As I write this piece down, the COVID19 virus further strengthens its grip on the world. I describe this crisis as ‘unfortunate yet not completely unfound’. One might further extend his/her interpretations to fathom new vulnerabilities that world is now susceptible to. Inadequate medical facilities, even in the nations of vast economic stretch such as US and Europe, is surely one of the many unfortunate realities that this predicament has unveiled. However, there is even greater revelation, to my bewilderment, that the pandemic has exposed us to i.e. it takes something as fatal as the COVID19 to make us realise that real elements of a meaningful life are the family, friends, and a compatible relation with the Mother Nature. The values, some might argue, were never fading away in first place.
However, what I believe is that our sense of crude materialism has turned us blind to the threats this attitude entails. Man’s hunger for perishable commodities has jeopardized his relationships with his blood, body and the nature beyond comprehension. The ancient days were perhaps more sound on this front. The Harappans and the Egyptians were epitome of these elements which now face endangerment. The Harappans worshipped Mother Goddess to demonstrate their reverence for nature and family. However, this ‘golden age’ history soon descended into extinction. Gradually, as the history of the world proceeded, there was an excessive corruption of the minds with the idea of materialism and the consequences of it manifested itself to the maximum in the industrial revolution in Britain. This event marked the inception of an era which granted the humans with leverage to destroy nature, pervert the ideas of family and spiritualism. As of now, Families have turned nuclear, nature transformed into a means for our selfish ends and spiritualism and religion holds Inferior status to capitalism The glaring paradox of our times is that we pursue handsome paying jobs in an assumption that the money thus earned would grant us Happiness. Yet as we venture that path we exceedingly distance ourselves from the very Happiness which formed the core of this pursuance in first place.
We, perhaps, have miscomprehended the very idea of what Happiness entails. Swami Vivekananda once said ‘ External nature is only internal nature writ large’. It is about time that we begin understanding what real emancipation and Happiness constitutes. This constitution must be driven by the inner soul of the person not by some external factor. The sooner we realise this, the better.
Saurabh Mishra