“India is within us!” Roberto Assagioli used to say, as did the founder of the Community of Living Ethics, Sergio Bartoli, emphasizing this as a certainty.
Even so, for years we postponed a Community trip to the East, to that mystical and mysterious land, the Cradle of Civilization, where Spiritual Teachings were born, home of the Rishis, Ashrams, as well of the Perennial Wisdom of the 20th century.
In 1998, he finally decided to organize a first group exploratory trip to Northern India, from Delhi to Almora, from Kullu-Naggar – at the Roerich Estate – to Dharamsala and Amritsar. This was followed by others, including a small group “expedition” to visit Darjeeling for New Year’s Eve 2000, responding to a specific calling, an expedition not without challenges on the physical and astral planes!
In January 2001, at the beginning of the new millennium, the group was able to visit Crookety, Helena Roerich’s home, and Her Stupa, for the first time. That house, at the time, was a construction site: a cottage built by Scots in the 1930s, that was supposed to become a hotel! Desolate at the thought that another of the Roerich’s magnetized points would be lost, the small group meditated in the garden facing the stunning view of Kanchenjunga, so dear to Nicholas, asking for signs.
These signs were not long in coming, through many synchronicities and unexpected cooperation, as often foretold in Agni Yoga. The first sign was the invitation to participate as the Community of Living Ethics in the WSI (World Service Intergroup) held in Darjeeling in 2001, where we met, among others, Steve Nation, founder, along with his wife Jane and Christine Townend, of the Darjeeling Goodwill Library.
Shortly thereafter, news spread across the ‘network’, that the entrepreneur who wanted to build the hotel had decided to sell Crookety. The idealistic Italian spirit immediately responded to this unexpected development by sending a small delegation, ready to purchase Crookety, only to discover that… foreigners cannot purchase property in India!
However, thanks to an unexpected meeting with Steve and Christine, both founders and trustees of the DGAS (an Indian Trust dedicated to Goodwill and right relations between humans and the animal kingdom), it was possible to join the Trust which then that purchased the property, thanks to donations from several members of the Italian Agni Yoga Society.
On December 4, 2005, Crookety House, after the necessary restoration and furnishing (as the house was completely empty when purchased), was inaugurated as a small Centre dedicated to preserving the memory of Helena Roerich. It honours her great service and that through this service she gave the world the spiritual Teaching of Living Ethics.
The passages of her life are illustrated in the House with photographs and posters, plus a collection of Agni Yoga books in many languages leads to Yuri Roerich’s room, now dedicated to reading and study, as well as being open to researchers and visiting groups.
The room/study where Helena completed her diaries, corresponded with various disciples, and where she passed beyond the veil on October 5, 1955, is now a meditation room, where individuals and groups dedicated to the study of Agni Yoga can also stay in silence.
Part of her ashes are preserved in the White Stupa on the hilltop behind Crookety, next to a “gompa,” a Buddhist temple, founded by Dudjum Rimpoche, a famous lama and friend of Helena, who cultivated only a few, but significant, friendships in Kalimpong.
Life and activities at Crookety and the Darjeeling Goodwill Centre are currently coordinated and managed by the Himalayan Institute of Goodwill and Living Ethics (HIGLE) Trust, in collaboration with the Darjeeling Goodwill Animal Shelter (DGAS), and included in what is known in the Community of Living Ethics as Project India.
Regarding Crookety, the mission we perceive increasingly clearly is to preserve and strengthen the magnetism of this place, where the seed of the Fiery Teaching of the New Epoch was implanted—also thanks to H.I. Roerich’s passage into the subtle world—including its most hermetic and cosmic aspects, contained in the writings of the last years.
The seed of Goodwill, planted in the Darjeeling Planetary Center through the work of Steve, Jane, and Christine, is carried forward at the Goodwill Centre, which is consistently invoking continued and broader international and local participation.
A major effort is underway by the Project India group and local collaborators to continuously and consistently enhance the presence and activities, improving and optimizing the enjoyment of this beautiful and powerful place, Crookety, magically positioned opposite the great Mountain of the Five Treasures, the majestic Kanchenjunga.
In 2026, the facility, to which three cottages have been added, will host the first international Agni Yoga Retreat with friends from various countries, dedicated to deepening our study, particularly of Helena’s Diaries, and to the experiences that connect different efforts in many parts of the world.
by Fiorenza Bortolotti,
Responsible of the India Project, Vice President of the Italian Agni Yoga Society, Foundation of Living Ethics, Italy