Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh, 1874–1947). Published in 1924, it was a collection of Roerich’s articles in Russian issued abroad. The book belongs to the early years of Roerich’s emigration, when he worked in Europe, the United States and India. It sets out themes that recur throughout his later writing: the unity of art and spiritual life, the cultural renewal of society, and the meeting of East and West.
Author and context
Nicholas Roerich, born in Saint Petersburg on 9 October 1874 and died in Naggar, India, on 13 December 1947, was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophist, philosopher and public figure. He is best known for his large body of artwork, which spans over 7,000 paintings. He also wrote extensively in prose and verse. His earlier publications in emigration included the poetry collection Flowers of Morya (Berlin, 1921) and the book Adamant (New York, 1922), and Puti blagosloveniya followed in 1924.
The collection appeared as Roerich and his family were establishing a network of cultural and educational institutions. In a letter from this period the family listed their undertakings: a school (the Master Institute), an art centre (Corona Mundi), the Roerich Museum, a transport company (World Service) in Riga, and the new publishing house Alatas. Roerich created the Alatas publishing house together with the writer Georgy Grebenshchikov. The book was thus both an expression of his thought and part of a deliberate programme of cultural publishing.
Publication
The standard Russian bibliographic citation of the first edition gives the imprint as New York, Paris, Riga, Harbin: Alatas, 1924. The multiple places of publication reflect the distribution of the Russian emigration and of Roerich’s own circle of supporters. Russian reference works describe the book as appearing in Paris and Riga in 1924. Antiquarian descriptions of the New York issue record a volume of 157 pages with a portrait, in softcover wrappers, with the text entirely in Russian. The Nicholas Roerich Museum’s archive notes that the 1924 edition was printed in pre-reform orthography.
The Roerich Museum in New York promoted the volume in its own catalogue of publications, which listed Paths of Blessing by Roerich, in Russian, published by Alatas, Inc., 1924. Roerich’s own bibliographies list it as a Russian-language work published in Riga by Alatas in 1924.
Later editions followed the reopening of Roerich’s legacy in Russia and Latvia. One appeared in Riga from Vieda in 1992, in a volume that also included Heart of Asia, and another was issued in Moscow by Sfera in 1999.
Contents
The book gathers pieces written over several years and in several countries. It included essays such as “Flame” (“Plamya”), together with pieces written in America and in India. Among the later texts, the essays “Strings of the Earth” (thoughts on Sikkim) and “The Star of the Mother of the World” are singled out as especially noteworthy. A Russian bookseller’s description states that the remaining ten essays arose during Roerich’s travels of 1920–1924 through America, India and Tibet.
The earlier prose in the volume dates from before emigration. The tale “Flame” was first published in 1924 in Puti blagosloveniya, issued by Alatas in New York. Digital editions of the collection also list other earlier pieces such as “Paths of Blessing” (1921), “The Undrunk Cup” (1916), “Flame” (1918) and “Adamant” (1920), which indicates the range of dates over which its component texts were composed.
The title essay
The title piece, “Paths of Blessing”, was also published in English. It appeared in parts in the London journal The Herald of the Star from December 1921, with the third part in the February 1922 issue. That journal was the organ of the Order of the Star in the East, a Theosophical organization founded by Annie Besant and headed by Jiddu Krishnamurti. The English serialization shows that Roerich’s ideas were reaching a Theosophically minded readership in the early 1920s.
The Russian text opens with an affirmation of cultural and spiritual values. It states that the best hearts already know that beauty and wisdom are neither luxury nor privilege but a joy meant for the whole world at every stage of attainment, and that the best people understand they must bring these paths actively into personal and public daily life. The essay goes on to discuss domestic surroundings, everyday objects and the state of the arts.
Themes and significance
The phrase “paths of blessing” became a recurring motif in Roerich’s later writing. In Beautiful Unity (published in English in 1946), he writes that when art enters fully into the spiritual development of public life, “the true paths of blessing will draw near to every human heart.” The idea ties together his convictions that beauty and knowledge should be part of ordinary life and not restricted to a cultural elite.
The collection also reflects the Eastern interests that increasingly shaped his work. Roerich’s wife Helena developed the philosophical teaching of Living Ethics (Agni Yoga) in cooperation with the Teachers of the East. The family’s shared spiritual outlook is evident in the book’s Asian subjects and in its reflections on Sikkim and the figure of the Mother of the World. These essays were written as the Roerichs prepared for and began their Central Asian expedition. George de Roerich recorded that the family left for Bombay in November 1923, and the Himalayan journey that followed took them to India and beyond.
Puti blagosloveniya is regarded as an important early collection in Roerich’s literary legacy. It is a key source for his views on culture, art and spiritual life during the period between his departure from Russia and his years in the Himalayas. It is also an early example of the Russian-language publishing that sustained his readership among émigrés, and, from the late twentieth century, among readers in Russia and the post-Soviet states.
