Coronavirus Lockdown: Dear World, Mother Nature Has a Message

Rajya Sabha MP from Bengal, Dinesh Trivedi makes a plea for us to return to our roots, to pay heed to Mother Nature.

Image used for representational purposes.

(Photo: Altered by Arnica Kala / The Quint)

By now, most of us must be fed up with the gyaan coming via social media on the coronavirus pandemic. So what do we end up doing? Most of us just delete the so-called gyaan, and forward the jokes related to corona. The fertile Indian minds have plenty of them, and good ones too.

But then the old proverb says that ‘every cloud has a silver lining’. The bigger the cloud, the brighter the silver lining.

The coronavirus crisis has given us lessons for life – something that all the religious scriptures and the gurus of the world put together could perhaps not effectively teach us.

So, who is the biggest teacher of all? Mother Nature.

What is the Silent Message of Mother Nature?

‘I can take care of myself. I gave you freedom to co-exist with me along with the creatures around me, but you crossed your limits, and like a spoilt child, misbehaved. The world, for decades, in the comfort of five-star hotel conferences, only talked about global warming, deforestation, climate change, cleaning the Ganga, etc, and did just the opposite. So, I decided to heal myself and locked you up at home. Look, in such a short time (a few days), you can feel my play. Rivers, including Ma Ganga, are much cleaner, the atmosphere is much better. The sky looks blue, and above all, you can even see the stars.’

‘For the first time, you are realising that I am the Almighty. You tried to capture me in the closed doors of edifices that you called temples, churches, gurdwaras, mosques, etc, and visited me just for a bargain – for your personal need and greed.’

‘Most of the power-hungry people (politicians included) in the world tried to limit me by giving me different religious names and used me as their brand ambassador, claiming that only they can protect me, forgetting that I protect you all, and you have no capacity to protect me. But you wanted to rule in my name, so you made human beings fight with each other, again misguiding them in my name.’

Why Didn’t We Pay Heed to the Silent Messages of Our Scriptures?

‘Now, see the result. The political powers have issued orders shutting down the very place where they have captured me, namely, temples, churches, mosques, etc. The order reads “all religious places will remain closed. No religious gathering or congregation of any kind will be allowed. There will be no exceptions.” Look at my (Nature's) play.’

‘You were not at all interested in the silent messages of the religious scriptures of the world – be it the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Holi Bible, the Holi Quran, or the Guru Granth Sahib – or for that matter, the teachings of the saints and rishis of all faiths. The message was one of love, care, compassion, and of considering the world as one family ‘vasudhaiva kutumbakam’.’

In ancient times, during the Vedic period, when religion was not organised, people only worshipped the five elements of nature – Fire, Earth, Wind, Water and Space – which sustain life.

So let us take this message, given to us by Nature via corona, and revisit the wisdom of our rishis who must have been Phd scholars in their time. Thousands of them did research over thousands of years, and the gist of it all came to us in the form of the Vedas (the Vedas have no author).

Nature Is Our True Protector

Let us go back to Mother Nature. For years, governments have spent a lot of money on projects to clean the Ganga, but in few days itself, we can see how Ma Ganga cleanses herself, as if telling us, “I know how to keep myself clean. I have the force and power as long as you don't pollute me. It is so simple!'

The coronavirus pandemic is a reminder from Nature, that we are insignificant.

Let us be grateful to Mother Nature, who had to teach us a lesson in the form of this crisis, which all the scriptures of the world had previously indicated – that, the ultimate religious place is within you, and it never gets locked out until you get knocked out. And do not think you can forever abuse the bounty of Nature and get away scot-free. Nature is our true protector, so respect it, or else...

(Dinesh Trivedi is an Indian politician serving as Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha from West Bengal. He tweets @DinTri. This is a personal blog, and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)