Coach Andrey V. Karpov argues that "God is my shepherd" surrenders your agency to a higher power. He's studied Orthodox Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and others, and proposes God is the universe within you. Own your choices, manage your energy, and read Sadhguru's Inner Engineering and Karma.
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How's it going, guys? This is your coach Andrey V. Karpov, and today's Tragical Mindset Moment is about religion. This is something I haven't spoken about actually yet and has been on my mind for some time now, especially given the way the universe works. And what I like to begin with is with a statement that says, God is my shepherd. So I don't claim to be be the buff of any particular religion, even though, as I have mentioned in some of my videos previously, I was baptized, you know, originally am an Orthodox Christian, but have practiced Buddhism, have practiced Judaism, have read into Islamic teachings and also Arabic philosophy and traditions, and Shintoism from Japan, Confucianism, and whole bunch of other interesting things relating to religion, faith, and the schools of thought globally. God is not my shepherd. God is my shepherd. Is he? Is he not? The truth is God, the way people perceive it, is something supernatural, right? Something above us to keep us grounded, to keep us humble. The issue that I have with a statement, God is my shepherd, has nothing to do with God per se. It has to do with the idea of the word shepherd. So when we talk about the idea of the shepherd, uh, the problem there is that we are being led like sheep. And if you do read the Bible, and I've read it multiple times, um, what I can tell you, the synopsis is God will help you and enlighten you in difficult situations and will show you the way, but it's not going to be your shepherd functionally. And why is that? Well, because the truth is you are the creator of your own life. God is not sitting with you every single second and telling you what to do. You take decisions every single day on a regular basis, and some of those decisions are good, some of those decisions are bad, but you have to take accountability in regards to, you know, your actions. So when we say God is our shepherd, what we're really doing is we're giving full responsibility responsibility for decision-making to him. And with that in mind, what happens is your mindset starts to shift in not the most favorable direction for you ultimately. Again, this has nothing to do with whether you believe in God or not. I do believe in him, and I believe in the power of the universe. The way I classify God though is that God is the universe, and universe is something that we exist in. So we part of the universe, so God is within us. So it's pretty complex, but it's pretty simple if you think about it. Therefore, if I am part of the universe and God is within me— no, that does not make me God, obviously— but that means that there is a piece of God in everyone, there's a piece of universe in everyone. So therefore, there's a karmic connection with the greater, bigger whole, which is the universe. Therefore, karmically, you are responsible for whatever you put in the the universe, and that is whatever you will get out of it. So what I urge everyone to do is to take the responsibility for your actions, for your words, for the way you live your life daily, instead of just saying that God is my shepherd, he's going to lead me, you know, in the direction that he feels it's right for me. He doesn't know what's right for you. What's right for you is right for you. He wants you to be The universe truthfully wants you to be happy as well. The universe is a collection of energy, positive and negative energy, sometimes neutral energy, and it's up to you right here how you form your energy currents and how you're able to sustain them and how you're able to withstand them as well. So just thought this would be helpful to think about religion and specifically the gods concept and the fate concept in a sense of karma. And just something additional to add at the end, that karma is really not destiny per se, it's how we live our life, what action we take. So from that perspective, I do follow Buddhist school of thought. I believe in that philosophy. It's not religion for me per se, but it is philosophy of my life. In many ways, and challenges are part of my life, as they are part of your life, and I embrace them because they make me stronger, and they remind me that I'm a human, and I grow while I go through challenges. Some challenges can be very tough, like the ones I have with sciatica, which is much better now, but in general, these are things I don't talk about, but this is something I live with, Every day. So I highly suggest that you really look at a lot of different things in life, including religion, in a more deeper context. And if you say, Andrey, I don't have time for that, you know, you have time to record your little videos, but I got a, you know, family to feed, I got a boss to please, a partner to make happy, all of that. Why are you making them happy? They should be happier with you around, and they should be happy by themselves. But that's a part from the subject. The truth is you have the time. Like, do I at this moment being 8 AM in the morning on Saturday and me not sleeping the whole night? I'm not saying you shouldn't sleep the whole night, but I didn't because I had a lot of stuff to do as an entrepreneur. And I've tried this already several times. Again, I don't recommend it if you have a normal sleep cycle. I don't currently, but I'm able to fast for up to 72 hours and I'm able to not sleep for up to 48 hours. And, you know, for me it works, right? I'm still able to maintain the quality of my health, more or less. I'm still able to maintain the quality of my skin, my hair, my nails, and everything else. So again, whatever works for you. And just keep in mind the idea of karma in your life, how you take on the responsibility and how Everything you do reflects and resonates into what happens with you over a lifetime. A good book to read would be Inner Engineering by Sadhguru, which will give you an explanation of how your thoughts, how your body, and how your spirit— mind, body, and spirit— reflect your life and lead to your karmic beginnings and karmic outcomes. Another book that I highly recommend is Karma, also by Sadhguru. He's the famous yogi, just in case if you didn't know. So again, these are great two books, pretty simple reads, deep nevertheless, that, you know, you can read and they can help you understand life from a deeper context. And very last thing is, why would you want to understand life from a deeper context? If you can actually find time for that? Well, because then you will understand what you're doing wrong or what you're doing right. And— ready for this?— for you, what you're doing wrong and right. Not because of some kind of unspoken rule or written regulations, just in general. What you could be doing differently in your life to make it more fulfilling, to make it more impactful, to make it happier. It's really going to help you. The more you read, the more it will open up this right here. Books, literature have an amazing way to open up your mindset to unbelievable events, unbelievable transformations, unbelievable people, unbelievable experiences in life. Same with traveling, right? So if you can travel as much as you can, even if it's cheap travel, just driving somewhere, change your atmosphere, change surroundings on regular basis, more or less regular basis. Like, I'm moving to DC soon, and this is really for me a big profound moment of my life, and I'm truthfully happy because that is happening. Because even though I love Richmond at this point, been here 7 years in Virginia, I need to change something around to grow professionally, to grow personally, and things are already happening for me there. So step into the darkness, Do not be afraid. Don't have fear. Look at opportunities. Follow through with your understanding of karma and your own responsibility of forming it. Be grateful for that. Embrace that and know that the true agile force is with you always. You've got this. I believe in you. If you like this video, please hit like subscribe, reshare, comment. I'm really looking forward to growing my channel in the coming months and years and getting, you know, to the point where it's truly creating a big transformational impact. All this content is free. You don't pay a single dime for it. I'm sharing it all with you because I truly care about you, and I wish there was something like this previously in my life when I really needed it. It took a lot of time to collect bits and pieces here and there through, you know, audiobooks, through podcasts, through conversations with people, through all kinds of different other articles and materials to be able to understand life from a more profound perspective and to actually be able to get to the point where I can start sharing this with you where it makes sense. Thank you again. Have a blessed day, and may the true agile force be with you.
