Happiness, Eternity, Energy, Light, and Goodness: Here are My Pillars - Ruben Vardanyan

The former Prime Minister of Artsakh, philanthropist, and businessman Ruben Vardanyan has shared seven important axioms that guide his life through phone calls and letters to his family. He requested to make them public so that others might reflect on them as well:

“An Indian philosopher once said that ignorance has no beginning, but it has an end. Enlightenment has a beginning, but it never ends. Therefore, we must pursue not the word, but the meaning; not the teacher, but the teaching.

Throughout my life, I have discovered and embraced seven axioms. These are laws that do not require proof for me. They have become the pillars upon which I rely and build my home. Thanks to these axioms, I build it on stone, not on sand, as Jesus advised in the Sermon on the Mount.

For centuries, wise men and prophets have tried to communicate these thoughts to us in various languages, through different words, symbols, actions, and rules. At the incomplete age of 57, I have come to understand them. I came to this understanding after long searches and reflections, after debates and discussions with myself, my teachers, and loved ones.

Time and again, I confirmed through my own experience that it is impossible to learn something by merely reading clever books and memorizing them. I often returned to the same book ten times just to understand one idea. Understanding the meaning, rather than the words in which it was hidden, is essential.

Only by passing through these books and thoughts, embedding them into your perception and experience, transforming them into your essence, can you reach the point where they become the foundation upon which everything is built, one that you consider when making any decision in life. The axioms you reach in this way cannot be changed.

Everyone can have their own axioms. There are no restrictions or prohibitions for this; no special permissions or approvals are needed. Even someone who cannot read or write can do this if they truly desire. They will find their own way.

To create something significant and brilliant, vast resources are not needed; everything is within. When there is something to say, you will always find a way and means to express it, like Gary Bardin, who created his brilliant animated film “Adagio” from mere paper. He had nothing else but the thought, which he conveyed through this simple medium. This film received recognition from the Vatican and won an ecumenical award. Because first, the thought is born, and only then does recognition follow. Today, often, everything is the opposite, and this is the main crisis of our time.

Axiom One
People are not distinguished by skin color, gender, nationality, or religious affiliation. We are not even divided into good and bad; within each of us exists both good and bad. People differ in belief: those who believe in the existence of God and those who do not. Some doubt and waver; others choose different idols for themselves. The first group knows, believes, and lives with the awareness that for everything we do, say, and think, we are responsible before God. It will not be possible to shift our mistakes, bad thoughts, and actions onto anyone else. The second group worships the golden calf of power, recognition, and pleasure, attempting to balance between two chairs. Their inner divine spark has extinguished, and they have become indifferent to everything.

Axiom Two
The closest to eternity is the moment. We must be grateful to God for this present moment, be ready for death at any time, and live in the present; this is real life. We must respect and know the past, look positively towards the future, but live in the present.

Axiom Three
Energy, strength is what we receive from the surrounding world, the universe—through oxygen, water, food, sleep, and communication with the world—through our actions, words, and thoughts. We spend part of that vigor to keep our bodies healthy so that the divine spark within us does not extinguish. But we also expend it on digesting food, fulfilling our desires, or simply on a meaningless life, mundane daily rituals, and external noise. Collecting energy, strength, and vigor and transferring it to the world is the meaning of our existence. This is a complex, laborious task that always needs to be done with great care so as not to harm ourselves or the world, preserving the positive balance of energy within us.

Axiom Four
Light is life. God said, ‘Let there be light.’ By illuminating both our own and others’ paths, we resemble an electric wire—thin, fragile, capable of burning out instantly. Therefore, it is crucial to maintain that balance in such a way that we enlighten not only ourselves but also those around us. Do not accumulate unnecessary things, do not become a slave to your desires, do not remain solely on the side of the spiritual or the material. By choosing the middle path, we can brighten the way for others without disrupting the fragile and dynamic balance in our vast world, which we know and do not know at the same time.

Axiom Five
Goodness is for us what air is, what water is for a fish. We do not notice it and think it ought to be that way, disappointed when something does not go as it should. Goodness is eternal and immortal. It strengthens when we do good deeds—expecting nothing in return, anonymously, sometimes not even knowing whom we are helping. Goodness is not an investment. Be grateful; do not return to those who have done good to you out of a sense of debt, but pass it on as a baton. It will return to both those who have done you good and to you. Do not refuse anyone; help and share everything you have. Everything will return.

Axiom Six
Heaven is when you refuse your desires, fears, and emotions, completely giving yourself and all your energy to doing good and illuminating others. It is like invisible radiation around us. If it is exhausted, if we do not maintain that balance, the world will disappear. The main risk is not the ozone hole but the disappearance of goodness and light. So Paradise is not about you. It is about completely dedicating yourself to others and then peacefully returning to Eternity. Happiness is precisely that.

Axiom Seven
Happiness begins and ends within us. The external environment plays no role. I have been happy both on a luxurious island in the Indian Ocean, where it was just us and the staff, and in a cell here, with nothing but three glasses of water a day. Happiness is within us. Only.

Happiness, eternity, energy, light, and goodness: here are my pillars. I shared these thoughts with you so that you reflect on them. So that you argue with me and with yourselves. Most importantly, so that in this crazy world of daily life, you allocate time not to money or pleasures, but to your soul. Continue to feel life, keep smiling, and live a full life.”

— Ruben Vardanyan