One of my favorite authors, Robert A. Heinlein, said – Natural laws have no pity. His quote is a perfect addition to the assertion by Vedic texts that the universe is governed by ‘rta’ (laws).
The recent outbreak of Coronavirus (a.k.a. COVID-19, in politically correct term) seem to prove both the above statements correct. While we were busy protecting ourselves from nuclear war, terrorism, global warming and other man-made but money-making distractions; the nature slipped in an invisible microbe that brought humanity down on its knees.
The virus does not care about how rich or poor you are, what religion, race, color you belong to, or which country you live in. It seems to be working as an antibody of the Mother Nature trying to restore balance amongst its living species by forcing humans to pause. To put it in another way, it appears that the Earth took an antacid to overcome the acidity caused by over-consumption of resource and imbalances created by homo sapiens.
Our response has been by the book. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross & David Kessler wrote about five stages of grief in a different context but I see the parallels here. The world, especially arrogant and laced with superiority complex countries, seems to now be transitioning into the fifth stage.
- Denial: It’s not something that we need to bother about. It’s a ‘third world’ disease…
- Anger: WTF! This is a deliberate and intentional bio-warfare. We will get to the bottom of this…
- Bargaining: Lockdown! Lockdown! Lockdown! Social distancing. Flatten the curve…
- Depression: Do we let people die of the virus or hunger?
- Acceptance: We need to learn to live with the virus!
Earth is a closed eco-system. We are as much part of it as millions of other species, some visible and many invisible. Mother Earth will find a way to balance itself based on the laws that govern it and the universe it is part of. I hope the humanity comes out of this pandemic with humility and learns to live in harmony with nature. If not with nature and other species, then at least with others of our own species.