COVID19 and Spirituality
Advaita Vedanta has always been teaching that this waking state is similar to our dream state. It is very hard to believe that this very own life could be a big dream and we will awake from it one day. Even if we don’t want to agree on this, the whole world around us is proving otherwise. Today everything feels like a dream only.
Our whole life has gone up and down due to coronavirus epidemic. We are not even thinking about things that were so important to us. Going out on the weekend and visiting malls and restaurants were part of our normal life. But now, it does not matter if you are a celebrity or a small businessman, we all are stuck in our homes. One moment ago the whole world was busy to even think about mother earth, and now we are all fighting for survival. Do you feel like seeing a dream?
In a dream state, we completely change our personality and we can become anything we like to be. We can go to any place in the world and can experience any situation. When dreams are based on some bad memory, we may see hell also. However, we all know that in the end, good or bad dreams will go away and we will wake up to the sunshine. The only constant thing about the dream is that it is impermanent phenomena.
In the Mandukya Upanishad, the self, our real nature is termed as the Turiya which means the fourth. Upanishad states that we have three states, waking state, dream state and deep sleep state. The fourth state which is not separate from the above three states but it is our real self. The one which is constant in all the waking, dream and deep sleep. The one which is observing or is aware of all the three states is our true nature. We may call it Spirit, Soul or the Turiya.
Till the time we identify ourselves with body and mind, we identify ourselves with the three states. The moment we go beyond, we become the turiya, the fourth. Again we don’t transform from body or mind to spirit. We are the soul. We only become aware.
For, e.g. You had a very bad dream of becoming a Dracula and killing people (please pardon my imagination). You were so engrossed into it that you forgot who you are and became obsessed with drinking blood. After observing your restlessness in sleep, your family member wakes you up and you realize that you are a good humanitarian who is always compassionate towards others and not a blood-sucking Dracula. Did you transform from Dracula to a good human being or you became aware of your true self? Similarly, on the path of spirituality, we remove the ignorance of being a body or being mind and become aware of the supreme self.
How does this realization or this knowledge help in the current challenging scenario? Right now one thing that is far more dangerous than the disease is fear of getting infected. This fear comes from the idea that we are the body and this body is subject to infection. All the news and social media are bringing our attention to the idea of being infected. We are being paranoid due to this and many of us are having anxiety attacks.
Apart from being infected, we are also worried about the world after lockdown. Many of us are running small businesses or are working. The world economy may be doomed once we come out of the pandemic. All these are attacking us twice. Once on our life through disease or financial challenges. The other attack is on our mind.
We may not be able to protect ourself from the first attack, but we can protect ourself from the second one. Many people would lose their entire savings or may lose their jobs and businesses, but if they lose the courage and confidence, then they never will be able to come out of this pandemic even after the disease is gone.
Establishing our mind on our true nature will allow us to have control of the mind. We would observe that the mind is separate from us and it is possible to control something separate from us. We can control our mind by purifying it. Vedanta and Yogasutras of Patanjali have shown us the way to do it.
We keep ourself away from the negativity and focus on the scriptures showing us the way. We also follow all the instructions provided by medical institutes as it is important to take care of this body. We keep the courage and hope in mind to cross this difficult time and to get up again. Above all, let us begin the journey of removing the ignorance and awakening to our true nature.
