Medicine

There are four doctors: the medicine-doctor, the prayer-doctor, the faith-doctor and the God-Doctor. The medicine-doctor depends on earth-discoveries. The prayer-doctor depends on God-Compassion. The faith-doctor and the faith-patient work together to establish the satisfactory result for the patient. The God-Doctor decides what is best for the patient and does the needful in and through the medicine-doctor, the prayer-doctor and the faith-doctor.

God gets tremendous joy when these three doctors work together. Alas, it happens so rarely. The medicine-doctor prides itself on its stupendous capacity. The prayer-doctor gives full credit when its prayers are fulfilled to the ultimate Doctor, God. The faith-doctor gives credit to the medicine-doctor, more so to the prayer-doctor and infinitely more to the God-Doctor.

Medicine-doctors are physically visible and available. Alas, the innocent patient-victims pitifully suffer when the medicine-doctors enjoy their utter disagreements. The patient’s life-breath plies between the compassion-medicine-doctor and the indifference-medicine-doctor.

With your kind permission, I wish to narrate a personal experience of mine. My right knee and I have been suffering from severe pain for the last twenty years. Not once, not twice, but thrice I have had sad experiences from my MRI examinations.

The doctors have differences of opinions. The first doctor said it is cartilage damage. The second doctor said that it is water inside the knee, unwanted water. The third doctor gave his opinion that it is rheumatism. My California doctors and New York doctors were in perfect disagreement.

Anyway, because of these three differing opinions I had to take treatment for all these three so-called ailments. To my greatest sorrow, my right knee still suffers unbearably, unimaginably.

There is an Irish saying: “God made time; man made haste.” There are some doctors who are compassion incarnate. They give all their time, energy and concern to cure their patients, while there are other doctors who have no time, no time. Time is fleeing away and their concern is also fleeing away faster than the fastest.

It is true that no matter how much concern, how much love one has as a doctor for his patient, only if it is the Will of God does the patient continue to live on Mother Earth. But the kindness, concern and sympathy of the doctor for the patient give tremendous hope and joy to the patient. This hope and joy are not wasted.

We believe in reincarnation. When the patient goes to the other world, he or she carries with them their inner existence. And when the soul comes into the world with a human body once again, this particular patient of the past, brings down the concern, hope and all the good things that the patient received in his previous incarnations from the medical science. No good deed can ever end in vain. Today’s good deeds are bound to be fulfilled at God’s choice Hour.

I have mentioned the unfortunate negligence and indifference of certain doctors, but again there are many doctors, to my deepest joy, who are aspiration, concentration and dedication incarnate. Their concern for the recovery of the patient can only be felt and never be described.

Spirituality and medicine are two great doctors. Spirituality dives deep within to cure the malady. Medicine explores here, there and all-where to cure the malady. If the divers and the explorers work together against ignorance, the root of all diseases, then it will be remarkably easier to conquer each ailment.

The body suffers from countless diseases. It starts with a headache and ends in cancer. The mind suffers from many diseases. It starts with anger and ends in self-doubt. The heart suffers from many diseases. It starts with depression and ends in insecurity. Life suffers from many diseases. It starts with ignorance and ends in self-destruction.

Physical diseases are difficult to cure. Mental diseases are more difficult to cure. Psychic diseases are still more difficult to cure. Life-diseases, alas, are almost incurable.

Medical science is not the supreme authority on life and death. Spirituality, because of its conscious and inseparable oneness with the Will of the Absolute Supreme, has and is the supreme authority on life and death.

At times, medical science proudly predicts that the patient will die sooner than at once. But, to the greatest happiness of the patient, the patient gets a compassion-life-extension for three or four decades from Above. Spirituality does not and cannot perform this miracle, but spirituality unmistakably knows how the miracle was performed and Who was behind it.

About thirty years ago, I was fortunate enough to offer a soulful talk on medical science to a medical university in Cebu City in the Philippines. Just because it was a medical university, there were quite a few doctors and nurses who were kind enough to be present.

I said to the doctors that if some individuals are in a tug-of-war, and if two are on one side and on the other side there is only one individual, there is every likelihood that the side that has two will win. Similarly, if the man of prayers and the man of medicine are on one side in the tug-of-war and against them there is only one player, ignorance, then naturally the side that has two members is going to win.

We must work together. Prayer comes from the inner world and medicine comes from the outer world. Both are equally important. The inner world and the outer world must work together. Then it will be quite easy for us to conquer the world that stands against us. We must not work independently. We must work interdependently.

If spirituality and medical science play their roles interdependently, like inhaling and exhaling, then God’s Heart-Garden will be inundated with earth-beauty and Heaven-Fragrance.

I shall deeply appreciate it if the audience would kindly join me in singing a short song that I have composed for this occasion. As I said, we must work together, together. With our prayers, with our songs, in all our activities, if we work together then we are bound to be successful in our lives.

Four doctors, four:
Medicine-doctor, prayer-doctor,
Faith-doctor, God-Doctor,
I bow to you four.
You give me health-preservation-lore;
You show me health-perfection-shore.

In all sincerity, I wish to say that this particular University has given me boundless joy and boundless satisfaction. I bow to the medicine-world. I bow to the medicine-world. I bow to the medicine-world. I pray to God for your continued success and progress to elevate the sufferings of humanity.