In the beginning of the lockdown, following the declaration of the Corona pandemic; one of my friends who is an ex colleague, the same age as me said-"Well, we don't remember the wars, do we?This will be something we can talk about to our grandkids!"
Of course my dear friend is very evolved and enlivens the Advait (non dual) Hindu philosophy that the world is an illusion, which is to be enjoyed without attachment and involvement. Shakespeare too said- All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts...
Many spiritual teachers and even mindfulness exercises encourage us to become witnesses or observers enjoying the play being enacted in our waking lives. The problem is that our bodies, emotions and thoughts make us suffer because spirituality in turn also makes us empathetic towards all.
So then how and why did we land in this situation? For many years now we have been debating and discussing global wealth inequalities, ethical issues regarding our food consumption giving rise to veganism, the menace of plastic in our oceans, the melting glaciers, the callous expansion of metropolises, the rich getting richer, consumerism (alcoholism in recent times in India) dictating policymakers....yet like the teen environmentalist Greta Thunberg rued-its all talk, no action whatsoever. Is it really true that nature the all knowing healer realised we weren't very good at getting our act together and decided to intervene?
Well no scientist can really explain all the phenomenon in our bodies and in the environment. We haven't been able to create a robot to counter the most violent species on the planet- the humans. If we were asked to run the world phenomena for one day, namely the human physiology, the weather and geothermal systems, the flora, the fauna, the migratory birds, the salmon searching bears, the singing dolphins, the insect eating plants, the beach hatching sea turtles... the world would come to a grinding halt. We would be left begging for nature to carry on, yet we have trouble accepting that there is a superior intelligence at work running our ecosystems and more importantly we have trouble respecting it to ensure we have water, sun and other survival kit items for ourselves and for the future generations.
Should we pin our hope on Governments who sell poison (alcohol) to pay salaries to people, work for corporations (since ages as described in William Dalrymple's Anarchy) to stay on their thrones, sacrifice precious lives in wars and in pandemics for their own vested interests.
Farmers in India have been made to spend on fertilisers and pesticides which has destroyed the land and left no profit margins in an already weather jeopardised occupation of agriculture causing the mass exodus of migrants to the slums in the metro cities. Today they are longing for their villages where they could grow and consume their food and not depend on a heartless urban populace for empathy, food, health and dignity in a time like this.
I hope people realise the African indigenous Philosophy of Ubuntu- I am because we are. Most religions and humanist philosophies encourage us to think of ourselves as a part of the whole, incomplete without everyone else. We cannot lock ourselves in buildings, compounds, posh neighbourhoods while ghettos, overcrowded slums, unsafe housing exists in the vicinity because when virus strikes it doesn't see the manmade boundaries, when lockdown happens we realise how interdependent we are. But hardest hit are the disadvantaged, the people who believed they had nothing to lose.
We cannot build indiscriminately, produce to kill competition and fish all life out of the seas with massive nets and then not expect the wildlife to appear on our lawn and the wild viruses on our table. We cannot let alcohol be cheaper than water, have recreational drugs available outside the school, allow porn to be available freely, make a multimillion dollar business out of shooting games and then expect our children to be able to be in touch with their divinity within, have meaningful relationships, not need antidepressants, not commit crimes and save the world.
Political will is needed for a lot of these things but why hasn't all the public school and Ivy league education got us out of this mess? In fact they have been responsible for it. 0.8% population control 48% of world wealth. Will school strikes finally see some action?
Milan, a city in Italy which saw the worst of the pandemic is building cycle tracks, rebuilding with a different aspiration. May be things will change. Hope is something each of us can have, irrespective of our circumstances.
Of course my dear friend is very evolved and enlivens the Advait (non dual) Hindu philosophy that the world is an illusion, which is to be enjoyed without attachment and involvement. Shakespeare too said- All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts...
Many spiritual teachers and even mindfulness exercises encourage us to become witnesses or observers enjoying the play being enacted in our waking lives. The problem is that our bodies, emotions and thoughts make us suffer because spirituality in turn also makes us empathetic towards all.
So then how and why did we land in this situation? For many years now we have been debating and discussing global wealth inequalities, ethical issues regarding our food consumption giving rise to veganism, the menace of plastic in our oceans, the melting glaciers, the callous expansion of metropolises, the rich getting richer, consumerism (alcoholism in recent times in India) dictating policymakers....yet like the teen environmentalist Greta Thunberg rued-its all talk, no action whatsoever. Is it really true that nature the all knowing healer realised we weren't very good at getting our act together and decided to intervene?
Well no scientist can really explain all the phenomenon in our bodies and in the environment. We haven't been able to create a robot to counter the most violent species on the planet- the humans. If we were asked to run the world phenomena for one day, namely the human physiology, the weather and geothermal systems, the flora, the fauna, the migratory birds, the salmon searching bears, the singing dolphins, the insect eating plants, the beach hatching sea turtles... the world would come to a grinding halt. We would be left begging for nature to carry on, yet we have trouble accepting that there is a superior intelligence at work running our ecosystems and more importantly we have trouble respecting it to ensure we have water, sun and other survival kit items for ourselves and for the future generations.
Should we pin our hope on Governments who sell poison (alcohol) to pay salaries to people, work for corporations (since ages as described in William Dalrymple's Anarchy) to stay on their thrones, sacrifice precious lives in wars and in pandemics for their own vested interests.
Farmers in India have been made to spend on fertilisers and pesticides which has destroyed the land and left no profit margins in an already weather jeopardised occupation of agriculture causing the mass exodus of migrants to the slums in the metro cities. Today they are longing for their villages where they could grow and consume their food and not depend on a heartless urban populace for empathy, food, health and dignity in a time like this.
I hope people realise the African indigenous Philosophy of Ubuntu- I am because we are. Most religions and humanist philosophies encourage us to think of ourselves as a part of the whole, incomplete without everyone else. We cannot lock ourselves in buildings, compounds, posh neighbourhoods while ghettos, overcrowded slums, unsafe housing exists in the vicinity because when virus strikes it doesn't see the manmade boundaries, when lockdown happens we realise how interdependent we are. But hardest hit are the disadvantaged, the people who believed they had nothing to lose.
We cannot build indiscriminately, produce to kill competition and fish all life out of the seas with massive nets and then not expect the wildlife to appear on our lawn and the wild viruses on our table. We cannot let alcohol be cheaper than water, have recreational drugs available outside the school, allow porn to be available freely, make a multimillion dollar business out of shooting games and then expect our children to be able to be in touch with their divinity within, have meaningful relationships, not need antidepressants, not commit crimes and save the world.
Political will is needed for a lot of these things but why hasn't all the public school and Ivy league education got us out of this mess? In fact they have been responsible for it. 0.8% population control 48% of world wealth. Will school strikes finally see some action?
Milan, a city in Italy which saw the worst of the pandemic is building cycle tracks, rebuilding with a different aspiration. May be things will change. Hope is something each of us can have, irrespective of our circumstances.
