‘Corona pe charcha‘ – what corona taught us?
A student from Gita-Class called me and stated that after the lockdown she is back in the college hostel and it is very difficult for her to go back to her old lifestyle and that her friends find her behaviour weird.
I asked her for a reason, and she said that corona has changed her perspective towards the world!
I suggested that she should organise a ‘Corona pe charcha’ with her friends and share her experiences with corona.
The next day after dinner her friends1 were encouraged to speak in this informal meeting and the outcome was amazing.
The ‘Corona pe charcha’ went on for 4 hours and even after they dispersed, they continued their discussions separately and it went on till 4 in the morning. Everyone shared their own experiences during lockdown this really helped all of them to open up and inspire each other. They gained more strength.
I would like to share their feedback with you all. Hope you all remember that I had shared 108 ways to unlock the lockdown in March last year. They have followed some of it and it’s reflected in the ‘Corona pe charcha’.
Actually it was not Covid, it was Govinda who came as JagatGuru! Here are 8 great lessons from that discussion. Hope it inspires you
Acceptance
1) Acceptance – Was complaining about corona for months and days nothing changed!! So, it’s better to accept it. Refusing to accept what we cannot change and fighting against it leads to frustration and sorrow. Accepting the situation and moving forward is what matters. we understood that. discrimination is necessary. Acceptance is the key.
Attachment
2) Corona causes respiratory distress. Attachment causes emotional distress. Reverse transcribe2 to investigate and find what is the cause of our sorrow.
3) I was able to understand my attachments to various things or persons, which I didn’t know existed before. The attachment leading to expectations and sorrow was more evident now.
4) I realised how difficult can it be being with yourself and how boring can be those things that made us really happy earlier (like watching a movie, how many times you can watch the same movie?). There is really no happiness in all these things.
5) Attachment to our own body-mind-intellect (BMI) leads to being more selfish and refusing to help others in need. All other relationships are secondary when a crisis arises. Only ‘Me’ is important. The understanding that we are not just limited to this BMI can help us to extend our help.
Present Moment
6) Living in the present moment matters – Thinking of those corona free days in the past or worrying about our future can only bring sorrow. Future is not going to be like what we plan. No one ever imagined such a situation (present). Do whatever we can at this moment.
7) There should be an aim in life to which we need to work on so that we won’t waste our time. We wasted a lot of time during the lockdown.
Awareness
8) When we face trouble in our life sometimes, we end up thinking about why this happened to me in spite of my sincere prayers. But later I could realise that these troubles were meant to remind us ‘God is always with us’ as unconditional love.
9) We were in rat race not realising how insignificant we were in this universe. in the lockdown, it came to a stop. Then we were able to be more aware of ourselves and our surroundings.
10) During the lockdown when I had to spend times alone, I understood that I can be happy even when I am alone as well as with others. Being alone and being silent gives us a better understanding of ourselves. Lot of new talents that we never knew about ourselves came up.
11) With a lot of time came a lot of introspection. I got to know me better, appreciate all the changes that have occurred in me all this time and could accept myself and the outside world the way it is, instead of resisting about its true nature.
12) Have realised that I did not know myself at all and all the misconceptions or concepts I thought I knew about myself were wrong. Gave me time to contemplate and assess the internal wiring.
13) We can be satisfied with whatever we have and we learned to be self-sufficient also.
Family & Values
14) Value of my mother, her hardships- got a lot of time and also space to see, understand and realise what all she does and how much vital her role is in bringing up and keeping our family together.
15) Sacrifice – During this crisis, there we people who were ready to share whatever little they had. It is not only about giving when you have in excess but it’s also about giving happily whatever little you had.
16) While being around the same people for 9 months, giving love is what matters than expecting others to do something for us. It’s about what we can do for others that makes us happier.
Temporary nature of the world
17) Temporary- World around is temporary. Today one may die. tomorrow I may die due to covid. So, I can’t be really assured about life.
18) People who promised to be together kept one-meter distance between them…some of them are no more. Can anyone be sure of being with someone forever? If I turn corona positive, then I’m sure no one will come to me or even talk to me also. So, what does this ‘forever’ mean?
19) Nobody and nothing is permanent and it’s ultimately us and only us who is going to be with us. I could deal with my happiness and my grieving without having anyone else with me, without sharing anything with anyone.
20) Change is inevitable. Before corona and after corona – body changed, ideas changed, thoughts changed, the mask came, sanitiser came, the online class came…
Fear
21) Fear – Fear of death is the greatest fear that anyone can have. If I can overcome that then I can live happily.
22) An invisible virus could even, make us die out of fear. We think that we are the strongest and intelligent creatures on this planet. What stupidity.
If we know the cause of the virus, we can take precautions. Similarly, if we can find out what is the cause of our problems, we can take precautions to prevent it.
Amma & Gita
23) Learnt to appreciate my teachers and my parents and truly understood the import of Amma’s statement that anybody can be our teacher.
24) Could start offering my actions to Amma. And that gave me happiness while performing those actions.
25) Without questioning we have to accept whatever the guru says. It always helps us to grow even if u don’t understand it right now.
26) Understood the effect of what a small gesture like a smile and few kind words can do. when Amma asked to call everybody else during lockdown what they would feel and experienced, we experience the same sort of relief/happiness when they called.
27) Whatever selfless actions we did, we observed that other people who saw Amma in that action. We could become an instrument in Amma’s hands.
28) Being in a good Satsang can inspire us. Being happy with oneself is what we really need. Get vaccinated with GITA
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1- the students who participated in this discussion are dt, ag, sn, dr, dn, av, ak, & aj. regulat attendies of the Gita class
2- For multiplication of RNA virus, it has to undergo a process called reverse transcription, whereby the RNA is converted to DNA. Usually, it’s the DNA getting converted to RNA -transcription. Hence it is reverse transcription.
So in life when we face problems we need to turn back (reverse) our attention from problem to the cause. In that investigation only we get the cause of the problem similar to doing an RT PCR to find out coronavirus (cause).