Dealing with the certainty of uncertainty

If the last few weeks are any indication, it is going to be a long haul in the fight against the Corona virus. Initially, it looked like someone else's problem, and if at all we empathized with it, it was with the casual objectivity reserved for a stray piece of news in the newspaper. Not anymore. It has reached our doorstep, sending us into a panic overdrive. Media, both social and the non-social, paints a depressing picture and we wake up to pictures of empty roads and vacant malls, more health check queues and more masked citizens. In living memory, we do not recall any disease that assumed such pandemic proportions so much so that there is no safe zone anywhere on this planet. Will we win the war against this virus? What price will we pay? How long will this uncertainty continue? There are no easy answers.


Like Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle that postulates an element of uncertainty at the level of the microcosm, so too, uncertainty has always riddled the macrocosm. It is our lot. Mankind has had to battle with uncertainty- be it in the form of drought and famine, or the unsettling times caused by diseases like plague and war. While the advances in Science have given us a semblance of control, it appears as if we have only substituted one set of triggers with another. Corona virus is just the latest trigger. We can never solve all the problems out there and then find the requisite mental composure. The emotional strength to deal with uncertainty has to be found in and through all the problems that buffet me and the world at large.


Once in Persia, reigned a king, who upon a signet ring, carved a maxim strange and wise. It gave him wisdom at a glance, fit for any change and chance. Solemn words and these were they- "Even this will pass away!" This is a powerful technique to fortify ourselves. If we look at our past, our fears have been mostly unfounded. Be it the fear of exams or the fear when we boarded a plane, nothing untoward happened and we are still around, safe and sound to read this article! The most traumatic time which seemed unsurmountable then, is now a memory. Even this Corona virus will pass away!

"Subhashitas" offer excellent, common-place verses to strengthen ourselves through auto-suggestion. One of them goes as follows- "Let the sky fall (patatu nabhah), let the mountains explode, let the ocean swell and engulf us, let the whole world topple over, so what?" It ends with the question "kaa haani"...so what? It is as if we thumb the nose at the world at large, regardless of the challenges it throws at us. Through deliberate auto-suggestion, we pump our self-confidence to deal with the situation. As they say, the tough get going when the going gets tough!

For a world which functions with such order, be it the planetary order, or the physiological order or psychological order, there has to be a Higher Principle which maintains the order. We surrender to that Ordainer and thereby relieve our self of the needless pressure to set the world right! We relax and allow the Higher Principle to work its way. Ours is not to question why, ours is but to do and die. We do our bit in the scheme of things sincerely, just like a tiny cog in the wheel of life.


The Lord appeared before the devotee who suffered from Elephantiasis. "I am pleased with your penance. What boon do you seek?" The devotee replied- "Can you move the elephantiasis from the left foot to the right foot so that it is a little easier for me?" This conversation hits it on the nail. We are never going to be completely free from all problems. That is wishful thinking. We pray to increase our level of endurance to accept challenges and find a manageable solution.

Even nursery rhymes offer words of wisdom. "Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream; merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream!" We learn to take life not too seriously so that it chokes us. We relate to it with a certain space and objectivity, and through that, find that necessary cushion.

Finally, few can say it better than Shakespeare. From the green-room we came, to the green-room we will go; and while on stage, just put up a good show! "All the world's a stage and men and women merely players! Glad till the dancing stops, and the lilt of the music ends.
Laugh till the game is played; and be you merry, my friends!"