Corona: Virus And Devi

Since the outbreak was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, the leading and premier institute and research agencies have started research in order to find out the cure of the virus to sustain humanity from this evil. Many countries have spent millions and billions of dollars in the name of the research. However, the vaccine was not being concluded by anyone till the date, so lockdown was the way forward move to prevent the spread of the virus. Then many countries have completely implemented, some of them implemented partially and some have not. In India, the first case was reported on 30 January 2020 and the number of cases increased in the middle of the march before the nation was going on the complete lockdown.  

However, with the outbreak of the pandemic, the superstations are also spreading its web-like it never. In India, it is being much radical, that even came in front of the electronic and printed media. The starting was awesome with the Gomutra party, arranged by Chakrapani Maharaj. Even people came to the party and drank cow urine with politeness and went on live TV. In an interview, Maharaj claimed that Corona Mata was extremely disturbed and asked for a puja. After giving handsome adoration and offering sweet and cream (Prasad) to the deity, the pandemic will stop. With the days, while before going the complete lockdown, Government urged for a spontaneous lockdown (JANATA Curfew) on 22nd march, and the result was healthy. However, the problem started when the Prime minister appealed to the people to beat the steel plate (Taali, thali bajao) in order to show the gratitude to the Corona front fighters (ie, doctor, nurses, and the sanitary field workers), people came out with celebration mood and disobeyed the social distancing as nothing happened. 

 Following this trend, in the next month (i.e in April) the Mantra, “Go…Corona..Go” was coined by the central minister Ramdas Athawale in a rally organized by his party workers. The drama came into the picture when the minister was standing in front of the media and chanting the slogan. The video went viral however, in India, apology or being logical is not a cup of tea for many politicians, in this case, there was no exception. Then the trend was going on. Lots of worship and prayers had been taken place in order to satisfy the Deity so that the unknown almighty may help us from this pandemic. However, the recent progress is much danger where people gathered in a sort of some places in West Bengal to worship “Corona Devi” to satisfy the Devi and to collect the blessing. They had a firm belief that this is the only way to put an end to the outbreak. Even there were declared lockdown, Women ignored and came in a large number. They did not maintain the social distancing and not even cared to wear masks to cover their faces in order to stop the virus spreading which comes under the basic guidelines during the COVID time. The local administration was as usually ignored the responsibilities. They even offered sweets, flowers, and some sort of sugary drinks. Although this is not only in one place. This ritual has been taken place in many districts and areas in West Bengal and all over in this country. As a result, people broke the lockdown and there are high chances to spread the diseases within them. 

Where is the Gap? Having said this, if one can see then the first gap is the lack of education, and the second and most important, that is people’s insecurities. Today, many educated scholars are also habituated with superstitions every day. Studying the sources of the superstitions, I believe most it comes from the religious rituals, through have some independent superstations. In India, it's quite common. Most of us firmly believe in the customs and practices which are sustaining for a long period and we do not bother to oppose, even there is no logic. In this case, organized religions also play a major role. We have been taught from our childhood to obey the religious belief, caste-based discrimination, and all other superstitions in the name of custom and precise culture. For example, when a child goes for the school examination, parents tell the child that praying in front of the Deity, is a mandatory thing to do before going towards the examination hall. Even the child scores remarkable in the science subjects. It has been cropped in the child’s mind that someone who is being invisible, may help in the examination hall. So, it is very much important to practice the customs in order to satisfy the invisible and way ahead with the blessings. This is just an example, there are so many things we do in our life which had no solid reasons behind. Some of them are fasting one or two days in a week in the name of worship, seeking help from astrologers, believing in the ghost and spirits, Taking help from corrupted BABA (Saint or monk who thugs the people assuring to do some miracles) selecting a special day matching with the religious calendar for a long journey, keeping their names as per the suggestion of the Jyotish Samrat (Astrologer who claims himself as a king of astrology) and so on. Most of the people think that astrologers are more effective than the medical practitioners even some of them already tried to establish as a part of science. Where some of our central ministers had spoken in the parliamentary session also. 

The way forward is not so simple while we are discussing to get rid of this kind of malpractices. It's quite tough to uproot the beliefs which are running from years old and get on questioning and seeking logic behind everything. If we remember the proverb, home is the first school of a child. It is the moral responsibilities of every parent that they should teach their children with the scientific and rational thoughts instead of old and feeble customs so that children can think independently and can ask questions almost on everything. Being logical and rational is the only way to stop these nonsense things. Reading science books and studying science subjects alone will not help here. People need to gather enough self-confidence so that they can refuse to take the things which are out of logic. A parallel class or on morale and scientific values needs to be introduced in the school syllabus where scientific values and applied science should be taught as learning objects. Rational discussion on that defined class also helps the children to think freely and to refuse the superstitions. Together we will make a rational and logical nation. All the best.