<p class="bodytext">The Covid19 pandemic caused unprecedented despair. It triggered disruptive attitudes of anxiety and depression, mental fog, and even suicides. Strangely, it also forced all these essentially mental health issues out into the mainstream. It reduced the stigma attached to accepting and talking about them. Thus, from despair came new hope.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Similarly, unbridled hope, instead of being positive, can end up as despair. In the epic Mahabharata, it is Yudhistira’s hope of winning back what he has lost in the game of dice which makes him stake everything including his brothers and his wife. On the other hand, Arjuna’s despondency on the battlefield brings forth the Bhagavad Gita. The discourse clears his confusion, detaches his mind from victory and defeat and enables him to focus on his duty.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Historically, the Emperor Asoka’s despair after the gory battle of Kalinga turns him into a pacifist. This provides an impetus for the spread of Buddhism way beyond the boundaries of its home country.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The impetus to act comes from both hope and despair. Hope looks to the future, is willing to take risks and is, more often than not, assumed to be rewarding. It is visualised as positive. Despair is seen as a challenge to this mood. It is seen as coming from the defeat of goals, the failure of ventures, grief, and loss. However, its consequences are not always so bleak or undesirable. When hope blinds one to reality, it is perhaps despair which restores the balance. It lends itself to re-evaluation, reassessment and resetting of goals with no great expectations or loss of face. The obstinate refusal to accept failure leads to delusion. Despair keeps one grounded and in the present.</p>.<p class="bodytext">While hope is necessary for survival, despair is by no means lacking in the instinct to survive. In fact, activism on the issues of environment and the dangers of nuclear pollution are often a result of despair about the future. The successful campaign against the use of tobacco products has been driven by highlighting the dangers of its use.</p>.<p class="bodytext">No doubt, both hope and despair need reining in. Hope is pleasant and comes with the danger of being carried away. Despair comes with pain and needs a more philosophical approach. Marcus Aurelius, the Roman king, observed stoically, ‘If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it and this you have the power to revoke at any moment’.</p>
<p class="bodytext">The Covid19 pandemic caused unprecedented despair. It triggered disruptive attitudes of anxiety and depression, mental fog, and even suicides. Strangely, it also forced all these essentially mental health issues out into the mainstream. It reduced the stigma attached to accepting and talking about them. Thus, from despair came new hope.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Similarly, unbridled hope, instead of being positive, can end up as despair. In the epic Mahabharata, it is Yudhistira’s hope of winning back what he has lost in the game of dice which makes him stake everything including his brothers and his wife. On the other hand, Arjuna’s despondency on the battlefield brings forth the Bhagavad Gita. The discourse clears his confusion, detaches his mind from victory and defeat and enables him to focus on his duty.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Historically, the Emperor Asoka’s despair after the gory battle of Kalinga turns him into a pacifist. This provides an impetus for the spread of Buddhism way beyond the boundaries of its home country.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The impetus to act comes from both hope and despair. Hope looks to the future, is willing to take risks and is, more often than not, assumed to be rewarding. It is visualised as positive. Despair is seen as a challenge to this mood. It is seen as coming from the defeat of goals, the failure of ventures, grief, and loss. However, its consequences are not always so bleak or undesirable. When hope blinds one to reality, it is perhaps despair which restores the balance. It lends itself to re-evaluation, reassessment and resetting of goals with no great expectations or loss of face. The obstinate refusal to accept failure leads to delusion. Despair keeps one grounded and in the present.</p>.<p class="bodytext">While hope is necessary for survival, despair is by no means lacking in the instinct to survive. In fact, activism on the issues of environment and the dangers of nuclear pollution are often a result of despair about the future. The successful campaign against the use of tobacco products has been driven by highlighting the dangers of its use.</p>.<p class="bodytext">No doubt, both hope and despair need reining in. Hope is pleasant and comes with the danger of being carried away. Despair comes with pain and needs a more philosophical approach. Marcus Aurelius, the Roman king, observed stoically, ‘If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it and this you have the power to revoke at any moment’.</p>
