![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/cMW8QBz.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
*Cough! Cough!*<\/p>\n
This was the sound of the neighbor coughing which woke me up irritated as my sleep was disturbed. I looked at the clock on the desk next to my bed, the time was 3:00 am. I was in a dilemma if I should go back to sleep and wake up late or stay awake and perform my manglaarati in an hour. Contemplating amongst both I decided to go for the latter as the coughing of my neighbor wasn\u2019t going to stop anytime soon.<\/p>\n
I decided to cut some time by browsing the internet checking on the wordly affairs as the world was currently plagued with the COVID19 and I was forced to enjoy the 21 days lockdown imposed by the government of India. While ignoring a few self-declared solutions on how to treat COVID19, I stumbled upon a website that gave the aggregate number of people affected by the COVID19. I was feeling bad about the lockdown and the number of people affected by the COVID19 added with the lockdown inflated the feeling of helplessness. What will happen to the people, who will provide them with food. Who will risk it to help the helpless during these times of crisis. India is getting plagued by the COVID19 at an accelerated rate.<\/p>\n
Whilst dealing with my bag of mixed emotion my mind raced and came across a quote by Mark Twain I read sometime back, \u201cKindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.\u201d
\n Bhismasena was already doing what I was thinking of doing. An act of Kindness in the bleak time of world pandemic. But it wasn\u2019t just an act of kindness for the body but for the soul too. My good friend Aradhya Bhagavan das started an initiative called the Bhismasena (Bhisma\u2019s Army) in which he is asking people to join his initiative who will help people affected by the lockdown due to COVID19. He is helping elderly people unable to get help from outside due to the lockdown and as they are more susceptible to catch the virus if they stepped out. People from around India call him and ask him to deliver food and medicines to their elderly parents who aren\u2019t able to fend for themselves. He ensures to adhere to utmost cleanliness and maintains a safe distance to not only protect himself but also to everyone he meets. He also helps doctors reach the hospital on time to treat people affected by COVID19. But whilst doing so he ensures to be fully devotee attired and he ensures he asks every single person he helps to buy a Srila Prabhupada Bhagavad Gita, read the Bhagavad Gita and attend the temple programs once everything comes back to normal. <\/p>\n
When I asked him what inspired him to start something like this, his answer was a simple, \u201cSrila Prabhupada\u201d. I couldn\u2019t comprehend his answer and asked for an explanation to which he said during the plague of 1898 there was a similar situation of a pandemic during which the Rama Krishna mission started in 1897 which was just a year old went out and helped the citizen during the plague. Back then the social ostracization for people affected by the plague was even more when compared to today yet the Rama Krishna mission deiced to go ahead and help people out as a result of which till date Rama Krishna mission is revered for their greatness by the Bengalis. \u201cIf they could do it then why can\u2019t we do it today for Srila Prabhupada if we have the opportunity? This would help push the movement of Srila Prabhupada in future and Bengal will remember what type of people were created by Srila Prabhupada’s teachings\u201d<\/p>\n
I was left with no words to say but just words of Peter S.Beagle from the Last Unicorn, \u201cReal magic can never be made by offering someone else\u2019s liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back.\u201d At times like this when people are selfish and think about themselves here is a person who is trying to push and create something for Srila Prabhupada so in future ISKCON can smoothly penetrate the lives of people and people remember ISKCON with awe and reverence. Indeed the words of Publilius Syrus stands true, \u201cYou can accomplish by kindness what you cannot by force.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![](\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/3Yi0S0U.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
My good friend Aradhya Bhagavan das started an initiative called the Bhismasena (Bhisma\u2019s Army) in which he is asking people to join his initiative who will help people affected by the lockdown due to COVID19. He is helping elderly people unable to get help from outside due to the lockdown and as they are more susceptible to catch the virus if they stepped out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}