The Omicron variant A Bhagavad Gita perspective

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what is the Bhagavad Gita perspective and response to the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus it’s come in the news now there is now the significant different variant of the Omicron virus which is further spreading Covid and for many people this is just exasperation is there no end in sight is our normal life ever going to be restored another disruption, flights are being cancelled and people are being forced to stay at home, schools are being closed especially this is happening in America and Europe and in other parts of the world also so there is a wide gamut of reactions irritation, exasperation apprehension, fear, panic so let’s try to make sense of what is happening from the perspective of the Bhagavad Gita especially in terms of how we can respond effectively the Gita explains that our perception is not just a function of our situation or even our decision it is a function of some subtle factors that affect how we interact with the world these are called the modes the modes are subtle forces that shape the interaction between us and the world around us and depending on the most prominent mode that we are in these three modes are Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, called as goodness, passion and ignorance so depending on which particular mode we are in at a particular time, we will be influenced accordingly Tamas, ignorance it makes us underestimate our capacity these three modes shape how we look at the world so in the mode of Tamas, in the mode of ignorance we think, nothing is in my control, very little is in my control and we sink into negativity in the mode of Rajas passion, we overestimate our capacity so I can deal with any problem if somebody has to lift a heavy weight person in Tamas thinks, I just can’t do it and a person in Rajas thinks I can lift it and they try to lift it and they may even break their bones because of that and in Sattva in the mode of goodness we estimate our capacity accurately and then we function effectively thereafter, so now we ourselves may go through different modes at different times and different people may be in different modes at different times also, and the perspective from one mode and the perspective from another mode can be very different, so for example with respect to the COVID situation right now, you look at it from other perspective if you consider a pendulum in Tamas, we go to one extreme and I think there’s hardly anything I can do about it, underestimation of our capacity in Rajas, it is overestimation of our capacity and in between, in Sattva, it is a balanced change, where we estimate our capacity accurately, so that is what we need to do with respect to dealing with the Omicron virus right now variant right now so how do we apply this modes framework to the variant, so broadly speaking, if there is Tamas there will be despair, there will be panic there will be helplessness this will never end is my life ruined? I’m forever just living in the home, what about my job, if it can’t be done from home, I’m ruined maybe the world itself is doomed is this sign of end times previously when the pandemic hit, every person who had an ideology used the pandemic to claim this proves how the danger that they were always talking about is about to come about the world is about to come to an end unless we do this or do this or do this so that just sinking into despair that is a Tamasic reaction, then there is a rajas in the mode of passion there is complacency, there is denial there is no problem at all, this is just a media hype, this is just a hype from big pharma because they want to keep minting money this is just a tool by the politicians who want to control the masses there could be various responses, where we just overestimate our capacity and trivialize the problem then sattva is where we, it’s broadly characterized by caution, we observe right now the variant has just come up, how serious it is, we don’t really know we do know that it’s far more transmissible than the earlier variants but what does that mean? is it more severe? is it more lethal? there have been large number of infections a significant number of hospitalizations but the number of mortalities have not been that many some researchers say that generally with the pressure of survival for the fittest the way microbes also survive is by becoming less hostile in terms of killing, it’s like you kill me or I will kill you world there cannot be much survival but if they just like common flu is very widely present but it’s not lethal maybe this is becoming like this, we don’t know it’s higher transmissibility does not indicate a greater severity it could be, it might not be we don’t know, so caution would be no panic but no complacency also, just observe we go about our normal life but we are cautious about it however, while sattva, the response of the mode of goodness can make easy sense, it is not very easy to apply it in our lives, why is that? because the modes can sweep us, lower modes may sweep us like waves and when a particular mode sweeps us away it’s very difficult to resist the waves, a giant wave is coming how much can we fight against it and that’s why we need to connect to the anchor of Krishna through the practice of bhakti yoga Krishna talks about in the Bhagavad Gita you become conscious of me you will pass over all obstacles by my grace, so through our bhakti yoga practices we can pray to Krishna and direct our consciousness toward Krishna and seek shelter within him this doesn’t mean that we deny the problem this doesn’t mean that we neglect or reject the problem, it just means we have a connection beyond this problem filled world, we don’t know what the future holds but we can know and hold on to the one who knows and holds the future, Krishna says that he knows past, present and future he is the lord of all the three phases of time and when we connect with him, even amid all this uncertainty around us we can experience certainty we can experience calmness just as Arjuna experienced at the end of the Bhagavad Gita after hearing Krishna’s message so too can we so to summarize how could we respond broadly speaking let’s talk about two D’s not to do and two C’s to do, so avoid the D’s of denial and despair which are impelled by the lower modes passion and ignorance and adopt caution based on sattva wait and watch and connection connection means prayerfully faithfully, diligently stay connected with Krishna and in this way we can maturely face whatever this particular variant of Covid brings us and we can pass through it by our intelligence coming from goodness and coming from Krishna’s grace