Dear Editor,

WE are all hoping that this global scourge brought by the COVID-19 virus will end soon with the timely intervention of science and appropriate human awareness and behaviour. Now more than ever we must realise that we are one global family, and if we are not mindful and responsive to the pains and cries of our brothers and sisters in far-flung lands, then the flames that are raging in India and Brazil may leap into our own backyard. But even as we eagerly await the return of normalcy and the expression of our natural exuberance and freedom, it is pertinent to ponder on the role of human conduct and behaviour [not from a narrow point of view, but from the perspective of the overall thrust of humanity’s overpowering insatiable appetite for excessive self-gratification with callous disregard for Mother Earth and our fellow beings] as the prime causative factor in the emergence and the spread of epidemic and pandemics.

The great Vedic Acharya Charaka is recognised as the father of medicine and Ayurveda. He composed a wonderful text called Charak Samhita in which he discussed all branches of medicine and, also surgical interventions. He also discussed epidemics and pandemics. I was intrigued by his analysis that the root cause of epidemics is humanity’s unrighteousness – ADHARMA. He declared “Thus, this unrighteousness by force makes the righteousness disappear… and then communities are soon deserted even by the deities. Then epidemics break due to polluted contacts.”
I never saw so forcefully expressed a direct linkage between epidemics and Adharma. Adharma, of course, is the converse of Dharma. And Dharma in this sense is not to be equated with religion, belief, tradition or mere dogma or conjecture.

It is the principle of truth that is universally evident irrespective of time, place, or circumstance. Beliefs and dogmas are limited and flawed; Dharma is universal, unlimited, and flawless. According to Charak, the virus itself is a necessary factor but not a sufficient factor. It can only bring about the dreaded fruit in a soiled condition/atmosphere. That soiled atmosphere is created by the force of time when the rampant adharmic tendencies have reached a certain vibrational level, at both the individual [micro] and societal [macro] levels. Dharma begins when we are consciously driven to thoughts and actions which conform to a higher impulse in our being, and when that impulse is recognised or felt in unending waves of radiance and beauty from the simplest to the most complex manifestations in the universe.

Maharishi Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras outlined the preliminary stages for the awakening of this impulse by the practice of yamas and niyamas, restraints and observances for individual uplift and awareness, and for conducive social action and social order. Adharmic tendencies arise when, individually and collectively, there is no higher impulse or motivation, but just the raw, unbridled urge to exploit, dominate, gratify, accumulate, “bend the rules”, and distort and twist the human mind and heart to become impervious to natural, wholesome, and humane and enlightened promptings. Diametrically opposed to this ugly urge is that higher impulse to human growth and flowering which is beautifully addressed in the Upanishads by the concept of Ritam.

This is a very difficult concept to explain. It is the overarching concept that underlines everything, and all beings [human and divine] are subordinate to it. At a simplistic level it can be taken to mean the physical and moral order of the universe by which the sun traverses its daily journey across the sky and the seasons proceed in regular movements. Both at the individual and societal levels, this principle of Ritam must never be violated, even if done unconsciously or unintentionally. Life is meaningless and but a sham when we violate Ritam. The unbelievable deaths, pains, sufferings, and the global economic, social, and psychological traumas brought by the COVID-19 virus are all consequences of the violation of this principle of Ritam. When adharmic tendencies rise to the level of a tsunami, then the raging tidal waves will devour both the innocent and the malevolent.

Charak emphasised that, individually and collectively, we should live in harmony with ourselves, and with nature and its beings. He wrote “One should behave like kith and kin to all living beings. When one thinks of himself spread in the universe and vice versa and has the vision of the great and the small, his serenity based on knowledge is not affected.”
When we realise the intimacy of self with the Universe, we become citizens of our Mother Earth with deep respect for the natural environment and fellow beings with whom this wonderful Earth is to be shared.

Yours sincerely,

Haimnauth Ramkirath