During the last three months, as COVID 19, otherwise known as the Corona Virus, took on the world by its scruff and shook every one of us in the globe. The devastation still continues. Locked down at home, all of us are in the process of understanding ourselves, our work, our relationships, our lifestyles and our future.
Here are a few examples of how I looked at myself. During these three months, sitting on the couch at my son’s Manhattan residence, I went four decades back to my “Masters in Management” days and started “Role Playing”.
In normal times, travel was a physical activity & we needed a transport to travel long distances. Yet I travelled across without the use of aero planes/vehicles to all parts of the world. I went to China, South Korea, Italy, Spain, Cuba, Ecuador, Russia, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, Great Britain and several other countries. I am learning so much about these places, the people there, their food habits, their social behavior, their travel etc that even a citizen of that country would normally won’t bother to know these details during normal times. Thus I became a global citizen simply sitting in a couch and using my iPad!!
I watched political leaders across the world in action with their left, right, socialistic and capitalistic orientations. I became law maker for several countries and started review of the actions and inactions of these leaders. I advised the public through social media as to what went wrong with these guys and what they should have done. I became a consultant to the global leaders!!
I reviewed the science behind the diseases that the world faced/faces/will face. I became an epidemiologist, a health care specialist, a pharmaceutical expert; I thought I understood respiratory systems, became emergency care professional. I literally became the master of life sciences.
I analyzed human behavior, impact of country, culture & religion on human behavior, I tried experimenting with social distancing (remember – human beings are social animals). In short I became sociologist.
I ran restaurants & Bars; I ran public transport, managed hospitals, became insurance administrator; I ran treasuries and stock markets, I specialized in mathematical modeling, (understood lots of curves, peaked them, flattened them). I saw numerous movies & TV Shows, listened to all kinds of music & podcasts, recited slokas/hymns. I did baby sitting, & played with kids. There are practically very little fields that I left uncovered in these testing times.
The only area that I didn’t touch in this period of crisis is about “I“(myself). Who am I ?. ..
All I know about myself is that I am not happy (अहं सर्वदा दुःखभारावसन्नो – I am always sunken with the burden of Sorrows). I want the crisis to be over and I want to be happy.
Absolutely nothing wrong with this feeling. All living beings desire to be happy without any misery. This is human nature. But then who am “I”? What do I mean when I use the word “Happy”?
Read my blogs in the coming weeks in the “Spirituality” Section of the Menu.
Prabhu's Ponder 