Dr. Saumitra Mohan, IAS

 

 

Humans are Images of Gods: We Better Behave Ourselves

*Saumitra Mohan

            Amid the all-round pessimism, distrust and cynicism in the time of Covid-19 pandemic, there are many other things around us which are motivating and inspire confidence. The pandemic has given an opportunity to people to appreciate and admire the beautiful nature or pay attention to our relationships, something for which we seldom find time. Most of us not only fail to notice, appreciate and protect the magnificence and munificence of nature, but often we were an active agent of its destruction.  

The craze for continual development and economic growth has seen incremental annihilation of natural glory and beauty. With the economic activities and developmental works significantly reduced due to pandemic, it gave nature an opportunity to reboot itself. The human relations and creativity which had got hugely attenuated in a highly-individualistic world got revived and resuscitated though some stray negativities like domestic violence have also been reported.

The way things panned out and stood, it appeared as if the Almighty wanted us to modify our modus vivendi. With such virusogenic or bacteriogenic phenomena continue happening in future, we definitely can’t keep ourselves under lock and key all the time. So, it is imperative that we rediscover newer ways to engage in different quotidian human activities required for our survival. Be they our day-to-day socio-economic activities or edu-cultural activities.

The pandemic has proved beyond doubt that physical human presence is not required for a good number of human activities. Many activities could be carried out from home or by machines. So, with modus operandi changing, the humans might be left with a lot of free time to attend to his/her creative muses to nurture his/her sundry talents, something many of us have forgotten to do. If Hindu philosophy is to be believed, we take birth to improve our soul consciousness to move up the spiritual ladder. Pandemic or no pandemic, we must find time to engage in activities to evolve spiritually.  

As Marxism or many other philosophies point out, daily routine work done without passion, involvement or motivation always results in alienation, thereby giving birth to a slew of psycho-social problems. This is reflected in the many perversities and monstrosities all around us in the forms of different kinds of crimes against humanity. This can shape up as cultural chauvinism, religious radicalism, global terrorism, ecological destruction, regional extremism, linguistic jingoism, increased crimes et al.

As an intelligent species, we need to take time out from our day-to-day life to pause and ponder, notice and appreciate the natural and divine bounties in its glories all around us. As human beings, we are often megalomaniacally full of ourselves. We are much seized with the mundane preoccupations and so obsessed with the ephemeral temporal goodies of life that we mostly fail to ruminate over the purpose of a human life. Failing to appreciate the inevitability of continual destruction and renewal of anything and everything around us, we remain engrossed in mundane inanities of carnal pleasures.

We not only need to discover the real purpose behind our arrival in this world. We can’t be taking birth only to eat, drink and make merry and go back into obscurities with our death. All natural phenomena including the existence of innumerable living beings are nothing but different reflections of divine intelligence and creativity. All forms and creatures are nothing but different avenues of expressions of divine creativity. We are a means to his larger plans for gradual unfolding of his creative consciousness.

As humans, many of us are very creative, very beautiful, very talented, very ingenuous and very constructive. And so our different sub-human creatures and animals. Some of our fellow human beings are so constructive and creative that we often feel and see a divine touch in them. The same is reflective in effusive compliments and deification that such people receive. Such people are said to be endowed with the divine blessings or are believed to be an image of the reigning deity of that particular talent.

That is why, in Hindu, Roman, Greek, Scandinavian or Egyptian mythologies, we have so many Gods representing different activities. All these divine supernatural beings are said to be controlling and blessings different creative activities on earth or elsewhere. A very good scholar is said to be blessed by Goddess Saraswati in Indian mythology or Goddess Minerva in Roman mythology. Similarly, a very beautiful person is said to be blessed by Goddess Aphrodite or Venus in Greek or Roman mythology respectively. A very courageous or brave person in India is supposed to be blessed by Lord Hanumana or Lord Vayu.

So, if someone is very good-looking and beautiful, a big singer, an excellent dancer, an adroit artist, a famous scientist, a prolific writer, a successful administrator, an inspiring spiritualist, a great scholar, a thought-provoking philosopher or a stupendous sportsperson, s/he is nothing but the reflection of divine grace. Which person does what or excels in which activity depends on the inclinations and talents honed by him/her in previous births? That’s why, siblings born to same parents in same environment display different talents or aptitudes.

The person, as an executor or performer of that activity displaying a niche talent, is nothing but a repository or a carrier of the divine grace or blessing in that particular field. So, while we have some talents or creative skills, we should be thankful to the Almighty for choosing us for expressing that particular talent on His behalf. We might be the medium to express it, still it’s not ours otherwise we shall continue in this world as the reigning deity of that talent. But we are only one of the media for the expression of this talent.

