As the coronavirus devastates the world with severe health and economic impacts, the deaths, unemployment and difficulties being faced are terrible.

Yet, if we take a step back and introspect, the world is learning some lessons even as we struggle to cope and get over the crisis. And heeding these warning signals may be good for us once the crisis is over. We’re likely to move to a new world where things are changed.

1. Military strength and weapons can be useless.

All countries have been building up their armed forces and weapons. The mightiest of them all – America – has been humbled by an invisible enemy where none of these are useful in protecting the lives of thousands.

2. Cooperation, unity and goodwill amongst countries only will save the world.

The world wars taught us that nobody wins when there is a war. The pandemic wars have taught us that they can only be won when everyone joins hands. Russia and China are flowing in supplies to America. Russia is also helping Italy – these are rare acts of unity that do not happen otherwise.

3. The rich getting richer and poor getting poorer needs to stop.

The stock markets are crashing, reducing the wealth of the richest at a fast pace. For too long, the rich have grown richer at the expense of the poor and the stock markets that typically represent the Wall street companies, billionaires and large corporations have been the primary vehicle for this. The current situation is shaving off the wealth of the richest with astronomical falls never seen before. Those who aren’t rich, but whose 401Ks and retirement accounts are going down with the stock market should have already learned their lessons from the 2008 recession. 

The world may come back to more equitable wealth sharing and real assets like land and gold may be the ultimate lasting stores of wealth. Also, the value of people living on Main Street rendering services to others will go up. The pay for nurses is already shooting up. Those who sit at home and make money through stock trading may be valued much less or make no money at all.

4. We need to help each other more.

The best in people is being brought out through random acts of kindness and people stepping up to help each other. We are being taught that doing such acts more often helps the world peace and unity a lot. Rugged individualism and the sense of independence is giving way to the fear that everyone needs help.

5. Mother Nature is showing us how fierce and uncontrollable crises can become.

An aggressive climate change action is possible and also necessary- only our will is lacking, and our complacency and ego makes us plunder the environment. Scientists have reported that we are seeing bluer skies and a huge reduction in pollution across the world ever since the stay at home orders and lockdowns began. Surely this doesn’t need to come at the expense of those poor people who are losing their jobs and livelihood because of the lockdown, but the lesson is that we must cut non-essential travel aggressively for the sake of the environment.

6. We need to pay more attention to our families.

We have been going too fast and doing too many things ignoring time with our families and our relationships. The stay at home directives and lockdowns are making families rediscover the value of their relationships and the need for love at home.

We have been too busy to connect with our loved ones. Now the fear of losing our loved ones is causing us to reconnect with them.

7. When medical and economic solutions fail us, spirituality may be the only solution left.

There seem to be no immediate solutions for the virus and the world is scrambling to find anything to hold on to. Many are scared and desperate. These times are the best for finding spirituality and spiritual solutions to our problems. Mere hope and prayers won’t suffice. The discovery of our deep inner selves to find solutions to our problems could be very revealing. Sahaja offers many such intriguing possibilities.

8. We can work smarter and be more efficient.

We have been less efficient by spending time in physically commuting to places when work can be done online or remotely. From doctor’s office visits and grocery shopping to lawyer and tax appointments, the world is discovering that a lot of things can be done online and remotely not requiring us to spend and waste energy.

9. We’ve overdone many things in life.

The worst-hit industries due to the lockdown are teaching us some lessons:

Gambling – yes, anyone would understand that the world needs less of this.

Airlines – They have been the #1 reason that CO2 emissions have been increased by humans. The drastic reduction in travel should make us introspect and in the future only use air travel when absolutely essential.

Hotels – Maybe living less in hotels and more at home and homely places is better for us?

Live Sports – Perhaps we have been too playful and need to balance our lives with some serious pursuits like spirituality and higher purpose? 

Cruises – Too much vacationing and too exotic instead of focusing on staying on land with loved ones?

Film production and movie theaters – The plethora of options available for entertainment were perhaps too many. Maybe it’s time to reduce the number of movies and also make more insightful and better quality films. Also, perhaps too much consumption of such entertainment has negatively impacted our psyche and moral values? Should the overuse of vampires, science fiction, and psychopath murder stories be stopped?

Automakers and auto demand – Do we need a car dealer in every major street, and do we need so many choices of cars?

Oil and gas – Should we switch more aggressively to renewable energy sources?

Retail shopping centers – Too much materialism in human beings? Should we just be buying things we need instead of everything that we want and with the money that we don’t have?

Conventions – Should we tax our brains less and instead focus on collective meditation – an act of accessing the higher awareness? Maybe collective silence is more useful than collective talking and discussions?

Restaurants – Bring back the balance of home-cooked meals which are healthier and have love in them?

Theme parks – Too much entertainment, especially for kids?

10. Respect our frontline workers who are soldiers in this war and pay them higher.

 Healthcare workers, food chain workers, suppliers and delivery people are fighting the battle for us. They need to be valued a lot more and on par with the armed forces, if not more.

Everyone wants the world to go back to how it was before the virus hit us. However, something tells us that this isn’t going to happen. The lessons to be learned are significant and those who learn them and adjust their lives and actions will be happy once again.

What’s happening may be nature’s way of evolution and moving to a higher and better state of existence for human beings. Unfortunately, we have to learn these lessons the hard way. Then again, maybe nature has tried to tell us these things for very long and we chose not to listen. Because we are human beings.

And we will probably get back to the same ways before the crisis was over. Until the next major wake up call hits the world.