Can We Change?

Essay; Tapas Sarkar: 

Photo credit: pixabay.com 

Suffering, suffering, and suffering…We are suffering, of course indomitable. Most importantly Human beings are suffering today. This is the matter to think and re-think, this is the knowledge to be taught and re-taught about. In this situation, on one side, we are severely suffering from COVID-19 and its tremendous consequences, on the other side we are growing in ignorance and inaptitude; we are still unlearned pseudo-humans. We are blind, rather too busy to prove ourselves superior to man (Human being itself), to other lives of nature and to Nature itself. We see ourselves as perfect critics discriminating ourselves as rich and poor, white and black, male and female, believer and atheist, political and apolitical, right and left, illiterate and literate, even as human and Nature. Nature whom few of us loved to call ‘Mother’ is now being separated from us, polluted by us, parodied by us which is the real intellectual decay of our civilization, as well as the whole Earth.

Undoubtedly, in this crisis of global infection human beings are suffering, yes we are suffering. Because, today we are unable to book hotels and travel abroad; we are unable to go out for a tasty party-wine, burger, tandoori, pizza, hot dog, chicken lollipop and so on. We are suffering because we are unable to go to the market and buy our daily ingredients; we are suffering because we are not able to go to the market and sell our vegetables and corn; we are suffering because we are unable to return home safely from other working places; we are suffering because we do not have proper food daily; we are suffering because we Humans are in danger, we are dying, our life is changing or it has changed already to another dimension of the situation by the COVID-19. COVID-19 is deemed as a curse on us by Mother Nature which most of us claim sometimes aggressively or repressively. Though, medical science says that there are several types of human coronaviruses pre-existed in Nature, like SARS-CoV, HCoV NL63, HCoVHKU1, MERS-CoV etc. and the SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 is from the similar family, but it is now harmful for humans.  Anyway, there are several theories about the origin of COVID-19. Neither do I blame China nor USA or other continents. Actually, it is all our fault; the humans, a man-made crisis.

Today, we are talking about the hindrances, difficulties of transportation, foodlessness, and lack of shelter and medication, and blaming COVID-19 as a notorious virus which should never affect us. Of course, this is pathetic for this human civilized society though it is not only about COVID-19, we have seen several pandemics like this in the earlier decades. It is painful because humans are suffering now. The only entire human race is suffering. But, are we asking just for a single time about our activities in nature? If being the only life (race) we are suffering, and dying this much, then how Nature might suffer from this when she has an entire species of lives who are also suffering in many ways by Humans. And Humans keep telling them the most sufferer in the world, not a dying mother elephant, not a cow, not an instinct fish? We are not asking ourselves how much we are responsible for those. What have we done? Can we really learn from this? Can we change it, if it is then how? Even we have no time or will to think about this because we are dying. Humans are dying. It is not an animal. Who would care if animals would die as it happens in several ages? Instead, who cares when animals and other innocent lives are dying rather than being killed directly or indirectly by us? Nobody did care, nobody does, and nobody will, because we think that we are superior, we have the right to rule over Nature.

            Unfortunately, in this 21^st century, the real cause of our suffering is COVID-19 which has several theories about its origin; some believe that it is the Wuhan virus which spread from bat to human body; some others say that this virus is nothing but the aftermath of the pollution of the Nature. Anyway, keeping all these politics and discrepancies aside, have we ever asked ourselves the cause of our own destiny? Have we blamed ourselves individually or collectively for dismantling, destroying, and disordering Nature, from our conscious part of mind? These questions are much significant to be answered today. 

(Written long back during impending lockdowns in 2020)