Date: 12/21/20

Dandavats.

Another day of shopping, another “incident.”

Out on one of our monthly shopping expeditions, and wearing no mask (as usual), we’re shopping for bhoga in a Shoprite when a women pushes her shopping cart near to us and asks me in a clearly audible and irritating tone “Where’s your mask?” I respond “Are you the mask police?” and then, before she has answered, I ask “May I see your badge?” Seeming a little startled by my rejoinder she asks “What do you mean?” I tell her “If you’re the mask police I want to see your badge.” That lady “was silenced” (as Srila Sridhara Maharaja might say). She quickly turned her cart away from us and sulked away like a pepper sprayed dog (Yes, I know from personal experience the reaction of a pepper sprayed dog).

Was I being offensive? Or, should I simply have tolerated this women speaking to me as if I was one of her misbehaving children?

I spoke with several of the store personnel during checkout and while asking directions to items difficult for us to find. All of them were very friendly and, although I was almost certainly the only one they had seen in their store without a mask, made no mention of it. The same was true at Home Depot.

The “You must wear a mask.” mentality seems particularly prominent among the upper social classes, such as those shopping at Trader Joe’s where they assigned me a body guard before allowing me to shop there without a mask. Even there, most seem at ease with the sight of the unmasked Giri Maharaja and I suspect they too wish to be liberated from the mask wearing edicts. Others appear quite tense and disturbed causing me to think “I know the squealers when I see them.” And, sure enough, at the few instances when I have been approached by store personnel offering me a mask — after I had been undisturbed for a significant period of time in their store — I’m sure I can identify the squealer who, for some reason, is always a woman who, before or after, has taken the time out of her busy shopping excursion to question me about why I am not wearing a mask.

Now the question may be raised “Why do you not wear a mask?” I do it to protect the public. They are largely consumed with the notion that “science” will save them from death, even though it has been proven it cannot. They must be disabused of that dangerous and sweeping contagion which is taking the life of 99% of the population which has become almost wholly dependent upon “science” and its promoters for its view of the world which must first dismiss the Lord’s supremacy as it’s principle a-priori argument.

“Science”, as it is practiced today, has become a substitute for common sense, which is another a priori position that must be accepted before examining evidence. Even a little common sense would cause one to ask the question: If the President of the United States, his family and staff, along with Boris Johnson and other high ranking government officials cannot be saved from Corona virus infection with all the measures taken to protect them (masking, hand sanitizing, social distancing, frequent testing and so forth), what hope does the average Joe have of protecting himself from it?

Again, “If masks protect, why are people forbidden from visiting family members in the hospital, even if they agree to wear a mask and maintain “a safe distance” from their friend or relative?” How does COVID-19 enter and infect patients in hospitals where every measure to protect them has been taken and enforced?

If such a small population in a very controlled (“locked down”) environment cannot be protected from COVID infection (not to mention Legionella “legionaries disease”, etc.) how is it possible to protect the greater society except by the age old proven method of quarantining those actually showing symptoms of the disease?

“Science”, however, dictates that old and proven methods must be thrown out in favor of new speculative methods; even those which obviously do not work, such as “lockdowns”, which are meant to quarantine the healthy, rather than the sick.

“Science”, in addition to relieving one from the burden of common sense, also relieves those who accept it from all personal responsibility. Tragedies, such as pandemics, can then be categorized as events caused by forces that have nothing to do with personal or collective sins. “Science” eliminates the eternal questions of “Why him and not me?” These are the preeminent questions a human being should be asking, as stated by Sri Sanatana Goswami:

‘ke āmi’, ‘kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya’
ihā nāhi jāni — ‘kemane hita haya’

Instead of asking: “Who am I? Why do the threefold miseries always give me trouble? If I do not know this, how can I be benefited?” “science”, and its believers, tell us “Don’t bother. Such questions are irrelevant and, anyway, cannot be answered. No one has the answers to such questions.”

Or, in its attempt to answer such questions, “science” tells us it is almost able to give us the answers we seek today but will gladly do so “tomorrow.” Until then, “Take two aspirin and get some sleep.” Then, if you should die while sleeping, “science” tells us “It doesn’t matter. We are only a combination of chemicals, atoms and other things which, according to the science of entropy are always prone to movement from order (as in the makeup of the human body) to disorder, as in returned to their disaggregated or randomly amalgamated state in the vastness of the universe.

In these ways sin is eliminated as a cause of the “jāre tāpa-traya’”, the threefold miseries (ādhyātmika, ādhibhautika and ādhidaivika — miseries arising from: one’s own body and mind, other living entities and natural disturbances caused by the demigods, respectively) and makes the question of why one is affected and not another irrelevant except so far as “science” is able to account for it, which never goes so far as determining the original cause (of the threefold miseries).

If the obvious question is asked “How has order come about from disorder?”, “scientists” are utterly incapable of articulating a reasoned response. They choose, instead, to insist on proceeding unencumbered by the thought process by ignoring the great philosophical questions or avoiding them by saying “It is not our field. We leave those questions to other disciplines.” If those, such as ourselves, should venture to offer the only logical response to the obvious question: “The original cause or uncaused cause has given order to what might otherwise be disorder.” they decry our argument as “philosophical” rather than “scientific”, proving they believe “science” is a field of study disassociated from philosophy: “the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence . . . “ and, ipso facto, logic and reason, for only logic and reason are reliable methods for the study of reality, existence and all other things collectively known as knowledge.

The “scientific consensus” has spoken clearly to the point of which offers greater protection; mask wearing or hand sanitizing? And, the consensus is a reasonable one (based on their mehtods); answer: hand sanitizing. A frequent washing of hands (aka good personal hygiene) will do far more to prevent the spread of disease (including COVID-19) than the haphazard wearing and handling of face coverings, even N-95 masks, when handled in ways abhorrent to those (such as surgeons) trained in their aseptic use.

I realize my small show of defiance is just that, almost insignificant. But at least a few may take the time to ponder the larger questions I propose and wonder “Everyone is wearing a mask except this sannyasi (saffron clad man). Could he know or believe something we do not? If so, what is it?”

Thus concludes another day in the life of “As the world burns.”

Praying this finds you well.

Yours,

Swami B.K. Giri