After the outbreak of Coronavirus, most of the people in the world have been feeling really depressed as their routine life in the comfort zone has been disturbed. The feeling of doom and gloom is sweeping the entire world. The people are worried about the state of the economy in their countries and also about not knowing how long this will go on this way.
Google news is informing us that most airlines will be bankrupt by the end of May. There is a headline in The New York Times: Coronavirus Cost to Businesses and workers: ‘It Has All Gone to Hell’.
The Italians have been suffering more than the people in the others in the European countries, as reported in the Guardians: “Free movement within a borderless Europe already seems like a distant memory: there were 90km queues on the Brenner pass (into Austria) last week, and Slovenia has blocked its roads with Italy. It is understandable that Italy, the country with the highest rate of coronavirus infections outside China, should be isolated, but to Italians, it feels as if the country is being left to rot. Italy has received more aid from China than from the US or the EU. Every day the numbers of Italy’s infections and deaths leap by 20% or 30%.”
The Guardian adds: Part of the weirdness comes from the fact that you can’t go anywhere. Museums, gyms, schools, cinemas and libraries are all closed. Your instinct is to hunker down with the wider family, but all the advice is to stay away from the older generation, who are the most vulnerable to infection.
The City of Rome and the Vatican, the spiritual headquarter of Catholicism wear a deserted look. The believers have to pray alone. “Pope Francis ventured into a deserted Rome on Sunday to pray at two shrines for the end of the coronavirus pandemic, as the Vatican said his Easter services will be held without the public for the first time,” reports Reuters.
India is behaving very differently from the rest of the world. NDTV reports: India might be getting into a shell due to coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed two lives in India and more than 5,000 across the globe, but for the students of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, it’s time for celebration. A video has surfaced on social media where students are seen breaking into dance and singing, “Jai Corona (Hail Corona)”. It happened at 8 pm on Thursday at Karakoram Hostel.
India has its own way of dealing with this situation. Last Monday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the closure of all gyms, spas and night clubs in the Capital till March 31 as the number of cases in the country rose to 112 and the governments began measures on war footing to contain the spread of the infection. Addressing the media, Kejriwal said the ban on gatherings of over 50 people will be applicable to protests as well, putting a cloud over the Shaheen Bagh protests that have continued for over 90 days.
There is a brighter side to this situation, some positive effects of this virus happening in India. The mighty politicians of central Government who could not stop the Shaheen Bagh protest for 90 days, may feel grateful to this virus for doing the job for them.
In spite of all the gloomy news of doom, which will increase or decrease, we need to remind ourselves to continue meditating and celebrate with whatever we have. Osho’s favourite character, Mulla Nasrudin would find something optimistic, though he constantly irritated his friends with his eternal optimism. No matter how bad the situation, he would always say, “It could have been worse.”
To cure him of this annoying habit, his friends decided to invent a situation so completely black, so dreadful, that even Nasrudin could find no hope in it. Approaching him at the club bar one day, one of them said, “Mulla, Did you hear what happened to George? He came home last night, found his wife in bed with another man, shot them both, then turned the gun on himself!”
“Terrible,” said the Mulla “But it could have been worse.”
“How in hell,” asked his dumbfounded friend, “could it possibly have been worse?” “Well,” said Nasrudin, “IF IT HAD HAPPENED THE NIGHT BEFORE! I WOULD BE DEAD NOW.”
Some Osho disciples from Germany have informed me that it has been never so silent and quiet in Cologne. For the first time, you can hear the birds singing in the center of the city.
Osho teaches us to do everything that is needed in any such situation, by being fully conscious, without panicking and getting paranoid.
“So when I say be cheerful, be happy, rejoice in the fact that you are not in the position of being miserable and suffering, I have a certain purpose behind it. The purpose is that you have to become an example to those people who have completely forgotten that life can also be rejoicing. In spite of all the darkness you can still be unburdened of the darkness, you can still dance. Darkness cannot prevent your dance; it has no preventive force. To me, this is real service.”
Osho, The Sword and the Lotus, Talk #1
