"The weak have no place here, in this life or in any other life. Weakness leads to slavery. Weakness leads to all kinds of misery; physical and mental. Weakness is death. There are hundreds of thousands of microbes surrounding us, but they cannot harm us unless we become weak, until the body is ready and predisposed to receive them.

There may be a million microbes of misery, floating about us. Never mind! They dare not approach us, they have no power to get hold on us, until the mind is weakened. This is the great fact, strength is life, weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal; weakness is constant strain and misery; weakness is death." - Swami Vivekananda

The current 'external' situations have a mirror-effect on our internal life. Swamiji said that to have a clear understanding of the mind, one must trace its origin. So it’s imperative , that in this period of 'lock-down', lets strive to unlock our inner potential; this disconnection from other people connect us deeper to our true self; our inability to visit a temple (or any place of worship) bring us to a state where God's /Divine presence is felt and called forth often; the chaos outside make us discover the peace within; and May we worry less & less about a virus and be more & more involved with our own 'vibrational-alignment' with vitality & wellbeing.

New Year is also about new ideas (and we normally seem to associate a new year with new resolutions). Swamiji says any disturbance occurs in two ways, either through our own actions or through the functioning of natural forces.

Let's expand our understanding of self-isolation. Just as we take precautions for our body, our mind too needs intervention, safeguards and nourishment. Throughout history, more people have died in epidemics, from fear (of a disease), than the actual disease itself. And all of us have different levels of immunity to varied opinions, thoughts & news in social media and our ceaseless passion (for social media) is one area which has many of the low-hanging fruits (for our mental well-being) - that is once we decide which tweets, posts, messages & news are to be read / heard / watched versus what has to be avoided / distanced / unfollowed' (at least for the time being). We have heard that a habit crystallizes once we follow it for 21 days.

Swamiji believed that through natural providence, man is blessed with a worthy body and valuable knowledge. The resources for life on earth are surplus but the selfishness and temperamental mood developed by unchecked ego are spoiling the life.

Nature is the commander and it is giving humanity a chance to rediscover the purpose of life, to rewind through time, recollect the reasons for imbalance and to revisit the evolution process and connect to Nature in its entirety.

Man was basking at the top of the evolutionary pyramid, drugged with power and greed, ignoring the power of Mother Nature and how much he depends on her every moment of his life, even for survival.

Nature has not only shattered the ego of Man, but is establishing itself as the ultimate balancer. Through lockdown and social distancing living needs and lifestyle needs are being segregating, the understanding of essentials, comforts and luxury is dawning across classes.

While the earth is healing with reduced human interference, let us fully comprehend Swamiji’s teachings of elevating consciousness, of the omnipresent and all-pervasive phenomenon exhibiting itself as order of function throughout the Universe.

Let us remind ourselves the words of Rabindranath Tagore and try to put it in practice at all levels:

“Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country NAY WORLD awake.”

Let us heed Vethathiri Maharishi’s ominous warning:

“If Humanity does not mend its ways, the Universal Might will teach a lesson”.

That is the statement he intuitively made just a few hours before the attack on the Twin Towers.

Let each one of us now at least start changing our lives, segregate needs and greed, learn to live in harmony with self, society and Nature, Understand the Cause and Effect system as Divine Law which no one can break without paying a huge price for it.

Let our economic, social, political and legal setups be revisited and let wisdom guide us and not brute force. Let leaders of the world get together and draw up a plan for the entire humanity for the welfare of all living beings and not for select few at the cost of everyone including their own downfall.