A Sachin Tendulkar’s greatness achieved in cricket becomes a beacon for the future cricketers to get inspired and take cricketing talent to newer heights where Tendulkar left. Many theories and theses in science and philosophies have been further taken forward and improved upon by next generations. So, if some of us get conceited by our successes in one or the other field, thinking that we are greatly talented and have achieved this feat by dint of our sole efforts, we are mistaken. We are a trustee of that talent on behalf of the Almighty.

As such, all of us are nothing but infinite mini-Gods walking through the lengths and breadths of this world. However, as Almighty does not come forward to claim his ownership or authorship of different expressions of his creation, we should also remain every humble in our successes. We must be grateful to the Almighty for entrusting us with the divine responsibility to express his glory in a particular field. This is mistaken to be high-headed, snooty or haughty conceiving and perceiving ourselves to be great in one or the other field.

This is because if this were our achievement, the credit should solely belong to us and we should exist permanently to savour the fruits of our labour and achievements. But the same does not happen. As all of us come and go on the proverbial carnal stage to play our cameo and depart the scene. Even though some achievements and contributions may be identified with one or the other person for a long time to come, still we cease to exist as a person to savour the fruits of our labour.

We materialise in this world and take up an assignment as per our intrinsic inclination or predestination. We create, discover, invent, enrich or improve an activity, a product, a piece of art or a field of knowledge. So, Newton, Tesla, Edison, Einstein or many other scientists and inventors may have contributed hugely to the onward march of human civilisation, but they themselves did not last to savour the encomiums or compliments coming because of their contributions.

They, however, did go back to the ethereal world with the satisfaction of accomplishing their work efficiently with elan and panache. In the process, they also hone certain skills and learn some aptitudes which create a foundational template for their future births. Their sterling contributions to the secular march of human epistemology become an inalienable part of the eclectic and universal human treasure, thereby permanently enriching the eternal consciousness whom we call by various names as ‘God’, ‘Almighty’ or ‘Supreme Being’.

God’s glory is reflected via a human or non-human medium in any and every department of our existence, animate or inanimate. All the living or non-living phenomena of this world, being different combinations or permutations of energy in motion, have elevated consciousness of different degrees. It is from the most basic to the most elevated level of consciousness. Different levels of energy or consciousness take different shapes, as per a predestined divine design, to reflect the multisplendoured glories of the Supreme Being. We form, deform and reform at regular intervals to express one or the other talent endowed by the Almighty.

There is nothing in this world which does not decay or degrade. Nothing lasts forever. Everything which comes into existence is here momentarily and has got to go after pleasing our senses for a while through its insignificant yet important role. The lofty mountains, the beautiful flowers, the verdant forests, the rich natural resources, the flowing rivers, the humongous oceans and the mindboggling genetic diversities which please us are nothing but multifarious reflections of His eternal intelligence and glory.

While anthropogenic phenomena keep evolving through time, the divine phenomena hardly change. We do keep improving upon a model of a car, a mobile phone or a computer software, but the divine creations including humans have continued with the same designs for aeons together. Often, many of us do get doubtful, thinking about the need, relevance or justification for worshiping an unheard or unseen Almighty. A good number of us find it to be nothing but a waste of our time and resources.

This is really oxymoronic. We see the divine presence everywhere, still we question His ontology. Why don’t we ask this question to ourselves as to what is the source or who is the creator of this humongous cosmos? When we see ourselves or when we appreciate the beauty of nature, we must try to trace its origin. His signature is all over, still we question His existence. He is beyond our senses because we still have not developed those capabilities to deserve a glimpse of Him. If we find it so difficult to find an appointment with a senior officer, a minister, a chief minister, prime minister or president of a country, how difficult it must be to find an appointment with the person who created, owns and runs this cosmos.

The causal theory says that nothing in this world exists without a justification and everything has its relevance. The God is said to have created this world to explore and examine His own capacities and to stretch them further to see His creativity and intelligence in motion through this Maya or worldly drama. Our doubts or scruples behind the necessity to worship an amorphous God is not without reason. But just think who are we worshiping. The worship and our prayers focusing our attention on the deemed Supreme Creator of this humongous cosmos are nothing but a way to show our gratitude to the Almighty.

The size of the cosmos or creation knows no bounds and so do different mind-boggling and limitless natural phenomena. All of us who are here are nothing but a tiny speck in this vast cosmos. We, the bustling multiverses and the infinite world of nature, together form an overarching consciousness. It is this consciousness we worship just to remind ourselves of our smallness or insignificance. Once we contrast our existence vis-à-vis the humongous cosmos, we feel ourselves to be so humble.

