Thursday

Hope and Change by Gita Saraydarian

I suppose these two words can mean a whole lot of things to different people. One thing for sure, what we are seeing is a huge wave of people saying something like: “We want to dare to hope; don’t tell us what we can hope for and what we cannot hope for; we want a different leader, a different philosophy, a different way of doing things.” And, people are making these decisions with their hands and feet and the ballot! What a concept!

There is both a practical and deeply esoteric meaning to hope. Take hope away, and we shrivel up and get depressed; we die internally if we think nothing changes. Or, we waste our time and our resources trying to forget that change is possible. It actually takes energy to try to bury hope. Hope is such an essential part of our being that the natural condition of human beings is to have hope, always.

Individually, we need to know that we can change, that we can improve, either in the physical and material world, or the emotional, mental, and spiritual. We need to know that in our next life, we can do better. We need to know that our children will inherit a better world. We want to make sure that whatever comes next, we do have some semblance of control over it.

It is terrible when our airwaves are filled with hatred and negativity and the philosophy of “nothing changes.” We should never take hope away from anyone.

Things do change and can change; not all at once, but slowly, bit by bit, one step at a time, and one person at a time. We can never give up hoping and we can never give up working for change, no matter how alone we feel or how depressing the times look. I found this wonderful story from one of my favorite books about having hope and how to look at life. Here it is:

(Excerpted from Challenge for Discipleship by Torkom Saraydarian, p. 492.)

Once a psychiatrist came to me and said, “I am really tired. I cannot face the condition on Earth. I see global destruction. I do not want to live any more.”

I said, “I see the condition exactly as you see it, but I see something deeper.”

“What is it?”

“In such a condition we could continue poisoning and killing all planetary life, but because of this condition we can now see how and why we created it and how we can change it. One who escapes meeting the challenge is less courageous and less intelligent than one who does not give up and fights to the end. You may choose one of these paths. Have hope. In the darkest hours of our life, doors will be opened and humanity will enter a new life. Such doors exist for those who do not give up hope.”

Days later this man called me and said, “For the first time in many years I can digest my food.”

Hope regulates the glands of digestion. Hope regulates the glandular system as a whole, and all your health improves in the light of hope.

There are various types of hope:

• Hope for physical well-being

• Hope for emotional satisfaction

• Hope for mental illumination

• Hope for success

• Hope for spiritual victory

• Hope for immortality

• Hope for a great humanitarian service

• Hope for service for the Hierarchy (also called the Great Ones, the Church Invisible)

The simple thing I am advocating is to dare to hope, no matter whom you vote for. If we did not have hope, we would never change anything in our lives.

Keep the flame of hope inside of you no matter what happens. Hope is not wishful thinking; it is an energy current that links us deep within our psyche. It links us with the truth inside of us, the real person buried underneath all the outer rubble. When we dare to hope for a future condition, we build electrical currents from our mind to the realm of possibilities. Many times people say they hoped for something and someone or something came about and made it happen. Miracles do happen with Divine interference; but the daily miracles are numerous and occur mostly without our acknowledgment. The real miracles are the persons who are next to you, those who talk to you, those who help heal you and hold your hand, those who love you and understand you and forgive you. These are the daily miracles that our hopes and dreams are made of.

The intriguing thing about hope is this: whether or not our wishes and dreams come to fruition, we still hope. Even if the object of our hope leaves us, or our visions and dreams are dimmed, hope helps us enter a different dimension and makes us search for it. It hides, appears, we seem to lose it, and it appears again under different guises.

A great friend is one who always gives us hope. A great leader is one who always gives hope to his or her country and to the world.

I am hugely hoping that our leaders wake up and encourage all of us never to lose hope.

Gita Saraydarian