“The Epic and The Virus”

Once upon a time, there were two siblings Dhritarashtra and Pandu. They both soon got married and were about to have their children, Dhritarashtra’s wife gave birth to a hundred sons who were known as the Kauravas. Whereas Pandu’s wife gave birth to five sons who were known as the Pandavas. At the time of the birth of the Kauravas, it had been predicted that they will have a nature of evil. Their actions grew wild and their greed to gain power started causing harm to human life. They did not care for the relations within the family and their jealousy towards the Pandavas made them even willing to kill them for power. Times of great difficulty was about to arrive. The human god Krishna present on earth during the same era would have to take actions during the time of desperate needs. The earth was suffering from their deeds and the humans were facing consequences of their misdeeds. They were soon about to face the consequence of their actions. An unseen war was about to come and he would have to do something to solve this rising terror. Draupadi wife of the five Pandavas became the initiator of this war. A war that wasn’t expected began and innocent and guilty both were facing the consequences. But everyone who was dying was a part of the larger plan of Lord Krishna. He was fighting from the positive side of the Kauravas. The mass destruction weapon of Lord Krishna known as the “SudarshanChakra” was released by him and all the evil was dying. The innocent were also becoming a part but it was a cost that he believed was worth to create peace again on the earth. Gradually the war came to an end the Pandavas who were supporting the positive side came out victorious. Normalcy was being restored. Happiness, positiveness was spreading and the ones who became innocent victims of the war were also healing. Earth’s valued humans were finally healing and were ready for a better place to live in.

One of the things that we learn from this story is that the earth often finds a way to restore and heal itself in a time of desperate needs.

The story of Mahabarata does not fall far away from the story that is being developed by the current situation in the world. The outbreak of a virus named covid-19 is causing great harm to human life such as in the previous story but on the other hand, also is helping the earth heal. Rivers are getting cleaned and filtered, the air is less polluted, animals are coming back to the abandoned forests and even humans are getting some time to think of their negative acts. ‘Coronavirus’ can be compared to the ‘SudarshanChakra’ and we can see how these two weapons of mass destruction can cause terrible loss to human life but also eliminate the negativity that has been created by human interference. In the story of Mahabharata and the situation of covid-19, in both the scenarios, we can see that there was a situation of war. In the first, the war was between humans having negative effects on other humans and life form. Whereas in the second situation the similarity lies where humans were having a negative and harmful effect on nature and lifeforms around them. The result of both these situations might be similar as the act continues to appear quite the same. The healing of earth for the benefit of all beings living on it. Without any bias, this situation will have a positive effect on all of us who survive this situation. Guilty and innocent both will face the consequences but in the end, the earth will heal.

सर्वत: पाणिपादं तत्सर्वतोऽक्षिशिरोमुखम् |
सर्वत: श्रुतिमल्लोके सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठति || 14||

sarvataḥ pāṇi-pādaṁ tat sarvato ’kṣhi-śhiro-mukham
sarvataḥ śhrutimal loke sarvam āvṛitya tiṣhṭhati

The literal translation of this can mean that God pervades everything in the world. All actions are his and humans only are the source of his actions. Shall there be a belief in the same? Answers to certain questions are still hazy for me, but isn’t some mystery a part of history?

Procedure for this installation of this sculpted work…

This entire project was done by one during the very start of the Covid-19 lockdown from March of 2020. I did not have the mesh in order to make paper and hence I tried to create my own mesh. I made this paper not in any studio but rather in the bath of my parent’s house. I tried the display on white and black plain backgrounds and then finalised with transparent glass background to have the essence of the work. Maps of initial ideas of placement are also present below. I would consider this piece to be a final output, there might be some changes in the manner of display in the future but it will still be the same piece of work.