We know the physical causes that lead to earthquakes and tsunamis, but there are more subtle spiritual issues involved, based on the Karmic principle, that all right actions bring joy, while wrong actions bring grief. When wrong actions reach an extreme, it leads to massive destruction (pralaya) bringing about an en-masse settlement (group-karma) of human misdeeds.

Human beings have been slaughtering all elements of nature and her vital resources. Forests are destroyed, air is polluted, nuclear experiments are conducted under-water and also various virus-researches – which sometimes can go out of hand and cause grave human, environmental and ecological imbalances. Yet, mother nature (Vasundhara) keeps suffering and sending numerous warning signals to us in the form of shrinking bio-diversity, global warning, melting of polar ice caps and the depletion of the Ozone layer. Despite these, in the name of progress and crass materialism, we continue to abuse the five elements due to ignorance which leads us further on the wrong path. We continue to make dams, destroy forests, dig deeper into oceans for resources, explode deadly bombs under water, research on viruses and release more and more toxins into the air, soil and water. 

When nature can bear these atrocities no longer, she revolts like Natraja’s Tandav (dance of destruction) leaving mankind helpless – as is happening now! For all the conceit about man’s power over nature, in spite of all the sophisticated scientific gadgetry, in one blow, nature evens out not only geological borders, but also settles scores of group-karma, weeding out all evil and re-balancing ecology.

Whenever nature strikes a blow by dancing her ‘Tandav’, people call it an act of the divine or the wrath of God. But it is not an act of God because God is all kindness, all compassion. God doesn’t act this way. Nature too doesn’t discriminate between the old and young, sick and healthy, rich and poor. It’s neither God nor nature that decides, but it is the immutable law of karma that works behind such calamities. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction and there is no effect without a cause. The outer (physical) world is a reflection of our inner (mental) world. Physical environment (nature) is gifted with so much power to sustain the resources, but humans disturb the delicate balance; and when something is exploited beyond limit, it reacts violently, and we call it a disaster.

Actually, the epicenter of all natural calamities lies in the human mind. It is mental-pollution that results in environmental pollution. There are references to huge natural calamities in religious scriptures like the great flood, deluge, ‘Jalmai‘, ‘pralaya‘ which have resulted in the submersion of entire continents and civilizations, like the Atlantis and Lemuria.

Today, the collective-consciousness of the human mind is so vicious (terrorism, rapes, tortures, murders, wars, germ warfare, viruses etc.) that the recent Coronavirus epidemic was merely a forerunner, we hope not, of disasters of much greater magnitude. The sceptical reader may well dismiss this view as an alarmist reaction but this is a very real possibility, especially if we have learnt nothing from the past series of earthquakes from Indonesia to the Andamans, right down to today’s Coronavirus.

All atrocities on nature are committed by the negativity of the human mind like anger, lust, ego and greed for more, more, more and yet more material comforts. Hence, the only remedy is to purify the human mind and be satisfied with less. Respect nature and nature will bless you with her unlimited bounties. In spiritual and Universal Laws, there is no place for arrogance. We know the theory of evolution that a fish is a more complex form of life than an amoeba, a horse is more complex than a fish. The dog is even more evolved, and us humans evolved from the primitive Paleolithic cave-man to the modern man. We are supposed to be the most evolved species on our planet. But are we???

No! It can be argued that the animals are more evolved. They are not jealous of each other. They have no egos. They don’t unnecessarily fight with each other except for means of survival or procreational instincts. The brutal rape of a baby is unheard of in the animal kingdom. Animals nurture and look after their offspring. In the animal kingdom, motherhood is a full-time job, whereas in humans, it’s a part-time job. Animals just collect their food for their need and not greed like humans! And yet, humans are so arrogant towards the less complex forms of life! Hence, the Universe teaches them a lesson through calamities viz. a tiny, microscopic, most primitive, invisible form of life is today controlling the behavior of the most evolved, powerful and arrogant life-form on earth!