faith Archives - Hope With Anirban

Read This If You Feel Hopeless About Life

The author writes about his experiences with spirituality to persuade readers to have hope about life.

When I was 16 I started meditating daily.

I read books on spirituality and religion.

I even watched YouTube videos of spiritual gurus who talked about God, the nature of reality, truth, etc.

But I didn’t understand most of it.

But what little I understood was that there is something beyond what we see in life.

All the money, fame, success, pride, etc. is only temporary.

What’s more permanent can be found through spirituality.

So I started meditating.

Although I messed up big time trying to meditate without guidance, I think what it taught me was more than any course or book could teach me.

That teaching is that normal life is not as bad as we think.

I learnt from meditating wrongly that meditation isn’t necessary to attain nirvana or moksh.

What’s necessary is self-honesty and good behavior towards others.

If you can be honest about your intentions and behave well to others in a way that is just, I think that’s a good start.

So as you might know I had to go through a few episodes of psychosis as I wrote about it in my other mental health blog posts, that’s a topic for another blog post.

What I want to tell you through this blog post is that there is hope.

Mundane life isn’t all that there is. There is a truth beyond life that can set you free.

It can make you realize the divinity that lies within you and all other beings.

I like to ask myself this question,” What is God?”

We might think we know what God is- a supreme godhead, or an impersonal power or absolute infinity or nothingness.

But I just like to think that I don’t know what God is.

This lets me think beyond the preconceived ideas of other people about God.

So yeah there is hope.

I’m not asking you to believe in God. But I’m asking you to ask yourself what’s beyond all this.

Thanks for reading this line! It means a lot.

People understand a lot of things

What’s something most people don’t understand?

People understand a lot.

They understand –

Any suffering that they’ve been through or can relate to
Mental health issues because every household has these issues now
Injustice done to other people (like Justice for Abhaya)
Anything if you explain it to them properly

People are reasonable and they are intelligent.

India is the largest democracy in the world and I am proud to say that I believe in democracy.

So people vote leaders who then represent them in the parliament.

And basically it’s one of the right ways to run a government.

But it won’t be possible if one doesn’t have faith in people’s sound understanding and sound judgements.

There may be some things that most people don’t understand but these things are there because nobody explains it to them or because it takes a lot of time and effort to grasp them.

I’m glad you’re reading this. Thanks a lot!

Image credit – https://unsplash.com/photos/three-people-sitting-in-front-of-table-laughing-together-g1Kr4Ozfoac?utm_content=creditShareLink&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash

All Is Vanity – Sab E Maya

Daily writing prompt

What tattoo do you want and where would you put it?

View all responses

I want a tattoo that says “All Is Vanity” and I would put it on my right arm.

Christina Grimmie

I would do this because I’m inspired by my favorite singer, Christina Grimmie.

She had a tattoo exactly like this and I want to remember her every day through this tattoo.

She loved Jesus and she cared for her fans(or “frands” as she called us).

We had a ritual. Instead of saying “Team Grimmie Rocks” she would say “Team Grimmie Rawwks \|/”.

But in June 2016, she was murdered and we lost an angel.

She was a good person, she achieved quite a bit of success with over 3 million subscribers on YouTube and success in “The Voice” TV music show.

But God took her back.

In these moments we start to question “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

But the truth is we must trust God’s plan. God’s plan is greater than our plans. This was said in Christina’s Memorial Service as on YouTube.

But we still have her music and we must share it. So I’m sharing it with you.

Please subscribe to her YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/@christinagrimmie

I believe listening to Christina’s music will help most people find inner strength to fight life’s challenges and find hope.

My Understanding

Other than that, from my humble perspective the meaning of the tattoo is beautiful.

I’m not a deeply religious person, but I care about God and love God.

I believe that serving mankind is serving God. God lives in each one of us.

So if we serve others, we are serving God indirectly or rather more directly than praying in a temple or a church.

But from the context of this tattoo “All Is Vanity”, I know a term “Maya”.

In India we say “Sab e maya”. “All is illusory”.

Maya means illusion in the most basic sense.

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I understand that God is the ultimate reality.

Whether you call it God, or Brahman, or Paramatman, it doesn’t matter.

There is this realization. I don’t know what this realization is.

But it is the realization that changes everything.

This realization is the realization of the Truth, God, the Ultimate Reality,etc.

And all the temporary achievements we have and all the attachments and desires are all maya, an illusion.

Conclusion

I’m glad that you are reading this line. Thanks a lot!

I think life is___

I think life is about being truthful and honest.

Let me explain it this way. Truthful in the way that we learn to speak our truth and rediscover ourselves. We look at ourselves honestly and accept ourselves.

I think life is about being free from inhibitions, falsehood and limitations.

Life is about asking God for strength and using that strength to bear life circumstances to do something selfless, to be selfless.

I think life is about having a dream and chasing that dream like a child who wants a chocolate except you never give up like a child.

