page twenty-three: A Virus that could Heal

I woke up this morning to a little video on WhatsApp sent to me by a dear friend in India which claimed that a “vaccine and a cure” to the Coronavirus had been found and that the world’s problems had found a solution. Happy and grateful that our prayers had been answered, I heaved a big sigh as I felt a huge wave of relief wash over me. Minutes later I discovered it was a fake and that nothing really had changed (for the better) since last night. I was appalled at how much effort people put into creating and spreading “fake news”!

It did, however, get me thinking in terms of finding such a cure. To find a cure, one does have to investigate the causes of the disease in the first place. The scientific route of tracing the root cause of the problem leads one back to the first person who contracted the disease and analyzing his/her whereabouts and history. At this time, while they suspect the virus has jumped to humans through animals, it is not yet something they have definitively established.

One of my favorite ever quotes, attributed to the great Einstein, says that “a problem cannot be solved from the consciousness that created it.” This assumes that the root cause behind a problem is not a set of events alone but a certain underlying consciousness that created a fertile ground for its emergence.

Given this perspective when we examine the consciousness of our times, the noteworthy fact is that this disease has emerged at a time when we are seeing such division around the world with nearly every country torn apart by groups within, who, focused on a narrow allegiance to their own views and interests, have dismissed and sometimes even dehumanized another for thinking or feeling differently.

Different sections of the community who had been underserved for years have woken up and are standing up, speaking up, and asking to be seen and heard. The balance that had been tilted in favor of one group has been dislodged and there has been an upsurge of old vs new, creating a climate of aggression and unrest.

This upset in status quo is true not only at the national and international levels but also in inter-personal relationships.

Tired of the state of world affairs many of us have been praying for a miracle and into this worldwide condition enters the Coronavirus. Far from uplifting us, this disease has debilitated us and has already taken many lives. We asked for a Messiah and we were given a virus. Is this a joke, we might ask?

Yet, we have had blessings appear in our lives in all kinds of disguises, so why not consider this as one as a blessing too?

After all, giving us a Messiah would still place the center of power outside of us and leave us with the same old victim-consciousness that we have lived with for years. Are we being given an opportunity to step out of that old paradigm into a consciousness that owns the power within us now? Living as a victim creates fear, competition and dualistic us vs them thinking. Embracing our challenges as co-creators of our reality can enable huge shifts in how we perceive and face the present reality.

Interestingly, Coronavirus is called as such because Corona means Crown and under a microscope this virus appears to have a crown. We are being attacked by a virus that can give us our power back! Although it is not the way we thought the Messiah would arrive, this is perhaps Divine intervention, and is here to give us an opportunity to unite our divided world.

Think about it- we have on our hands a global problem which has impacted everyone- regardless of race, religion or status. We are all afraid of its far-reaching effects on our life, our loved ones, our communities, our finances, and our world. They say the losses from this are inestimable at this point and could take years of recovery.

No doubt we will all have to make sacrifices we had not bargained for. But this time, we are all in it together. The question is bigger than merely about living or dying because that is not something we have a choice over but about how we will choose to live or die.

As we experience our own fears and losses, we could grow from this, cultivate compassion for one another and let the present circumstances break our hearts open. Social distancing could facilitate soul connecting. Our greatest losses could help us realize our deepest potential.

This could be a global initiation into a new consciousness that could humble and uplift us all at once. The way out of inequality and unfairness is not judgment and aggression but compassion, kindness and co-operation. Such a consciousness can birth a new reality in which countries and people could work together collaborating for mutual wellbeing.

Maybe the Coronovirus could become a KarunaVirus - Karuna is Sanskrit for compassion. It is up to us to decide what we can do with what we have landed up with. We could let it take us down or we could let it unite us.

For whether or not you believe you can change the world around by changing your perception, you can certainly let the circumstances change you and your internal climate. Sometimes, that is the only and the most important choice we must each make and therein lies the true miracle we were praying for.

We are the messiah we have been waiting for.