Lessons from a virus

Articles

This virus has proved many things: 1) Nature is very powerful; it knows how to re-create the balance that humans have been disturbing, 2) Our vulnerability despite all the scientific advancements, 3) Third, that we all are deeply connected, that is why the virus is spreading so fast.

“We cannot have unlimited material growth on limited natural resources. We need to include all of nature’s growth in our idea of economic growth.”

The current narrative about origins of the Corona virus is that it started in Wuhan, China where wild animals including birds, rabbits, bats and snakes are traded and eaten. The whole world is paranoid about it. Nobody wants to die. There are many videos, messages and memes floating around on social media blaming China for creating this distress for the entire world.

This virus has proved many things:

First, Nature is very powerful; it knows how to re-create the balance that humans have been disturbing.

Second, Our vulnerability despite all the scientific advancements.

Third, which to me is most important, that we all are deeply connected, that is why the virus is spreading so fast.

In our mind we might think that we are alienated from other people or places in the world. But the virus has proved otherwise, it has proved that this entire earth and its inhabitants are all connected.

We have been acting out of our collective unconscious vritis (conditionings) of greed, desire, attachment and our illusionary ego construct. Across the globe we are plundering the earth of its resources, wiping out species, damaging rivers, oceans, soil and even space, consuming all life forms for our taste and greed, and harming our own species as well. We are creating collective bad karmas for ourselves and this karmic debt has to be paid back collectively. We cannot say that it is only Chinese people who are non-vegetarians, who are hungry to become a superpower, who are destroying earth etc.; we all, as citizens of this earth are collectively participating in, and are responsible for, this mass destruction. We all will have to pay for our collective unconscious karmas.

If humanity has to survive, we have to mend our ways. We must learn from this corona virus, and whoever you learn from becomes your guide and friend. So maybe this COVID 19 is our friend and not our enemy, it has come to wake us all up, maybe it is nature’s way of sending a signal of distress to us, maybe it is a cosmic intervention to push us from this collective unconscious state to a collective conscious state. I feel, we can learn some important lessons from this virus outbreak.

We can learn that our idea of economic growth is fundamentally flawed, we cannot have unlimited material growth on limited natural resources. We need to include all of nature’s growth in our idea of economic growth.

We can realize that we are all deeply connected to one another and with every sentient being in this world. We are all unique threads of this one big fabric of life.

We can learn that my actions will affect you and vice versa. I cannot be in Sukha (happiness and peace) if you are in Dukha (pain and suffering). If we cause suffering to a snake, bat, pig, chicken or any living being, we are sure to suffer the consequences in the form of bird flu, swine flu, corona virus, cancer and so on.

Life is a great resonance, whatever we give comes back in abundance. It comes back in different forms and at different times, which is why most of the time we are unable to correlate things. Our inability to understand doesn’t change the laws of nature. So, the only way out of our suffering is to awaken our sensitivity to love, respect and accept all beings, to realize our inherent connection with all of nature and life forms and to work towards our collective conscious evolution.

Om Tat Sat, Sri Anish

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