In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Within the framework of “The Church and the Law” series of interviews Iravaban.net talked with Father Mushe Vahanyan, the spiritual pastor of Aparan region, about the power of speech, curse and scolding, the spreading and use of hate speech, mantra, yoga and other issues.

– We use thousands of words during our life, including swearing, insults, what effect do they have on the quality of our life?

– Let me say that the word itself has power. Why? Because the word as a thing was given to us by God. At creation, when he created man, God gave us the gift of speech, took it from himself and gave it to the man. And when we tarnish the graces of God, such changes are made in our lives that we become more evil, because the deeds that should have served as a blessing for us, already become a condemnation for us. We have lost the meaning and quality of speech.

There is such a word in the Bible: “You unjust man, do not rob the homeless, because he will cry and scold, and I will hear and answer.” In other words, when a person presents a sincere complaint out of pain, God hears and fulfills that word. The words of the clergymen that people attribute to a curse is not a curse, it is an scolding, and curse – a judgment of anger. We sometimes say that God got angry, but it is not so, God does not get angry. The anger that the church has is not the anger that people understand today. The anger that is directed against the devil, that anger is not a sin. We, the clergymen, very rarely curse and the curse is made at a time when all divine boundaries have already been crossed and go straight to evil, and it returns to the people, which can bring destruction.

– Please explain the expression “From the beginning it was”, which people often misunderstand and apply.

– “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This word is from the Bible. That is what I am saying, that the word is God itself, because the thing is the word, the word is the logos, which is God. When people lose the meaning of speech, lose the value of speech, they fall completely into the arms of evil. If with good words the atmosphere calms down and people relax, then with bad words and curses the atmosphere becomes cloudy and chaos prevails. This is the power of speech.

– Why was the gift of speech given only to man among God’s creatures?

– Because when God created man, God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’. He appointed a special day only to create man. If we pay attention, we will see that everything happened with words. God said: let there be light and it happened, he said: let there be land, there was land…everything by word. On the 6th day, God said, ‘Let us make man’ and continued in plural ‘according to our image and likeness’. The holy trinity sat in the council because it had to do something that was the most precious in that creation. Man is considered the crown of creation.

– Is it true that a person is what he speaks and thinks about?

-Yes of course. The Bible says: his mouth speaks from the abundance of his heart, A good man has stored up good things in his heart, so he says good things.

– Especially recently, there is an overdose of insults and slander, including by people holding public positions and having influence in society, what can this atmosphere of intolerance lead to?

– Bad things. The country is collapsing and being destroyed, but you do not know why they are looking for the reasons at the lowest level and holding people of the lowest rank accountable, who could not do anything. And when, as a Christian country, such things happen, it is not only inappropriate, but also incomprehensible to God. Jesus said, every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment. Therefore, if the word has power, the word can bring both an angel of God and an angel of death down to earth. And the evil word brings death, and we saw at least in recent times how many things were done that brought angels of death to our earth.

– There is the concept of mantra in Eastern teaching, which is also noticeably used in our society recently. How acceptable is it for a follower of the Armenian Apostolic Church to believe in such phenomena?

– Mantra is an ancient Indian teaching, but it has an interesting explanation. “Man” is explained as intelligence and “tra” as freedom. All religions have the idea of ​​freedom, all religions have the idea of ​​wisdom, but in Christianity the idea of ​​intelligence is the supreme idea, the idea of ​​freedom has no equal. Both are divine. God gave it. Only God is preached from heaven. The only true God is Jesus Christ, all others are idols. And if a person can devote himself to these kinds of teachings, then he has completely departed from God. And yoga, you worship other religions, other teachings.

Details in the video.

Hasmik Sargsyan