This makes us feel grateful to be part of the God’s creation as His chosen ones to the exception of many million other creatures. This reminds and motivates us towards yet unfinished tasks of further enriching this overarching consciousness to stretch God’s glory to other nooks and crannies of this cosmos. So, while continue to live our day-to-day life, we should always remember the insignificant and transient nature of our existence in this world. We must be mindful that our individuality on earth or anywhere in the creation is nothing, but a myth.

As an autonomous individual being, animate or inanimate, we were not there yesterday and shall not be there tomorrow. However, we were always there in the past and shall always be there in future as an integral part of the eternal overarching consciousness and as a reflection and carrier of divine glories. We shall never be able to associate our own achievements in earlier avatars during a future avatar. The same shall always appear as an act of different individual, as a part of universal achievement or consciousness to inspire us into better performance and achievements in our present avatars.

As all our achievements together constitute a universal consciousness, this is what we worship to remind ourselves of our insignificance and irrelevance as a physical entity in this world. We should always remember that we are more of a spiritual entity than a physical entity. And as such, we should not be running or chasing the mundane and temporal goodies of life beyond a point.

After all, life, not death, is the truth and as such we should continue engaging ourselves in the enrichment and glorification of the Supreme Being of which we are an extension and an inseparable part. As such, we are all mini-Gods, destined to be ever-engaged in the game of divine musical chair as a participant in His grand project to further stretch the limits of human knowledge while also expanding the avenues for expression of His glories.

When we worship God, we are worshiping ourselves When we respect another fellow human or natural being, we are worshiping ourselves because we are all different parts of the same grand whole. After we finish our tasks, we go back to merge with the same common or eternal consciousness of which we are all an extension or reflection. So, let’s continue engaging ourselves in the Grand Project of stretching human knowledge and divine glory which are one and the same thing.

 

 

 

Covid-19 Pandemic: We Must Change Our Food Habits and Lifestyle

*Saumitra Mohan

The world has undergone humongous changes since March 11, 2020 when Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. While the pandemic continues to rage today in its different avatars, its newer strains and mutants are being reported at regular intervals from different corners of the world. The humanity has accordingly been trying to discover suitable modus vivendi and modus operandi to live with this lethal virus.

From the First Wave to the Second Wave and on way to a purportedly incoming Third Wave of Covid pandemic, the world has often found itself at sea trying to find a way to tackle and control an intractable virus which has continuously been mutating. While medical science and health administrators have their shoulders continuously to the wheel to bring about a creditable regime for its surveillance, tracking, testing and treatment, there still remains a lot which needs to be done before the humanity can be said to be safe from this chimeral virus.

Some of us who have been involved and associated with sundry aspects of Covid management since the beginning, we definitely know how we were often at our wits end trying to deal with Covid-19 while very less was known about the disease and its treatment protocols were still evolving. We had learnt words like ‘Quarantine’ only lexicographically or had read about the phenomenon sketchily at different periods of history when humanity was called upon to deal with pestilences like plague and Spanish Flu. However, none of us knew how to actually effect or put the same in place.

‘Quarantine’ was such a reviled and dreaded word in the beginning of Covid that most would shudder to ever think of going inside an established ‘Quarantine Centre’ or even to allow it coming up somewhere in the vicinity of our neighbourhood. People resisting the drive to set up such ‘Quarantine Centres’, ‘Isolation Centres’ or ‘Dedicated Covid Facilities’ ranged from the most unenlightened and uninformed in the slums to the most educated and well-placed people, thinking that setting up of such a facility would somehow jeopardise their life or that of their near and dear ones. Our persuasions mostly succeeded, but fell through in stray cases.

As such, it was a real herculean task to find and convince people to work and serve inside such Covid facilities notwithstanding the promise of provisioning them with all necessary personal protection equipment (PPEs) and higher wages. The Covid protocols for disposal of bio-medical waste (BMWs) have been so rigorous that it was a huge challenge to find ways to dispose the massive BMWs which were being generated or to ensure proper sanitation services in the Covid facilities. Often, they needed to be led by example to convince them to serve the Covid patients in a Covid facility under due precautions.

Same was the experience when the health administrators were grappling with the need to ramp up health infrastructures across the length and breadth of this country. This was no mean task as creating newer hospital beds or CCU/HDU facilities required and involved emergent civil works or procurement of equipment, logistics or hiring of qualified human resources. At the fastest of speed, the facility creation still required some gestation time. But Governments and administrations always found ways to relax rules and norms to expedite such works.

