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How Preventive Measures of Coronavirus apply to the Karma Virus By Ramesh K Khandhar
Ramesh Khandhar is a former secretary of executive board and a past Pathshala teacher at Jain Center of Southern California. His current activities include conducting Swadhyay on various Jain scriptures, reading and contemplating spiritual scriptures, listening to spiritual discourses and visiting religious ashrams in India for 3 to 4 months every year. e-mail: ramesh.khandhar@gmail.com
For the last several months coronavirus has created havoc against human beings. It is thought to spread from person to person, mainly through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It can be prevented by maintaining a minimum six feet distance from other people, covering our mouth and nose by mask, frequently washing our hands with soap or hand sanitizer, clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces daily, and avoiding facial contacts by hands. The virus is so contagious, and the worst part is two to three weeks of incubation period before some symptoms start showing up. As deadly as the Coronavirus is to our health, there is even a deadlier virus that we need to worry about – the Karma Virus. Whereas the Coronavirus can ruin our current life, the Karma Virus can affect many of our lifetimes. We are born with the karma we have done in past lives and we all should do whatever sadhana, tap, we can to reduce or get rid of those karma. Similarly, there are preventive measures we can take so that we do not accumulate new karma. It is interesting to note that the measures we take to avoid getting Coronavirus can be applied to the Karma Virus also – using the same terminology; but a different interpretation and course of action. Let us explore some of these measures to see how we can improve our spiritual life.
Social Distancing We try to maintain a minimum of six feet distance from the other person so that any virus coming out of breathing or sneezing from any of us will not impact the other person. The virus will settle down before it reaches your body. How can we apply this principle of social distancing to our spiritual progress? We must avoid making psychic bonds with other living and non-living entities. The psychic bond of ‘me or mine’ is our contact with another entity. This invariably converts harmless karmic particles into karmic virus and sticks to our soul. These karmic viruses defile and/or obstruct our cognitive ability to perceive the things as they are. If we avoid any psychic bond, that is, ‘me, mine, doership attitude’ in our inner thought process, then karmic particles will not be transformed into karmic virus. Our perception will not be deformed which will help subdue or considerably reduce our passion. This detachment attitude can be seen as ‘Social Distancing’.
Wearing a Mask In case some of the micro bubbles reach out to the other person, then a mask will prevent the virus from entering the body through breathing. With a mask one can probably lower the six feet distance standard. How does this relate to our spiritual progress? In case someone reacts to the situation and gives rise to passion such as anger, we should become aware of that person’s deviation from the center and negate the passion as not his/her innate nature. This process will keep us calm, equanimous and prevent any adverse reaction on our part thus protecting us from being affected by the karmic virus. This awareness, arising from deep within, acts as a firewall between the event and our response. The discretionary judgement in the inner thought process shields virus spread.
