Circumstantial anxieties are unavoidable because, no matter how much control we have over our external environment, there will always be some things beyond our control. While we need to learn to live with such anxieties, there are existential anxieties that arise when we are unsure about the very meaning, purpose, and value of our existence. Such existential anxiety can be cured by gaining spiritual wisdom and realization, which anchors our core in an unchanging, eternal reality.

The difference between circumstantial anxiety and existential anxiety lies in the primary source of anxiety, which is either in the circumstances or in our very conception of our existence.

Watch this content at: Anxiety — circumstantial vs existential

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18.35 And that determination which cannot go beyond dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness and illusion – such unintelligent determination, O son of Pṛthā, is in the mode of darkness.