We are now into our second year of the global pandemic narrative and if you haven’t encountered the virus in your region of the world, then you may still be exposed to the mental stress and anxiety caused by the rumor of the pandemic and possible deadly effects thereof. Add to that the constant 24/7 media coverage that is maintaining the hype and you may be even more stressed out. If that’s not bad enough, then the lockdown and subsequent damage to the economy and your own personal livelihood may have caused you economic hardship. One way or the other almost the entire population of the planet is feeling the negative effects of the current situation.
However, it depends on where you are situated, both physically and in consciousness as to whether you are really affected or not. Some people are living in fairly remote regions where there is no problem whatsoever. The virus is just a rumor to them, and their lives go on just fine regardless of the economic shifts felt by others whose career or income has been affected by the pandemic narrative.
And still other people – a rare but fortunate few perhaps – are totally unaffected by any of the health symptoms of any virus. Nor are they affected by any psychological stress from the media hype, the fear of loss or the economic pressures. These are the yogis or spiritualists who have learned to remain aloof and detached from the social constructs that are causing the anxiety. If you are well situated in consciousness, none of this pandemic propaganda will affect you whatsoever.
Those who live an unhealthy lifestyle may have a compromised immune system and be vulnerable to this covid flu. Even then most people (99%) who get it do recover. It’s just a flu. And those who live in cities will feel the lockdown affects imposed upon them, including compulsory masks and re-engineered social constructs. They may also feel the negative effects upon their livelihood if they are immersed in the economic system. All of this can impact the majority of humanity with devastating effect.
But there are a few who were prepared for any such eventuality long before any pandemic idea arrived. They are the yogis and transcendentalists who live outside of the mainstream societal structures, not involved in commerce, not living in massive social communities and not partaking of the indulgent lifestyle and diet of the commercialized modern consumer industry. These are the souls who have risen above the mainstream world and who are the only ones who are basically untouchable or bulletproof under the current circumstances.
It’s not too late of course, to break out of the current construct that is being imposed upon society in every country globally now. It may involve relocating to a remote region with less people and more natural surroundings. But more importantly, it involves a shift of consciousness, or shift of assemblage point, as the Toltec teachings might call it. In the Sanskrit yoga texts of India this mindset is well described in these verses of the Bhagavad Gita:
यत्रोपरमते चित्तं निरुद्धं योगसेवया ।
यत्र चैवात्मनात्मानं पश्यन्नात्मनि तुष्यति ॥ २० ॥
yatroparamate cittaṁ
niruddhaṁ yoga-sevayā
yatra caivātmanātmānaṁ
paśyann ātmani tuṣyati
“The stage of perfection is called trance, or samādhi, when one's mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This is characterized by one's ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.”
Bhagavad Gita As It Is chapter 6:20-23 translated by Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta (www.prabhupadabooks.com)
Here we have three verses, although I have only put one of the verses in Sanskrit above, for brevity. Those who are on the path of self-realization or yoga have perhaps already removed themselves from mainstream society so are already situated out of the firing line of today’s current global pandemic crisis and all its ramifications. At least in consciousness the yogi is one who has limited their mind’s engagement with the material world so that they can focus on the real goal of life, namely awakening contact with the higher self.
In other words, the path of yoga was always the solution, before the problem of today’s pandemic even arrived. This is because a philosophical person who has studied authentic spiritual literature like the Vedas, will know that the material world and human body is inherently a place of suffering and misery. That is the basic understanding of the spiritual seeker and aspirant. So the pandemic crisis is merely a perfect example of that and nothing unusual. It is in fact the norm for life on earth.
There will always be disease, suffering and loss of life as long as you are housed in the temporary material body. There will always be political tyrants who attempt to gain more power and control by exploiting and victimizing the masses of people. It’s nothing new. And there will also always be loss when dealing in finance. This material world is designed like that. The philosophical person will already have seen the suffering of life on earth and questioned it. They will look for the answers and find meaning in the wisdom traditions of the world, like the Sanskrit Vedas, and they will situate themselves accordingly.
As this selection of verses says, we can use the tool of yoga to redirect the mind away from material activities and focus on the inner self, which is by nature eternal, full in knowledge and also blissful. The path of self-realization teaches us how to tap in to this wellspring of transcendental bliss, our natural position. Once we have tapped in to that, and are situated in the mode of goodness (sattva) above passion (rajas) and ignorance (tamas), we will be unphased by any crises presented by the material world. As the verses say: “This is indeed actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact”.
The current pandemic narrative, whether natural or engineered in origin, is merely a reminder of how life on earth is going to be. There will never be a time when all suffering is solved on this planet at this stage in the grand cycles of time. Both birth and death are our constant reality, along with the suffering of disease and old age. Therefore, the wise person will see through the illusion of the material world and seek out the real solution, which, according to the Vedas, is the path of yoga and meditation. By applying ourselves to this practice, we can tap in to our inherent blissful nature by awakening our dormant original eternal spiritual self (jivatma) as well as making contact with our source (paramatma), even while still within this temporary human body.
(image pixabay)