Doctors are verily God

This (hospitals) is not meant for just serving the patients but is also a means for the doctors to realise themselves through service. These doctors are no ordinary beings: “vaidyo narayano harihi” doctors are verily the avatars of Narayana. It is said so because of the capacity to cure and save lives that lies in their hands. Dr. Rajeshwari, who spoke earlier, has said, “Though it is our hands that work,it is Swami who works through them.” “Dil mein ram haath mein kaam”,Lord in the heart and hands in the work. One must do the work with the Lord in one’s heart. For Swami to give strength one must have hands isn’t it? If one does not have hands how can Swami give the strength? Hence the negative and the positive must come together. Therefore Swami wishes the doctors to work with a spirit of service and sacrifice and reduce, to the extent possible, deaths due to diseases.

Doctors working in our hospitals are extremely fortunate: Swami on different devotee doctors

Certainly the doctors serving in these hospitals are very fortunate. Dr. Rajeshwari working in the hospital at Whitefield, Bangalore is a diligent worker. Her entire team of doctors and nurses, who assist her, render service wholeheartedly and lovingly. They do not charge even a pie as they are devout devotees. There are no doctors who are on the payrolls of hospitals either here or there. The doctors consider their service as service to Swami and do it. There is Dr. Alreja and other doctors from Sri Lanka and from Uttar Pradesh have come to these hospitals considering sacrifice and service to be their life goal.

Doctors must foster love and sacrifice

There is an important and new lesson that is useful especially for the doctors namely to give up the greed for amassing money completely. When love and spirit of sacrifice are developed money will come automatically. Diseases cannot be cured by medicines but only by the divine grace of the Lord. Therefore, one must strive to acquire God’s grace and having acquired it one must use it to relieve others of their suffering.

Doctors need to be more compassionate

The field of medicine too is plagued with money. Embodiments of Love! All the doctors should bring about a change in their hearts by developing compassion and kindness and indulge in seva. They must give up narrow mindedness. Nobody is going to take one’s wealth to one’s grave and there after however rich one might be. One may amass lot of wealth but it will not follow one to eternity. Therefore one must serve the community with love.

Swami's words of appreciation for doctor's

Embodiments of love!! All the assembled here have come from far off places bearing all the inconveniences. There are many conferences and various symposia taking place in the world but none of the decisions taken in those are implemented. This conference is not like those. All the participants have come here whole-heartedly and so should try to implement the decisions taken here. There is no use if the assembled people return back with the same thoughts that they arrived with. A hungry person goes to a hotel; if he returns hungry from the hotel, what is the use of going to the hotel? There is no use going to the hotel. Similarly the participants of this conference have come here to know many things, to teach many things; there is no use if they return as they have come. The good thing that one can carry from this conference is ‘encouragement’ and one’s happiness lies in it. With this happiness one can accomplish anything. Swami wishes that all the participants return happily. The participants have given good advice's and have good experience. It is a good fortune to have experienced and great doctors come to the hospital and give advice's for its growth and development. Those advice's are whole-heartedly accepted and assurance is given that measures will be taken to implement them. Plans have been devised for the hospital walls and for the urology and neurology departments as per the suggestions of the doctors. Swami wishes the participants to share their experiences with the doctors here from time to time giving them encouragement. The participants are always welcome to visit this place to see and enjoy without any objections as it is their hospital and their property and not Swami’s. Swami says that the participants are Swami’s property and they need not wait to be invited and can visit their home anytime. Many experienced people have come here to participate in this conference. In no other conference will there be such peace and sacred ideas being expressed openly. All other conferences are marred by arguments. Here the conference concluded peacefully, and as Mr.Somnath said, it seemed like a sacred temple and not a hospital. Therefore suitable prayers must be made in this temple. What are those prayers? One can pray for success in every case and peace and harmony for everyone. Today this conference is happy to set an ideal for the entire world. Swami brings His discourse to a close by blessing the entire humanity to be healthy, peaceful, happy and prosperous.

Swami on the role of doctors and on the current state of medical colleges

Many doctors raised doubts in the reports submitted yesterday; they were concerned about the success of the plan, the huge expenditure to be incurred, and money factors involved in buying the latest equipment for the hospital, about raising the loan and payment of interest and meagre earnings after its payment. The doctors are in a difficult position too. For a medical seat one has to pay about ten lakhs of rupees as capitation fees and in addition to that one has to shell out around five lakhs of rupees for the completion of the course. Doesn’t one need to earn back the fifteen lakhs spent on acquiring medical degree?! And hence it’s quite natural for one’s mind to dwell on ways of earning that amount. To get the medical seat one’s parents must have borrowed money and so to free oneself from worry one needs to earn. Is that a mistake? There are some adjustments that must be made: the medical colleges should admit eligible candidates rather than admitting all who pay ten lakhs of rupees. The medical colleges should admit such candidates who have the capacity, knowledge and interest for such studies. Such persons are bound to do better when admitted. Such things are not happening today. To obtain a medical seat one must either pay ten lakhs of rupees or have recommendation. Such a person would complete the five year course in twelve years!! What is the use of educating such a person? So in the field of education one should give preference to quality than to quantity. In the olden days people used to work hard. A medical student used to study for eighteen hours a day; unless they studied so they never passed. But unfortunately today, one is sure to pass without studying. Such doctors are a danger to the society and the country. It’s not that all the doctors are so; there are some very good people amongst them. So the doctors must rectify the defects by pressurizing the government and bring change. That is the duty of the doctors. Then the country will prosper and would not require so many hospitals. Patients can be treated easily. Swami opines that doctors should not worry about money. Doctors must treat patients with love remembering the adage ‘duty is God’. This love should not be to merely take but to give and take. Doctors can charge his patients but should do so with love. This is the correct path as this will bring success in all the cases and the patients too would be happy. So one should: ‘Start the day with love, Spend the day with love, Fill the day with love and End the day with love; This is the way to God.” One should lead one’s life with such love. But many people work hard and get tired and so need rest. The American doctor quoted Swami in his speech saying, ‘You cannot always oblige, but you can speak obligingly!’ Hence one’s speech must be filled with good words and one’s actions with love. A doctor’s smile eases the patient and makes him peaceful.

