Harsh Dev Singh
A novel virus named COVID-19 has devastated the world in just few months. Having consumed millions of precious lives across the globe, it poses the most meaning threat to the very existence of mankind.The top scientists across the globe struggling day and night for a likely antidote or a vaccine have failed to conquer the fury of the microscopic organism which is too small even to be seen through naked eye. The result is catastrophic. The explosive growth of the deadly virus continues unabated infecting people of all ages, hues and colours leaving several dead with each passing day and triggering xenophobia the world over. The progression of the epidemic is taking place at a speed which undoubtedly is calamitous while the deadly virus comes roaring and engulfing new horizons and newer landscapes. The medical fraternity continues to be clueless. And while our scientists had been, in the past, quick to invent vaccines and remedies for HINI, small pox cholera, Rabies and Polio etc, the lack of any breakthrough in conquering the deadly corona virus has baffled, rather terrified the mankind all over the world.
While the world grapples with the challenge of this tiny killer, the people are being sold different theories at different times without any authentic finding. The fact remains that there is no way of treating the ailment except by controlling its symptoms and hoping to ride out the period of infection. Nobody knows for sure as to how many lives the deadly virus would claim. Mankind has conquered mountains and rivers, vanquished deserts and plains and surmounted the skies and the earth and so on and so forth. But appears to have been overpowered by a tiny non visible virus named corona that is threatening to swallow the entire human race.
As the time moves on, the number of affected persons is increasing exponentially, multiplying in multiples. There is so much unknown and unfamiliar about the raging epidemic that the people have started looking at it as a curse of the Nature, and a symbol of Divine displeasure. There is emerging belief amongst the masses that world is suffering because of ever-growing evil, vices, sins, immorality, wickedness, unnaturalness and unrighteousness. Can we wholly discard the common belief? Lets give it a thought and lets try to Judge the present situation in the light of what has been propounded in our sculptures, Vedas, Puranas, Granths, Bible, Quran and other holy books of various faiths.
Whatever religion we may profess, the teachings are identical. This all will admit. We all believe in the Supreme power, the Almighty, known by several names, who has universal rules for all to follow irrespective of caste, creed, colour, religion, faith and regardless of all barriers created by mankind. His commandments have universal application. Follow the righteous path and you shall be showered with His benevolence, eternal life. But be prepared for His wrath and fury if you disobey His commandments. You will have His blessings if you follow the path of truth and purity. But be prepared to burn in the ‘lake of fire and sulphur’, if you despise His statutes and profane his covenants. Is this not the substance of all religious faiths the world over?
And if true, then how far are we following His path and honouring His commandments? Lets ponder over it for a while. The world is not safe anymore, we often hear it from one and all. This feeling infact comes to us from within. A call of the conscience. For we all are aware of the fast dying values and speedily dissipating virtues in our day to day life. Goodness and purity have given way to wickedness, impurity, immorality sensuality, idolatry, intolerance, vengeance, greed, selfishness, sorcery, enmity, divisions, orgies and the like. The mighty and the powerful have no qualms of conscience in annihilating the weak, the infirm and the inconvenient. The ruler of today has hardly any love lust for his subjects. He behaves as an unquestionable despot answerable to none. Self interest has replaced the public good. Man can conveniently destroy his follow beings to suit his personal desires. Religion is no more a way of life. It is being used to promote hatred and contempt and to fulfil personal, political ambitions. It’s no more a binding force. But a means to divide, to kill the inconvenient. Despotism, arrogance, vengeance and Fanaticism have become the order of the day. Nature is being ruthlessly tempered with and its rules dismissed with contempt. Mankind is bent upon profaning the blood of the covenant by which it was consecrated and sanctified. We have started deciding who will live and who will not. If we have the power, we can consider ourself above law and act accordingly. We can defy law and alter the course of justice by the power that we wield. But we seem to have forgotten that Nature too has its laws and none can escape the Divine Justice. Are we therefore paying the price for our sins? The emerging situation of death and sufferings could ofcourse be a natural fall out.
Its not that we have completely forgotten the Almighty or ruled out His Existence. We do remember Him. But when? And how? We have seen our leaders and mentors going to temples and places of worship with cameras and media men and holding photogenic shoots ‘in the company of God’. And then releasing the video scripts for telecast in the news channels so as to derive some sort of capital out of it. We behave as if we are doing some kind of favour to the deity by visiting places of worship. Lets ask ourselves. Is it obeisance or a holy hypocrisy? Spirituality or blasphemy? We need to constantly question ourselves. Are we not dishonouring Him by our treachery and subterfuge, immorality and deceptive behaviour and profanity and ruthless defiance. Remember the most famous verses from shrimad Bhagwat Gita:- “Yada yada hi dharmasya glanirbhavati bharata; Abhythanama dharmasya tadatmanam srijamyham”. The lord says that as and when there will be decline of ‘dharma’ and rise of ‘adharma’ and sins, he would come to destroy the evil and to restore the order of Nature.
Is this not the substance of all religious testaments – the Bible, the Quran the Granth Sahib? By whatever name we call Him, His massage is universal. That He would punish the world for the evil, and the wicked for the inequity. He will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. He would crush the pride of the mighty and humiliate the insolence of tyrants. If you despite His statutes, or dishonour His commandments, be prepared for His wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for mankind if it abhors His judgements. This is the lesson conveyed in all religious testaments which we seem to have completely forgotten. As in Gita, Quran and other religious scriptures the philosophy of ‘dharma’ and righteousness has been propagated in all religious sculptures. As per the holy books of Christianity, the lord says “But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the tress of the land yield their fruits.
I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.
And I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied……”
The cosmic law of creation has to be abided by one and all. While we have the ammunition in our arsenals to blow off the world, we seem to be helpless before a tiny virus that has endangered the entire human race. Lets introspect. Lets ask ourselves. Have we not outraged the spirit of His Grace by unrighteous and unnatural conduct? And while the scientists continue to find the remedy for our present misfortunes and worries, we need to assimilate the pearls of wisdom enunciated in the Bhagwat Gita, Quran, Guru Granth Sahib and the Bible so that the world truly becomes a place to live and to co-exist.
Lets all hope and pray for a better tomorrow.
(The writer is Chairman JKNPP and Former Minister)
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