Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam

“The world is my family”, originally comes from the Upanishads, ancient Sanskrit tomes.
In this time of  a global pandemic and near-universal lockdown, it has salience in that we’re truly all in it together – East, West, rich, poor, black, white, brown, Hindu, Muslim, young, old – and the only way to overcome, recover, heal it is by forming a brotherhood.

ayaṃ bandhurayaṃ neti gaṇanā laghucetasām
udāracaritānāṃ tu vasudhaiva kuṭumbakam
bhāvābhāvavinirmuktaṃ jarāmaraṇavarjitam
praśāntakalanārabhyaṃ nīrāgaṃ padamāśraya
eṣā brāhmī sthitiḥ svacchā niṣkāmā vigatāmayā
ādāya viharannevaṃ saṃkaṭeṣu na muhyati

Here is the English translation:

“Only small men discriminate saying: One is a relative, the other is a stranger.
For those who live magnanimously the entire world is a family.
Resort to the status free from all effects of prosperity and adversity,
beyond old age and death,
in which all mental constructions are extinguished and where no attachments
finds lodgement.
This is the status of Brahman, absolutely pure, beyond all cravings and sufferings
Having taken this practice up, and roaming (living one’s life), one is not bewildered
in crises.”

These are mere words and obviously are meaningless unless understood
through practice, experience and by putting to the test. Hard it is and needs constant practice to begin to embody them, and one of the first steps along the way of this practice is to listen, to hear, to receive the words in the heart. To take the words to heart
is to listen, to hear, to receive.