[I hope you are safe and brewing ripples of love all around. I wrote this piece on corona which is completely inspired by all of you in this ecosystem.]



The coronavirus is a pandemic with the entire world being threatened with its power. The virus which originated in Wuhan has exponentially engulfed the entire human race sparing no country, caste, gender, borders & income levels. But its beauty still mesmerises me & makes me wonder in amazement. We have always believed in the oneness of the world & inter-connectedness of nature. We are all one big family. The happiness & well-being of one another is a shared responsibility bestowed on this family collectively. In these troubled times, how health from our neighbor to the well-being of a citizen in Italy affects our own health directly has never been so obvious & evident.

Whether it’s individuals, states, Giant corporations, Nation’s or continents, we have always put the self-interest of us as the foremost objective. Our purpose of very existence has been linked to maximizing of wealth & power for our own good. What corona reveals to us in a metaphor is that all forces-mankind, Animal, Nature & invisible forces are all one. Our scriptures have always spoken about the universality of the cosmos but we are ignorant of it. The bush fire in Australia, Nuclear disaster in Japan, Oil spills in Gulf of Mexico or the Bhopal Gas tragedy effected lives but has never made this linkages so transparent & open.

There are those capitalists who will still believe that you throw in the money & everything can be solved. All the Global relationships have money as the only currency but corona is smashing & laughing at our faces to tell us,”kiddo, Get out of your deep slumber”. Imagine at this very moment if everyone acted in their self-interest & maximizing personal gains. The Doctors, Nurses, Maids, Delivery workers, researchers, scientists, Grocery staff, pharmacists, cab drivers, and ministers would all be in quarantine & keep their lives as supreme. A big shout out & applause to the generosity & love showered by unknown individuals who are working round the clock for this human race to survive. What corona is simply revealing us is that there are greater forces than money alone.

A Chinese was lynched by a foreign mob, boxes of toilet papers were stolen from a super market, surgical masks disappeared from medical stores, patients ran away from hospital, social shaming of positive cases, hoarding of essential items by people are understandable. These are perfectly rational things which are expected to happen during times of crisis. Reflect for a moment that this panic & hatred will definitely solve your personal problem. The corona is a truly global problem which needs to be solved collectively. If one human is affected in a region, another 100 are in danger. It’s a chain, a ripple which requires cooperation & not competition from fellow human beings.

Look at the wonderful world outside your window. Feel for all the random act of kindness which you are receiving. A Doctor started a volunteering group to counsel patients, A deaf started corona advisory in sign language, A neighbor delivered food anonymously, A worker went upstairs to give food to an old couple, A retail chain launched a dedicated hour for senior citizens & disabled’s, A nurse worked for over 24 hours nonstop, A surgeon died in the line of duty, an airport staff got infected, a newspaper started publishing 2 additional blank pages which can be used as toilet papers or A factory worker tirelessly working for our testing kits. All moving stories of generosity & kindness. The air which we breathe, water we drink, food which we eat are all Gifts of nature. It is not free but an obligation to give our own gift to this world.

We all are one family & if corona is stepping up its game, we too need to step up ours. We all should open our hearts to serve humanity in whatever capacity we can. Help that old uncle in your building, Talk to a friend, pray for the world, Acknowledge your security guard, offer water to a Delivery staff, gift your hoarded sanitizer, praise the cab driver, spread public information on corona, play with children, write a Thank you card, meditate in silence & share smiles all in this world of hatred. Corona has revealed such a profound wisdom which we never understood since ages & it is unfortunate that a disaster needed to be there on us to reveal this message of this inter connectedness of the world that we are all one big family.

Jai Jagat!