While there were many regular hospitals which were converted into dedicated Covid facilities, there were many greenfield facilities which were set up to provide treatment against a disease which was still unknown and where the suggested line of treatment was still evolving. There was often some resistance from within and without the medical fraternity for converting a regular facility for Covid treatment on one or the other pretext. Still, the spirit of humanity triumphed as predominant majority in every instance was positively forthcoming to go the extra mile for saving and safeguarding the lives of fellow human beings.

While the same was successfully being clinched and put in place, nosocomial services did suffer in some parts of the country in the beginning. This happened because of intrinsic fears of contracting the disease or losing one’s life. Non-Covid health services across the world have been a huge casualty as a consequence of Covid-19 getting disproportionate attention. It is suggested that umpteen non-Covid surgeries have been postponed for fear of an unknown virus.

Studies suggest that a good number of people lost their lives in many countries because of non-availability of timely medical attention while the world has been fixated with Covid management. India as a country has seen unprecedented coordination and cooperation from across the sectors and governmental structures with a dominant section of its medical fraternity and health administrators coming together to provide for the much-needed infrastructures and services at a short notice.

Notwithstanding the financial, logistical and infrastructural constraints, the country saw innovative and creative responses to deal with different aspects of Covid management including transportation, quarantining, testing and treatment of the tens of thousands of migrant workers who returned to different states from across the country. The non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, corporate houses and groups of citizens under suitable guidance from the Government have come forward to put together infrastructures and other requisite logistics including community isolation centres and oxygen parlours by pooling their resources for a better Covid management.

Different e-Governance initiatives, technological interventions, customised call centres for different health-related and telemedicine services have definitely gone a long way in providing the much-needed medical and psychological counselling to the teeming millions who either could not come to the health centres or who were anxious to clarify their Covid-related apprehensions. This not only reduced pressure on our health facilities, but also ensured efficient and optimal use of available human resources.

In fact, the occasional Covid bed scarcity which was experienced in certain parts of the country was often not because of the actual dearth of bed, but because of the unnecessary occupation of hospital beds including CCUs/HDUs due to the morbid fear of the well-heeled asymptomatic and mild patients. Such patients never needed hospitalisation and could have very well stayed home, but ended up occupying hospital beds due to their panic.

The scarcity also arose because some of the vested interests (read vultures who feed and flourish on the dead) started dealing in these beds and were known to indulge in black-marketing such private and public hospital beds. Many such unscrupulous elements have fattened and battened through certain unethical and unholy practices during the pandemic.

The world has also seen unparalleled international cooperation in forging a common response to tackle Covid-19 while there have been countries who have tried to fish in troubled waters to establish their hegemony in the international pecking order. India, on its part, has tried its best to reach out to the weaker members of the Comity of Nations to provide them succour including vaccines and necessary drugs to deal with the virus while also receiving reciprocal assistance from many countries during its time of need. Some critics, however, have panned the Indian approach and questioned the wisdom to share life-saving medical supplies including vaccines when the same were needed at home.

So, by the time the world was faced with the Second Wave of Covid-19 with newer and more contagious variants surfacing, we were relatively better prepared to respond to the virus with many effective vaccines having been discovered to tame the virus. While the pace of vaccination and the quality of Covid-19 response in some parts of the country leave much to be desired, still the disease definitely has brought the best in many of us.

West Bengal, as a state, has been at the vanguard of Covid fight with a much well-placed infrastructure and system for Covid management, thereby having least of dislocations while providing suitable healthcare services to its population. This is despite the occurrence of two super-cyclones in the state since the onset of Covid-19. Those of us who have been at the forefront of Covid management in West Bengal have known how tough, bumpy and roller-coaster has been the ride.

During the First Wave, the Health Department officials in West Bengal, possibly like many other parts of the country, worked for an average of 12-14 hours a day (14-16 hours a day on several occasions) for the first eight months without any kind of leave, weekend or otherwise. And while we just appeared to be past the worst and had started focusing on picking up the tousled skein of non-Covid services, Second Wave of Covid-19 struck with a vengeance.

However, as West Bengal was one of the best Indian provinces in terms of Covid management during the First Wave, the lessons and experiences learnt during the previous surge came handy and we have, under due hand-holding from the Government, ensured that citizens in this part of the country don’t face any problem with respect to Covid treatment or other services without compromising the regular non-Covid services.

While can definitely keep on strengthening and reinforcing our health infrastructures and related services including vaccination, the experience also suggests that the disease has behaved very mysteriously and is still not amenable to complete comprehension of the medical savants and experts. Notwithstanding all the precautions and discretions of complying with the Covid-appropriate behaviour including social distancing, hand and respiratory hygiene, people continue falling sick or losing life across the world.

