There’s one constant in life. Change. Everything is changing at all times.

And undeniably the current crisis is bringing about a massive acceleration of change. All of our lives have transformed in the space of a few weeks.

From the Vedic perspective, change is seen as inevitable and always evolutionary. If we look at things from a broad enough perspective and a long enough timeline, we see that things are always getting better and becoming more elegantly complex.

How can we view our current situation as progressive when we see so much pain and suffering around us?

In the Vedic world view, change is not a binary phenomenon. We don’t simply have good and bad, positive and negative, black and white. Instead, we recognise change as a process with three aspects playing out at all times.

Creation          
Maintenance              
Destruction of irrelevancy.

At all times something is being originated.
At all times something is being supported.
At all times something is being dismantled.

These three components form the basis of any creation cycle. Creation and innovation are followed by some maintenance of a status quo. Then a time comes when the status quo has served its purpose and a new phase of creation is due. For that phase transition to happen, a process of dismantling occurs. That which is no longer worthy of moving into the next creation cycle is removed. Destruction of what has lost its relevance, is a necessary part of any cycle of progressive change.

Take the example of a rosebud and how the sepals (the green protective covering of the bud) play their part. The sepals enclose and protect the developing rose, until it is time for the flower to emerge. Then the intelligence of the flower cuts off the sap and the sepals begin to wilt. Their “use by date” has come and it’s time for the sepals to curl away in order for the next phase of the rose’s life to bloom.

This is where our perspective is key. If one was in “sepal consciousness”, only focused on that protective covering, then the dissolution of the sepal looks tragic. Sepals are being destroyed and lost forever. However, a wise gardener stays alert to the “rose consciousness”, the broader plan of the flower. From this perspective, something wonderful is happening — a rose will bloom.

The destruction operator is part of evolution, present in any living system which is evolving well and fast. It removes anything which has become irrelevant to the next phase. It wasn’t always irrelevant, but it has become so. The stepping-stone that supported you to the next stepping-stone got you to where you ended up. We don’t condemn the previous stepping-stone for the vital role it played at a previous stage of our journey. In this way, the destruction operator plays an honourable role in the process of progressive change.

Right now, change is being forced upon humanity — a massive phase transition is underway. Nature is eliminating approaches that don’t work. There are aspects of life that have lost their relevance. The idea that things will “go back to normal” at some point is a mis-read of what’s actually going on. There’s no going back. If we resist this process (individually or collectively) we will only delay the inevitable. Either we move willingly and gracefully, or we oppose and slow down our development.