CORONA VIRUS: SOME VITAL LESSONS

 

CORONA VIRUS: SOME VITAL LESSONS

Dr M. D. Thomas

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Corona virus has put the world almost upside down, so much so that the humans are at a terrible loss to locate what is really happening to them. The untold miseries, brutal deaths and the lingering ramifications it has inflicted upon human beings, world over, is beyond the scope of being described in words. It has been the most multi-layered and alarming pandemic the human memories can ever recollect. Without a doubt, it leaves wide-ranging vital lessons for the human civilization, as well. 

First and foremost, human beings are accustomed to make difference among persons, in the name of gender, language, age, race, caste, class, colour, creed, faith, ideology, culture, food habits, dress habits, social mores, nationality, and the like. There are considerations of high and low, white and black, great and small, right and wrong, familiar and strange and ours and theirs, to the dismay of all sense of logic. 

But, corona virus made absolutely no difference as regards any of the above-mentioned characteristics of the human society, rightly so. It took the weak ones into its grip, irrespective of their various affiliations, whereas the strong ones were spared. Those who failed in their fight against it as well as those who won the game after untold struggles included all categories, too.

Well, too much of ‘discrimination and division’ has been brutally done, one to another, ever since the inception of the human civilization. For that reason, the humans require ‘masking’ their faces today, shamefully so. The agonizing saga of the world-wide suffering and death due to corona is an undeniable invitation for the humans to ‘unmask’ themselves and see their ‘true face’ in the ‘mirror’.

Secondly, even after civilizations after civilizations have gone by, the humans are yet to learn the art of managing its own ‘waste’. In spite of the fact that scientific and technological development has devised lots of ways and means of disposing the natural and non-natural fritter away, human beings, by and large, has a long way to go before they can claim a mastery over the art, for oneself and for others.

Corona virus finds its way through ‘unclean ways’, patently so. Therefore, the corona restrictions and protocols demand even ‘double-masking’ the face, along with physical distancing, keeping the hands, clothes, house, premises, roads, markets and public places clean always. No doubt, abiding by these procedures is indeed a very bothersome task, in view of keeping corona off.

‘Cleanliness is next to godliness’, thus goes the golden dictum. The divine cannot be accessed, but through clean ways, not only of the body, but also of mind, heart and spirit. The code of behavior of the corona times call for pursuing the ‘sacred’ through external and internal cleanliness as human beings, in the day-today contexts of life. Will human beings, especially in India, learn a lesson from corona virus? 

Thirdly, as per the popular saying, ‘God created the humans and human beings created God’. That is what religious traditions are all about. Religious systems have devised huge volumes of doctrines, rituals and stipulations, in view of entering and entertaining the abode of God. But, do they guarantee changing the mind of God in any way, so as to have their will to run the show of life in the world?  

The current times of the pandemic is characterized very much by the lock down of most of the social collections, including that of the places of worship, manifestly so. Though some of the religious compulsions are substituted by virtual platforms, it is an occasion to realize the futility of much of what has been done so scrupulously in the name of religion and to give a realistic and meaningful twist to it.

What really makes sense in the purview of religion, faith and God is to consider ‘God the Creator of all’ and to entertain a ‘fraternal frame of mind towards all human beings’, along with other beings. Such a realization would necessarily follow ‘reaching out to one’s fellow men and women’, in all possible ways, in the ‘spirit of loving service’. This is exactly what is expected of ‘good sense’, during the corona times.

Fourthly, in the name of development and modernization, the humans have explored the ‘space’ and have landed in the Moon and the Mars. Powerful countries are never tired of boasting off their achievements. Besides, governments, world over, are obsessed by sheer ‘vain glory’ and go for monuments, like statues, bullet trains, parliament and assembly houses, high profile corridors, palaces and fashionable amenities.