I think life is about aiming for being the best and die in that effort metaphorically.

I think life is about being yourself by believing in yourself.

I think life is about being able to look in the mirror and love yourself fully and not compare or hate yourself or feel self-pity.

I think life is about making your mother, father and God proud. (I learnt this from a yoga class where they used to teach praying to mother, father and God before starting the yoga practice.)

I think life is about listening to your heart and healing yourself.

I think life is about believing in yourself no matter what happens.

So I hope I will be able to share more of my realizations with you in the future.

Thanks for reading this short blog post.

Read This to Feel Less Afraid of the Future

Do you feel afraid of the future and start worrying? In this blog post, I will share my perspective on feeling less afraid of the future.

I think it is totally okay to be afraid of the future. And it is not at all wrong if we worry about the future. In fact, a little fear and pain will motivate you.

But when worrying becomes pointless and being afraid doesn’t help motivate you, what do you do?

I think it is in those moments of fear that we need to be courageous. We need to find the courage to say, “F*ck it! I am not going to be afraid anymore and second guess myself. I will take action.”

Recently, a person asked a question on Reddit about what career he should pursue. He said that he was having a hard time deciding.

I wrote-

“I was feeling the same way 6months ago. I didn’t know what career should I commit to. I was confused what my purpose in life was. I also didn’t want to be in the corporate companies. I wanted to do what I felt passionate about. So I did a self-analysis. I asked myself about what successes I had in the past years. And I saw that I have some success in creating blogs and YouTube videos. I didn’t get many views or subscribers but I had posted 70 videos which most of them were low quality and I was nervous or fumbling or stammering and I had made most of them private but I had shot and uploaded 70 videos. The problem was I wasn’t getting many views. So I researched about how to grow on YouTube. And I learnt that I needed an income stream to keep myself mentally healthy and have a social life and pay expenses and make YouTube videos on the side. So I am working on my copywriting portfolio after taking a copywriting course because writing is also one of my passions.

I think it’s important to think about life like an archaeologist and not an architect. Life is about discovery and not about walking on a planned path.

I hope to make YouTube videos and generate income but I am going to do copywriting to pay my bills and build a network and friends and a social life and buy a good camera.

I remember someone told me – my main problem is not lack of knowledge of my career or purpose but lack of experience. Inaction is my greatest enemy.

So don’t worry! Just start doing what you think you love and have passionate for but also keep in mind the practical aspects of paying the bills and your long term goals. 😄”
Anirban Saren on Reddit

I think I still stand by this belief that life is about being an archaeologist (adopted by Ali Abdaal’s videos on YouTube). And it’s about self-discovery.

And it isn’t about trying to find and connect the dots backwards, it’s about believing in something strongly and following one’s heart, and trust that the dots will connect automatically.

I am working on my degree, my copywriting portfolio and moving forward slowly.

Sometimes I worry about the future and I get anxious. But I have learned to face the fears by saying, “F*ck it!”.

I think life is not about reaching a goal, it’s about growing yourself constantly through experiences.

Conclusion

So this is my perspective-

Life is about self-discovery. Look into the future and ask yourself,”How do I want my life to be?” and take action. The dots will connect automatically when we focus on self-discovery instead of controlling the present and the future. And if the fear of the future still persists, say “F*ck it! Let’s do it.” Because life is about growing yourself constantly through experience.

Thank you for reading my blog post. Please comment- What is your perspective on feeling less afraid of the future?

I am waiting

Before writing anything I would like to tell you that none of my words are researched or scientifically validated. These are my own personal experiences and opinion. I don’t take responsibility for any problems faced from you following my advice.

So let’s start. The reason for this blog post is to make you think differently about waiting for life to happen.

I am waiting. I am waiting for something that will come to rescue me from my mind’s prison. It’s not even a person I am waiting for. I am waiting for the right book, the right video on YouTube, the right series of events, the right timing,etc.

When I read the above lines, I feel despair. I feel like this is not the right way to live life but I am too depressed to take action. And so I feel like I can’t do anything about it and I feel like my life is hopeless.

Medication,therapy and reiki works but only to the extent that I am willing to cooperate. By cooperate I mean take the medication, go to therapy and do the homework and actually do the little things that the reiki master tell you to do in addition to healing.

But when you are depressed to the extent that you can’t make yourself do anything consistently by yourself and you have professional help but nothing seems to work, it becomes really difficult to see results.

So what is the solution?

Let me tell you a story of one of my friends who was suicidally depressed. She probably felt very hopeless and could not even express her emotions. And her recovery was very difficult but it happened and it was almost as if a miracle had happened and you had to thank God for this miracle.

Having faith in something greater than yourself is key. It seems there is no one solution to mental illness. But you can stay strong. You can have faith.

You don’t have to pray or read the scriptures. Just have faith.

This blog post has not been easy for me to write. It is emotionally challenging. I hope you will come back every Monday to read my new blog post. Stay tuned till then!