Long ago , so long ago , meaning any time in the last one month because the days are merging into one another....anyway long ago, I saw few posts, few among the plethora of floating messages across the globe which went something like this ...
" I forgot what we spoke about, before Corona " ,
" Soon BC will start to mean before Corona"
and the one I loved was " There are two pandemics going on , one is corona and the other is stupidity, the second one being more deadly ".
Absolutely true isn't it ? Today we stand at this exigency , where hoards and hoards of money, towering pillars of power and the so called ' advanced' technology have all failed in making this world a better place. In fact if we reflect back, they have only served in creating this planet as it is now.....and I mean right now, this moment as you read these words , not the world we were living in two months back.
Today's world is the one in which ...
We are literally arrested in four walls....
We have realized meeting loved ones is an extreme luxury....
The departed souls would have given anything to breath normally....
Most aspects of life have been turned upside down...
One section of the population have become the front line warriors, fighting to stop the spread , while the other sections stay at home to conveniently complain about the system.....
and finally a world where nature is trying to get it's foot hold back.Some weeks of human absence, has made us witness so many wonders and there is no room for discussion as to who are the most destructive species in this creation.
Soon this too will pass but the question remains as to how we are going to emerge from this . Will we rise as Phoenix did, which destroyed itself after 1000 years to rise again as the same bird or will we rise again as evolved human beings ?
Isn't it absolutely imperative and I cannot stress it more, that we need to pull ourselves out of this with a complete change in perception as to how we see this world and relate to it. Technology, money and power might be dysfunctional today in providing a wholesome solution to clear this COVID-19 turmoil, but for me personally the single point of failure as has been all the educational systems around the world.
Why do we need to education in the first place?
We need it to mature as better human beings , to handle our lives and the world in a improvised way.
We need education to uplift ourselves and decide from which platform we need to grow, to which platform.
We need it and should be using education to imbibe ourselves with the courage to make the correct decisions when we reach cross roads
.... and we when we finally reached the cross roads, we forgot to use even our basic common sense and COVID-19 is spreading.
If most of the people had taken the simple decision to stay at home, would have this corona spread so much ? So if education cannot be used at the right phase of life in the right way, what is its very purpose ?
Only in providing money, jobs and a luxurious lifestyle ?
This failure exactly reminds of an incident from our history.
Let me zoom back a little, by little, I mean around 5000 years back when the great epic Mahabharata took place.For me, this epic is a conglomeration of never ending life lessons and my daughter being a big fan of Magabharatham and Krishna, it is a kind of parallel track running in our house. The recent addition to this epic club has been my husband. Hot star to the rescue and we started watching these episodes during BC itself ;-) ( I mean Before Corona ).
The three larger than life stalwarts on whose twisted sense of pride and righteousness was hosted Duroyodhana's arrogance, were Bhishmar, Guru Dronacharya and the great Warrior Karna.
A throw back on these three people can be found in my other blog
http://joyinme-always.blogspot.com/2016/07/bheeshma-karna-dornacharya-you-and.html
Those were times and I think it still holds true that for a warrior, death should befall them when fighting bravely but for these three, their death was a complete surrender to Dharma after being enlightened by Lord Krishna.
Karna awaited the fight against Arjuna for many years and when the stage was set for the same, his chariot wheel got stuck in the mud. His charioteer refusing to help him, Karna had to get down without weapons to dislodge the wheel himself , and Krishna chose the moment to ask Arjuna to fire his arrows !
Karna gets infuriated that this was not being played fair and swears that he will launch the divine weapon Brahma Astra which can destroy the entire Kurukshethra... and at that turning point , this great warrior flounders that too, as he forgets how to fire the weapon using his Mantras. His education and knowledge failed him
Karna is at his wits end and demands what was wrong in him trying to attain a great status, that he is finally meted out such an injustice.
It is at this juncture Krishna tries to give him clarity. He completely agrees that , Karna not being allowed to bring forth his greatness just because he was a charioteer's son is indeed wrong and society or for that matter, no human being has a right to look down on another just because they happen to be born some where, but where Karna failed was in his reaction to it, in not converting what he learnt to knowledge and wisdom
He strove to educate himself in the best of arts, to propel himself alone. He surrendered himself, his talents and his sense of righteousness at the feet of Duruyodhana just because his friend gave himself some recognition. He never prevented Duruyodhana from his dance of arrogance.
He never fueled his anger towards the betterment of his group, so that walls created on birth basis were broken. He never used his education, his talent and his power that he so pain painstakingly learnt, towards the progress of the society - it was just fodder for Duruyodhana's bloated ego....and so Krishna said that finally , his learning failed him instead of uplifting him at the most important moment of his life,
and once Karna's cobwebs in his head cleared, he surrendered
and today , aren't we in the very same situation....?
Today's education is food for money , jobs, houses, cars and whatever - nothing wrong in aspiring for that , but look at the damage we have done to the creation in the process.....scores of animals and plants getting destroyed, we ourselves are floating in pollution and sometimes humans can be so cruel, that it lies at the edge of insanity.
Most of the people do not intentionally harm anyone - we are just being pulled along the current trends of life, but will that excuse suffice or does nature's cycle differentiate between intentions ?
If countries with people, who were infected with COVID-19 had the sense to lock their international borders would the disease have spread ?
If each person who returned to her/ his home country had bothered to check on how the virus spreads and used their common sense to stay in self quarantine would the disease have spread ?
If those, who carelessly roam around , think for a moment about all those people who putting themselves at risk,so that we remain safe, would the disease spread ?
So for me, today's dilemma is also an educational failure.
and, as the world grapples, Corona has hijacked our entire mind space, created so many divisions among a single species ....and made me pen these words.