Swami's opinion on Doctor's specialisations

Not only this, in the medical procedures, (Swami is not a doctor! But since the persons assembled here are all doctors), they must think about this too. Based on one’s selfish interests one specialises in a particular area. There is only one heart, but there are hundred specialities!! Each one specialises on each of the valves!! There are some who specialise on cells. As they specialise only in cells, they are not able to treat the problem in other parts of the heart and the patient has to go to another doctor. Therefore Swami opinions that specialisation should not lead to fragmentation of the heart, but should unify the heart. A doctor specialising in cells can only treat problems there, but if the problem exists in valves one has to redirect the patient to another doctor. Being a doctor is it not shameful to direct a patient to another doctor? So when a doctor specialises in heart, he should be able to cure any disease pertaining to the heart. One should aspire for that position. The specialisation is spoiling the world today. There should not be specialisation, but only general which will make one expert in every area.

Who are Doctors

Doctors are the very form of God. ‘Vaidyo narayano harihi’, ‘God is in the form of doctors!’ They are the very form of Narayana. What is the meaning of ‘Narayana’? ‘Narayana’= ‘naara’+ ‘ayana’. In Sanskrit ‘naara’ means water. ‘nayanam’ means eyes. Doctors who are the very form of Narayana should see to it that none sheds tears; that is the essence of Narayana. One need not doubt whether that is possible. One needs to do it to the extent possible. ‘Do your best!’ One need not think beyond that and has to work sincerely, which amounts to ‘Duty is God! Work is worship!’ When one leads one’s life such a way, the whole world will prosper.

Prevention is better than cure; Doctor's role

Doctors are trying to cure a disease after it afflicts the person; Swami feels that efforts must be put to eradicate the condition of disease before it afflicts. Health care must be propagated by both the government and the doctors so that the health of the baby is secured right from its womb days. It is so painful to watch little babies suffer from heart diseases. Mr.Iyer has talked about the dangerous heat ailments in cute looking children. Neither the parents, nor the child nor even the society are happy in such a situation. Therefore it is imperative to discover methods to protect the child in the womb itself from such dangerous ailments. It is not that there are no such treatments; there are! It is due to sheer laziness that those methods are not properly used. Pregnant women must be made aware of the importance of the vitamins A, B, C, and D and also the side effects of their deficiency. The mother would definitely take proper precautions and diet when she is made aware that deficiency of vitamin A causes problems of the eye in her baby. Pregnant women must go for monthly checkups in the hospital. Isn’t it better to get monthly checkups than feeling sorry later for life? Therefore such awareness must be propagated properly. But doctors have no limited scope to do that. Doctors can only make aware the patients that come to them; but they can do one thing and that is to pressurise the government to do such activities. The doctors must advice the government to check the spread of such diseases by propagating awareness programs and by changing the government policies; otherwise the crores of rupees spent become useless and that way both, the money and the public health, is lost.

Doctors are concentrating on physical ailments and not on mental ill-ness

Many doctors prescribe proteins as necessary and suggest eating meat and eggs as they contain proteins. Such proteins give strength to the body but it diverts the mind. Doctors are making an effort to understand only the gross structure of the body but not the subtle mind. There are many psychological ailments prevalent in the world today. One sees more of the ailments of the mind than of the body. Basing on this Vedanta says, ‘Manayeva manusyanaam, kaaranam bandhamokshayoho”, Mind is responsible for both freedom and bondage. One should make use of the mind in the proper path. A small example to illustrate this: Here a door is locked. The lock unlocks when the key is turned to the left and locks when turned right. Lock and key are same but the difference lies in turning. The heart is a lock, mind the key; turning the key to the divine side gives freedom, and turning towards the world will lead to bondage!! Mind is responsible for both the freedom and bondage and health and ill health. Mind is a bundle of thoughts hence it must be properly channelized. For this food is essential. The same proteins that are present in meat are also present in pulses, curd, and milk and also in vegetables. Therefore when proper food is taken illnesses can also be properly handled. Doctors are trying to cure a disease after it afflicts the person; Swamy feels that efforts must be put to eradicate the condition of disease before it afflicts. Health care must be propagated by both the government and the doctors so that the health of the baby is secured right from its womb days.

Doctor needs to care of both the patient and his disease

There are many doctors in this world who are highly intelligent and have divine capabilities, but they concentrate on curing the disease rather than curing the patient. Today a disease can be cured easily when the doctor concentrates more on easing the psychological condition of the patient rather than on curing the disease. Doctors today treat the disease but not the patient. Since two days doctors have been planning for the curative methods. They have been stating the numbers of the diseases, diseases cured and the deaths.