There have been many instances of such people contracting Covid and losing life who were at the best of their cautious Covid-appropriate behaviour, who never stepped out of their home but still got infected, who were identified early and provided the best of treatment. While the First Wave saw higher fatality rate, Second Wave fatality has been much less compared to the number of infections though in absolute terms it has claimed many more lives.

While First Wave sickness and deaths were few and far between, Second Wave has brought the pestilence and mortality closer to us, with most of us losing many near and dear ones. In fact, many of them include some big names who lost their lives despite getting best of treatment. This has happened because of the scale of the contagion during the Second Wave. It is here when we feel helpless in front of the forces of nature and mysterious ways of Almighty’s invisible hand.

Still, the pandemic has brought out the best and the worst in human beings since its first outbreak in Wuhan towards the end of 2019. There have been sick and nauseating human behaviour on display during the pandemic. This includes son killing his father for not wearing a mask, neighbours fighting over non-compliance with Covid-appropriate behaviour by some, neighbours forcing the infected neighbours out of community and beyond neighbourhood after the latter contracted the disease, parents abandoning their Covid-infected children or the children abandoning their Covid-infected parents or the relatives refusing to take back their kin even after they recovered from Covid.

Stories of Covid orphans after they lost both their parents or all their relatives or families being devastated after they lost their bread-earning members have generated enough pathos among the Government and the larger society to come up with different ways to extend institutional and societal helping hand for helping them pick up and rebuild their lives. This is definitely the worst of time that the humanity may be undergoing, still it is definitely the time to show our character as to why are we different from other species of Mother Nature. The Homo Sapiens need to prove why it is the best creation of the Almighty.

The nemesis that is Covid-19 and all the human and humane efforts to tackle it notwithstanding, the truth remains that we humans are definitely helpless before nature. No health system or administration could deal with a pandemic when it strikes at such a gargantuan scale. Covid-19 has shown for sure that it is not the dichotomy of ‘developed’ and ‘developing’, ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ or availability of better resources, but how good has been the planning and its execution by those at the helm of affairs.

That’s why, many supposedly better-endowed countries have fallen through while the smaller, well-administered countries have fared better. India, for one, has definitely done reasonably better than many other States around the world, given the multifarious constraints it has been faced with. After all, the morbidity and mortality rate of Indians per million have been much less than what has been seen and reported in the First World developed countries.

All said and done, one would also like to submit what has also been pointed out by many others. On a philosophical note, it does appear that God has been adumbrating at the prodigal ways in which humans have been splurging natural resources while also meddling and messing with earth’s climate. It does appear that God has decided to reboot its system to auto-heal the system and bring about a homeostatic balance. So, all the while we were locking down the human activities in our bid to stop the onward march of an unrelenting virus, the nature was seemingly flourishing.

With the downscaled and downgraded human activities, less supplies were needed forcing the factories to be closed down thereby further putting a pause to the exploitation of natural resources including cutting of jungles. With the global per capita income coming down as a result of the pandemic, overall demand also came down and, thus, came down the popular fixation with development. We definitely need to reduce our needs which stress nature and its resources.

One year of Covid has taught us many things including the fact that our day-to-day life could be a lot less complex than we have made it out or that we can very well work from home without compromising the overall productivity or the rediscovery of human relations, tearing our attention away from the artificial world of gadgets and mobile phones or the fact that how artificial were many of our needs as had appeared indispensable during the pre-Covid world.

While we continue to brace ourselves for the Third Wave of Covid or any such thing in future, we also need to pause and think of the advisability and sustainability of measures like ‘lockdowns’ for dealing with such a crisis. Many observers feel that we can’t keep on locking down the system for dealing with future barrage of viruses which will keep happening or we also can’t continue resorting to social distancing as human existence would become meaningless without societal interactions. They recommend the need to find better ways and responses to deal with any such future events including putting in place a stronger system of social security.

As global problems warrant global responses, it is more than warranted that we come together to frame a joint response without being parochially protectionist or self-centred. Our focus should also move away from treatment to prevention of the disease. As such, we definitely need to change our life style and modify our food habits without which we shall remain ever vulnerable to the onslaughts of such viruses in future.

We need to find ingenious ways to repair and rebuild our earth and its ecosystem, while purposely inculcating a healthy and nature-friendly life style. Unless and until we appreciate this, we shall continue to feel helpless against an unseen enemy like Covid-19 virus which will continue mutating and presenting itself in newer forms.