With hope that this too will pass and for once we emerge as better human beings, and let education actually educate the world ...........and lead to wisdom.
" I forgot what we spoke about, before Corona " ,
" Soon BC will start to mean before Corona"
and the one I loved was " There are two pandemics going on , one is corona and the other is stupidity, the second one being more deadly ".
Absolutely true isn't it ? Today we stand at this exigency , where hoards and hoards of money, towering pillars of power and the so called ' advanced' technology have all failed in making this world a better place. In fact if we reflect back, they have only served in creating this planet as it is now.....and I mean right now, this moment as you read these words , not the world we were living in two months back.
Today's world is the one in which ...
We are literally arrested in four walls....
We have realized meeting loved ones is an extreme luxury....
The departed souls would have given anything to breath normally....
Most aspects of life have been turned upside down...
One section of the population have become the front line warriors, fighting to stop the spread , while the other sections stay at home to conveniently complain about the system.....
and finally a world where nature is trying to get it's foot hold back.Some weeks of human absence, has made us witness so many wonders and there is no room for discussion as to who are the most destructive species in this creation.
Soon this too will pass but the question remains as to how we are going to emerge from this . Will we rise as Phoenix did, which destroyed itself after 1000 years to rise again as the same bird or will we rise again as evolved human beings ?
Isn't it absolutely imperative and I cannot stress it more, that we need to pull ourselves out of this with a complete change in perception as to how we see this world and relate to it. Technology, money and power might be dysfunctional today in providing a wholesome solution to clear this COVID-19 turmoil, but for me personally the single point of failure as has been all the educational systems around the world.
Why do we need to education in the first place?
We need it to mature as better human beings , to handle our lives and the world in a improvised way.
We need education to uplift ourselves and decide from which platform we need to grow, to which platform.
We need it and should be using education to imbibe ourselves with the courage to make the correct decisions when we reach cross roads
.... and we when we finally reached the cross roads, we forgot to use even our basic common sense and COVID-19 is spreading.
If most of the people had taken the simple decision to stay at home, would have this corona spread so much ? So if education cannot be used at the right phase of life in the right way, what is its very purpose ?
Only in providing money, jobs and a luxurious lifestyle ?
This failure exactly reminds of an incident from our history.
Let me zoom back a little, by little, I mean around 5000 years back when the great epic Mahabharata took place.For me, this epic is a conglomeration of never ending life lessons and my daughter being a big fan of Magabharatham and Krishna, it is a kind of parallel track running in our house. The recent addition to this epic club has been my husband. Hot star to the rescue and we started watching these episodes during BC itself ;-) ( I mean Before Corona ).
The three larger than life stalwarts on whose twisted sense of pride and righteousness was hosted Duroyodhana's arrogance, were Bhishmar, Guru Dronacharya and the great Warrior Karna.
A throw back on these three people can be found in my other blog
http://joyinme-always.blogspot.com/2016/07/bheeshma-karna-dornacharya-you-and.html
Those were times and I think it still holds true that for a warrior, death should befall them when fighting bravely but for these three, their death was a complete surrender to Dharma after being enlightened by Lord Krishna.
Karna awaited the fight against Arjuna for many years and when the stage was set for the same, his chariot wheel got stuck in the mud. His charioteer refusing to help him, Karna had to get down without weapons to dislodge the wheel himself , and Krishna chose the moment to ask Arjuna to fire his arrows !
Karna gets infuriated that this was not being played fair and swears that he will launch the divine weapon Brahma Astra which can destroy the entire Kurukshethra... and at that turning point , this great warrior flounders that too, as he forgets how to fire the weapon using his Mantras. His education and knowledge failed him
Karna is at his wits end and demands what was wrong in him trying to attain a great status, that he is finally meted out such an injustice.
It is at this juncture Krishna tries to give him clarity. He completely agrees that , Karna not being allowed to bring forth his greatness just because he was a charioteer's son is indeed wrong and society or for that matter, no human being has a right to look down on another just because they happen to be born some where, but where Karna failed was in his reaction to it, in not converting what he learnt to knowledge and wisdom
He strove to educate himself in the best of arts, to propel himself alone. He surrendered himself, his talents and his sense of righteousness at the feet of Duruyodhana just because his friend gave himself some recognition. He never prevented Duruyodhana from his dance of arrogance.
He never fueled his anger towards the betterment of his group, so that walls created on birth basis were broken. He never used his education, his talent and his power that he so pain painstakingly learnt, towards the progress of the society - it was just fodder for Duruyodhana's bloated ego....and so Krishna said that finally , his learning failed him instead of uplifting him at the most important moment of his life,
and once Karna's cobwebs in his head cleared, he surrendered
and today , aren't we in the very same situation....?
Today's education is food for money , jobs, houses, cars and whatever - nothing wrong in aspiring for that , but look at the damage we have done to the creation in the process.....scores of animals and plants getting destroyed, we ourselves are floating in pollution and sometimes humans can be so cruel, that it lies at the edge of insanity.
Most of the people do not intentionally harm anyone - we are just being pulled along the current trends of life, but will that excuse suffice or does nature's cycle differentiate between intentions ?If countries with people, who were infected with COVID-19 had the sense to lock their international borders would the disease have spread ?
If each person who returned to her/ his home country had bothered to check on how the virus spreads and used their common sense to stay in self quarantine would the disease have spread ?
If those, who carelessly roam around , think for a moment about all those people who putting themselves at risk,so that we remain safe, would the disease spread ?
So for me, today's dilemma is also an educational failure.
and, as the world grapples, Corona has hijacked our entire mind space, created so many divisions among a single species ....and made me pen these words.
With hope that this too will pass and for once we emerge as better human beings, and let education actually educate the world ...........and lead to wisdom.
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