Corona virus is posing a major challenge before the ‘self-idolatrous rulers’ as regards their dullness in planning, prioritizing and implementing what is expected of the dire needs of life. Corona times are an ‘all-sided mirror’ for the ‘ruling cartoons’ to really ‘realize’ the need of prioritizing ‘oxygen, ventilators, beds, hospitals, ambulances and other health-related facilities, along with cremation and burial grounds.

‘Development’ has to be understood in the right perspective. All-round development of the family, community, country and society is development in the right sense of the term, too. Development of a few is not development either. Food, clothing, shelter, education, health and wellbeing of one and all, of the browbeaten in special, has to be within the priority of caretakers in the society, in their own area of action.  

Fifthly, ever since nation states emerged, weapons became a major concern, world over. Of late in special, almost all the countries in the world invest high volumes of resources on the most powerful weapons, including nuclear weapons, in view of finding themselves safe and secure. But, most unfortunately, even the least of the weapons has been absolutely of any use to any country in fighting enemy of corona virus.

To be sure, weapons can never keep the nations secure against the other. ‘Mutual good will, trust, friendship and cooperation only can help nations exist safe and sound’ and grow together in larger and higher proportions. The Creator has distributed his resources across the nations. Therefore, however powerful a country may become, it will need other countries, in some way or other, complementarily so.

Besides, the idea of ‘nationality’ as a ‘one-against-the-other’ entity is nothing more than nonsense. Nationhood is a very important element in the larger society. It furnishes a sense of belonging. It facilitates development, too. All the same, citizenship is not like ‘islands’ that are cut off from each other. All human beings are ‘citizens of the global society’ of the humans. Corona virus reinstates this truth.     

Sixthly, the human civilization has made several strides in its journey of growth over the millennia. But, has the human society been really growing up? The reservoir of idea, thinking, research and knowledge has made a miraculous revolution in life of the humans. Education has made incredible uprising, too. But, have human beings and their society become better? This is a question that has no satisfactory answer.

As a matter of fact, human beings grew more individualistic and selfish. Families, institutions, communities, nations, regions and organizations, on the whole, became self-absorbed and exclusive, too. Having a ‘common origin, common existence and common destiny’, along with ‘sharing the resources’ with one another, has not become a culture of the humans. The ‘social sense’ of the humans has shrunk.

How could the humans grow to its full stature as ‘social beings’? The humans are endowed with the ‘divine image’, which has to be the seat of ‘human conscience’. The ‘likeness of the sacred’ has to be reflected in one’s own self and in the other, simultaneously. In other words, ‘faith in one’s own self, in the other and in God’ together has to do the necessary homework for ‘socially better times’ ahead.  

Corona virus is a pulsating ‘mirror’ for the humans. Amidst all the trials and tribulations being caused by the corona virus, human beings have to look into that mirror intently and learn some of the basic lessons of life. It is a hard test. Human beings have to afford to pass with distinction, in view of a ‘humane and social’ society ahead, definitely so. To win corona over is not merely to survive it, but to make a ‘cross over’ to a ‘new earth and heaven’ for the humans to have their being, in a collective and qualitative sense.                

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The author is Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi, and has been committed to cross-cultural perspectives, cross-scriptural values, constitutional values, interfaith relations, communal harmony, national integration and social wellbeing, for the past over 40 years. He contributes to the above cause through lectures, articles, video messages, conferences, social interactions, views at TV channels, and the like.

He could be viewed, listened to and contacted at the following portals – websites ‘www.mdthomas.in’ (p), ‘https://mdthomas.academia.edu’ (p), ‘https://drmdthomas.blogspot.com’(p) and ‘www.ihpsindia.org’ (o); social media ‘https://www.youtube.com/InstituteofHarmonyandPeaceStudies’ (o), ‘https://twitter.com/mdthomas53’ (p), ‘https://www.facebook.com/mdthomas53’ (p); email ‘mdthomas53@gmail.com’ (p) and telephone 9810535378 (p).

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Published in ‘The Secular Citizen’ (Weekly Magazine), Mumbai, Vol. 30, Issue No 22, p.08-09 – on 31 May-06 June 2021