Happy Vishu to all Malayalis. This year's Vishu has been the saddest one ever. Not kidding! I woke up feeling yellow, with a terrible neck sprain that still hurts like crazy. My sister joked about it saying that I probably look like actor 'Cochin Haneefa' in the funny roles that he used to when he had to show a neck sprain! Yeah, right. Well, there was just no Vishu celebration at all and we had also lost elderly members of the family, which means that we are in mourning.
[Image: Pixabay]
Then came the news update that the lock down has been extended to May!
Tough, right?
While all of us understand and respect the gravity of the deadly pandemic, I can tell you honestly that this year's Vishu festival has been the saddest one ever. It is painfully sad that everyone across the world is struggling so hard to save lives and the uncertainty all around is quite overwhelming.
This lockdown has established the Vedic teaching of 'Vasudaiva Kutumbakam'.
We are all interconnected beings. Now we are witnessing the reality of it.
What happened in Wuhan can now affect every village and city across the world.
Maybe you could even call this situation a 'life-altering' experience of sorts.
There is no other way to describe this almost unreal phase that we are navigating right now.
Living with uncertainty has shown me the impermanence of the world we inhabit and the fragility of relationships.
Somewhere along the way, we forgot the purpose of our existence.
We raced ahead only to find that so many things that we had raced for had no real meaning.
So many things, so many people and so many initiatives that were the result of weeks and months and maybe decades of sincere and consistent hard work may have just gone for a toss right now.
Then what happened?
Did your life come to an end?
Did you lose a grip over your existence itself?
Nothing happened. Then, aren't you the lucky one, huh?
Now all of us are forced to confront the Truth.
We come with NOTHING and we go with NOTHING.
The Coronavirus pandemic has shown us that we are NOTHING but interconnected beings.
That the world can move perfectly without any of the activities that we believe makes it go round.
Nothing matters. This mad rush we believe is essential to our existence amounts to....NOTHING.
But our egos, our inflated sense of "I" is kicking in and not letting us accept this with grace.
This Vishu is the saddest one ever. But this has also been the most profound one.
After all, Vishu is not just a festival, it is a gentle reminder that our source of joyous abundance comes from within us - the indweller of the Heart - Lord Krishna Himself.
With all my heart, I hope and pray that your Vishu was happier and better.
Let me know in the comments below, alright?
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