The implications of symbolic acts during India’s coronavirus lock down

So the PM of India asked the people to light oil lamps and candles yesterday night based on astrological and numerological advises and people lit fire torches and walked out on to the streets in crowds when they were supposed to be under lock down. There were also many who were bursting firecrackers prompting social media to ask how did those people buy firecrackers during the lock down and how could they celebrate a pandemic when people are falling sick and dying. This is what ignorance and lack of critical thinking can lead people into.

Fire is the only element in nature that can cleanse without polluting itself. This is why fire is used in all Hindu rituals. The depiction of Lord Shiva who is considered the destroyer in the Trinity of Gods with fire in his 3rd eye and a river in his hair bun is the metaphor for how destruction is caused by fire and then the arrival of water restarts life. The recent example of this is the wildfires of Australia. The Trinity of Gods in itself is the metaphor for the 3-dimensional representation of the Universe because any body can be described as being stable when it has at least 3 dimensions. Ancient Indian texts are replete with descriptions of advance science and technology but they were made into religious texts when they were attached to temples and human representations of Gods. In the 21st century with all the technology around, Hindus still choose to consider those texts as divine and submit themselves to the diktats created around them.

Lighting oil lamps and candles can dispel darkness (for which Diwali is celebrated). Can fire kill a virus? Possibly yes. Then, now that the virus is all over the world, why not use the nuclear weapons we have been making for so long and burn the whole world down? The virus is affecting us because of the inability of our immune system to fight it. Life in the tar and concrete world with junk food and gadgets is the reason why our immune system cannot fend off a simple virus. Microorganisms can be fought and defeated where they thrive, by going to nature.

How the people have responded to the PM’s call time and again shows how gullible they are to be shepherded into obeying every symbolic act he comes up with. The appreciation being shown for the healthcare workers everywhere has been spontaneous. Only in India did the country’s leader ask the people to do his bidding for the same purpose. The dangerous precedent of allowing him to shepherd the population was set from the time India’s economy was destroyed by the demonetization of it’s higher currency notes in 2016. The economically devastated and morally weakened German population after the defeat in World War I and the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles was exploited by the Nazi Third Reich to go to war with the rest of the world again and commit genocide of the Jews. Indian society has always been fragmented and weak owing to it’s caste system. Add fear mongering of Hindus being under threat from other religions and it is very easy to see why people are becoming subservient to the PM’s call for theatrics each time.