Look at Positive side…

It has been more than a year since my last blog. Unfortunately, it’s my nature to get excited about things and then the enthusiasm just fades away. But there is definitely some divine power that is driving me to start blogging again.

In the middle of all the madness around the havoc that Corona virus has created, just read one positive note about the Ozone layer. Yes, a piece of positive news that the ozone layer is recovering. This may not be attributed only to the Lock down that COVID 19 has forced on us, but it has definitely contributed in a big way. While just scanning through a few pollution indexes of major cities, one can easily see that the quality of Air has improved dramatically in last month or so, world over.

As corona virus quickly spreads around the world, it’s forcing people to stay put and wreaking havoc on the economy. Employees are either out of a job or working from home. Factories are shuttering, and with mandates to stay inside becoming the new norm, people aren’t driving or flying. The World Health Organization estimates that outdoor air pollution kills 4.2 million people every year. But as people stay home, these last few months have seen a huge uptick in air quality. 

Am I trying to suggest that the outbreak or Lockdown is good? Absolutely Not!

It’s undeniably quite bad for our physical, mental and financial well-being. But the estimates are that just two months of improved air quality has reduced the number of lives lost due to pollution, by approximately 50,000.

The take is absolutely not that there is a silver lining to epidemics. Epidemics are terrible, and it has brought a lot of distress to daily wage laborers, the homeless population, beggars, slum-dwellers, several low-income groups as well as the elderly who live alone. However, it is equally true that the situation helped everyone to realize who are the true sons of the soil and who are just talkers. Government, few NGOs, and companies have shown great enterprise and tried to ease the distress of marginalized individuals during the lock down.  However, epidemics, may help us learn, how things we do in our everyday lives, could be improved. And then once the virus is contained,  some positive mindsets and habits will arise from the disruption. So I hope people are recognizing that there are different ways to live.  For example, this period of remote working and videoconferencing could urge people to rethink their need to travel frequently. Even eliminating a few business trips and doing them remotely eliminates a huge proportion of my own personal carbon footprint. And I think my experience with the technology in the last few weeks suggest that I should absolutely be doing that. There’s no reason not to do that.

I am sure, I am not alone who is looking or thinking of this positive aspect. But while analyzing, what has triggered this positive mindset, I could recollect the discourse of My Shri Sadguru (P. Pu. Shri Kaka Maharaj), about being happy and fearless in all the situations. Shri Sadguru always guides, that everything that happens around us and to us, happens by his wish. And if we believe, then we will always remain happy and fearless in adverse situations. This will help us to be positive in all the circumstances. 

Apart from the improvement of the quality of air, which is more generalized benefit, I could see and experience a lot of Positives personally;

Today apart from working from home, I get a lot of time to spend in my terrace garden, which was there all the while, but I could never appreciate or enjoy being there, watering the plants, doing my meditation  or even sipping a cup of tea in the evening. Just yesterday I planted some coriander seeds and hopefully will enjoy some fresh coriander leaves just before the lockdown is over.

No doubt, I am working and since it was  year end, the work on hand was more than usual, but still, I was with my family all the time. In 19 years of marriage and 10 years of fatherhood, I never spent this long a period with my family, when they were in front of my eyes all along.

The dignity of labor, which  Shri Sadguru ,has always tried to imbibe and I always strongly believed in. But today, since I am doing a few things on my own,  can appreciate and relate more to the contribution of everyone in my day to day life.

Lock downs are bad and has definitely put lakhs of people in hardship, but then this is one lifetime opportunity to show gratitude towards those who are in distress, and have always tirelessly worked for all of us in the background. I am doing my bit, and so could you.

I can enlist may such positives, right from enjoying my first love cooking to doing Yoga on a daily basis. But what is most important is the fact that I am much closer to almighty my Shri Sadguru, not physically though but emotionally. By being apart, I feel more connected with Shri Sadguru who resides within me and of course within all of us. Something, which Shri Sadguru has been wanting us to realize that God/Shri Sadguru is not outside, but he resides inside us, is being strongly felt. This is the biggest positive, I just can’t ‘Thank’ enough .

Let’s hope the situation improves in the next couple of weeks and life returns to normal for all of us, but let’s not forget what it taught. Let’s promise ourselves to continue the good that we all have started in our own individual capacity even after the Lockdown.

And before I close, last but not the least, the biggest positive is that I am back to blogging.

Stay Home, Stay Safe.

May Shri Sadguru bless us with good health and eternal peace.

// Jai Sairam //