hokeen havad pehr vor teemanaas

This proverb is used when there is a time of great suffering. The only thing that may mitigate the suffering is spiritual knowledge and faith in God. Due to the severity of the situation nothing else will help. In other words, the situation is hopeless and only one’s faith in God will help.

The preliminary spiritual teaching is about the impermanence of material existence. The body of a person is impermanent and will be destroyed in time without any compromise. One needs to know about their personal existence beyond the impermanent body. In Armenian, hokee means the soul. Knowledge of the soul’s existence beyond the body and its eternal nature is the beginning of knowledge. There are three crucial points to be understood for entry into spiritual life. First, the fundamental difference between the material body and the eternal soul of the individual. Second, one needs to understand the difference between the individual soul and the supreme individual soul or God. We are always subordinate to God and never equal. Third, one needs to understand how to eternally serve God with love and devotion. Lord Jesus Christ is an example of the success attained by understanding and practicing these three steps of knowledge. He explained the difference between the the body and the soul, man and God, and explained about the kingdom of God and how to get entry.

Only by such knowledge and practice can one mitigate and transcend the miseries of material existence.