…. Corona surpasses everyone.
We demand Karuna [compassion] now from each other.
We need compassion; compassion not only towards human beings, each other,
but towards this animal kingdom – to those who have no hands and no mouth
to make noise and protect themselves.
Nature takes revenge in this way.
Pranam, pranam, pranam.
Namaste ji.
This particular epidemic or pandemic has created such a
furore that no one has escaped it.
Yeah, yeah.
Absolutely!
No one can escape.
No country can escape it.
When they have brought the entire airline industry to a stand-still, the
travel industry to a stand-still, the hotel industry to a stand-still, the
majority of the industries are at a stand-still, I do not think that such
a worldwide episode has ever happened.
Definitely.
One of the film directors, he gave me a very nice quote for this.
’Nature ne human beings ko apna aukkat batha diya hai [Nature has
shown the human beings their place]’.
I mean we cannot go on messing around with Nature.
You know best, Daaji, the amount of trees you have planted for
saving the environment – millions.
How many millions did you plant?
No, not yet.
We have crossed half a million so far.
Half a million trees in that one particular area, Kanha.
Amazing!
If everybody is playing against Nature, someday, aakir sabak sikayega na, - ‘Okay,
let me teach you where you are.’ – at the loss of some loved ones, but what can I say?
But I think we have to learn the hard way, try to behave ourselves in the future.
See, I feel this is a trigger.
This is not the end of it.
Shankar ji, when you look at it - that one person who contracted this virus,
which jumped from pangolin – pangolin is a kind of another animal, which was widely
consumed by the rich and famous in that country - it jumped from that and contracted.
And humans contracted.
One person contracted, and you see from one person to few millions.
The whole world.
Now we say that this country has reached a plateau, or that country has reached
a plateau, or maximized, or we have controlled it in such-and-such-a country.
I do not think that controlling in one particular country would at all help.
Now the world has become one ball, one uniformity, one thing.
You just cannot say, “I am protected in Delhi, or I am protected in
New York and the rest of the world would have to be saved.” No.
it will not happen.
It is going to get migrated, whether you like it or not.
And this problem is going to continue.
So Daaji, do you think that there is going to be a new normal that we are
going to apply to our lives, and we are going to be living with this and
adopting certain new ways of livelihood?
Is that how it is going to be, what do you think?
One hundred percent, Shankar.
When you are traveling by air, and you are going from Mumbai to Delhi, and
your co-passenger is sneezing, what will go through your mind at that time?
Stress.
There you go.
You will look at everyone as if he is a carrier of the disease.
It is a difficult one.
Where is all this going to end?
Daaji, what do you think?
What is your perception?
When is this, is there going to be a time, when it is all going to come back to
normal or it will just remain like this?
Well, normalcy will come, definitely, or we will make it a normal thing for our lives.
This becomes our ‘normal’.
Correct, the ‘new normal’.
I think the chicken is going to be the next wave of carrier of many diseases.
Oh, really?
Yes.
One scientist already predicted that if this trend continues - in a trend which
has been going on since 1900 - one disease comes, it is okay, we get used to it.
The next one is higher and more dangerous.
The third that comes is even greater.
And now, Corona surpasses everyone.
We demand Karuna [compassion] now from each other.
We need compassion; compassion not only towards human beings, each other,
but towards this animal kingdom - to those who have no hands and no mouth
to make noise and protect themselves.
Nature takes revenge in this way.
Yes.
This is, I think, some kind of statement that Nature is making
against us, Daaji, is it not?
Yes, yes it is so.
The sooner we learn, the better it is for all of us.
And whenever such pandemics are there, it reminds us that compassion is a
lot, lot better than non-violence.
I may not say, ‘Okay, let this person be hurt’.
But if he is suffering, is it not my duty to help?
He has not come to beg at your door.
But when you see one of your friends, one of your relatives, or one of the
persons who came to you indirectly and suffering, you need to do something.
Correct.
So this act of doing something, to me, is compassion.
So, Nature is also teaching us, ‘Upgrade your Consciousness, upgrade your hearts.’
And show compassion.
Yes, show compassion.
And when we show compassion to others, I think, it becomes a trend and the world
will show compassion to us when we need it.
So, do you think, Daaji, that if we genuinely start distributing ‘compassionate
energy’ to the people around us, to the Universe, the Universe will also give us
back something which is positive and which should benefit us, and which will also make
us happy/ make this life worth-while living?
Do you think that that is the best thing that a human being can do, what do you think?
I exactly think the way you are thinking.
You know, there is a proverb in Gujarati- where I come from, Gujarat- ‘Kuvana na Hoya
toh havadama na ave’ which means that if there is no water in your well, how will
you pull it out and make water available for your animals, cows, and buffalos?
If that compassion is not in-built in you, if that compassion is not in your
heart, it is not going to come out.
Correct.
If there is no love, instead of love, if you have hatred in your heart, that
“so and so is bad, so and so is looking only towards the west, that so and so is
looking only towards the east, so and so is always looking towards the heavens”.
You know, we have prejudices for various people, various ethnic
groups, etc., etc., - that has to go.
That hatred that prevails in humanity today is unprecedented everywhere.
The compassionate heart will not say, ‘Oh, I am better than
Shankar, let me put Shankar down.’
Correct.
In fact, the compassionate heart will say, ‘Oh, Shankar is a great
man.’ And this philosophy or this attitude will go a long way.
Suppose I keep on thinking, ‘I am great, I am great, I am better than Shankar,’ – my
Guru used to say that, ‘There is nothing wrong in thinking yourself to be so great.
But if you think that the other person is lower than you, then there
is a problem.’ Always think that the other person is greater than you.