An eye-opener for caring and sharing

Indian philosophy, replete with scriptures and sermons of enlightened sadhus, seers and intellectuals, had been a fountain of values for life and living in their simplistic versions of need rather than greed. Inherent in it was the spirit of unity amidst diversity and service above self. For instance, the illustrious sage, Swami Vivekananda, when called upon to address an international assembly of religious heads in Chicago, began his lecture by the forewords, ‘brothers and sisters’. It seems this very sentiment of universal brotherhood had struck the cord of the audience. In brief, our legacy is rich in kindness, empathy and compassion towards fellow human beings, regardless of nationality.

Now let us turn to the deadly pandemic COVID-19 that has threatened the lives of millions of people around the world. The stark reality is that nations --physical boundaries, languages, skin colours and religions apart --are inextricably interconnected and interdependent in the modern era. Technological innovations coupled with rapid communication and transport systems have diminished the distance between countries. However, the ethos of ‘live and let live’ has shown increasing disparity between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. It is unfortunate that the borders of countries have not become bridges of bondage.

The transnational and unprecedented devastating effect of COVID-19 has clearly shown that certain biological and environmental disasters are no more local or regional or national. They could be more disastrous pandemic than endemic. In such an eventuality, countries across the world-small or big-need to come closer, join hands and use available knowhow and tools to mitigate the problem.

Two world wars and umpteen number of natural calamities do not seem to have had a profound impact on human behaviour, temperament, attitudes and approaches to life and living. There is connectivity but not collectivity. The economic power is devoid of spiritual flavour. For example, the unbridled efforts for expansion of civilization have led to irreparable degradation of our environment resulting in climatic change and loss of precious biodiversity. Tampering with the delicate balance of nature will result, sooner or later, in unpredictable consequences, be it the emergence of coronavirus in China or some other disease from elsewhere else in the world.

What kind of lesson do we need to learn the outbreak of COVID-19? There could be different approaches for abatement. For example, discovering effective prophylactic and therapeutic drugs and vaccines is the one that is helpful to fix the problem. But the most vital and long-lasting one is the collective and coordinated efforts to curb the malady. This requires international participation and cooperation both in terms of scientific vigour and financial prowess. Any remedial measures should be shared among all nations without narrow economic aberrations like patenting and intellectual property rights. It is indeed a great benevolent pleasure to share knowledge and resources for the care and wellbeing of fellow human beings. Our world needs more cooperation and less confrontation, more compassion and less exploitation.

Certainly, there cannot be a better mantra than caring and sharing (not mere praying) for a healthy and peaceful global community. Kalidasa (4th – 5th century CE), a great Indian Sanskrit poet – dramatist, once observed, “trees laden with fruits bend so that people can access them and clouds laden with water bring rains”. It is time that nations, especially the rich, pool their resources of men and materials to tackle the challenges of healthcare in a spirit of caring and sharing. In such an event, we will have a better world to live in harmony. It is of utmost importance that we learn good lessons from wars as well as global catastrophes.

(The writer is a former Vice-Chancellor of University of Mysore)