KUMARA PARK, BANGALORE,
June 5, 1927
DEAR FRIEND,
You were good enough to send me a copy of your
letter to Dr. Gananath Sen regarding his rendering of certain Ayurvedic terms.
I wonder if Dr. Sen ever sent you any reply. As you seem to be a close student
of Ayurveda, could you please tell me,
(a) in
what way Ayurvedic treatment is superior to the Allopathic treatment?
(b)
Is there any progressive research work being done either in Ayurvedic materia
medica or in any other branch of medicine or surgery in terms of Ayurveda?
(c) Have you or any other Ayurvedic physician
investigated the meaning of or tested the prescriptions contained in hridroga
shweta kushta-nashan sukta—kushta-nashan sukta—suktas reproduced in the current
number of the Vaidika Dharma edited by Pandit Satavalekar of Oundh? If
you have not the magazine, I shall be glad to send it to you.
Yours sincerely,
DR. GANGADHAR SHASTRI JOSHI
TILAK MAHAVIDYALAYA
POONA
KUMARA PARK, BANGALORE,
July 19, 1927
DEAR FRIEND,
I thank you for your letter and the pains you
have taken to answer my questions. Do you claim cheapness, simplicity and
efficacy for Ayurvedic medicine as we find it at present? After my own fashion,
I have been interested in its success ever since 1891, and have even spent what
little I was capable of and induced friends to spend on behalf of Ayurvedic
physicians. But so far, I have found it
to be neither cheap nor simple nor efficacious. Some of the prescriptions are
most complicated. Ayurvedic physicians have been known to charge as much as men
with medical degrees. I know
Ayurvedic physicians who charge today even as much as Rs. 1,000 per day. The best
of them are beyond the reach of the poor. And what I have also unfortunately
found is that a very large number of patients have gone to the physicians with Western
degrees after having found Ayurvedic treatment to be inefficacious. I am aware
of the converse also having happened. But the scales seem to me to weigh in
favour of Allopathy. My own desire has been and is now also to find
Ayurveda practice successful, if only because I am probably fanatically
vegetarian and because I have a horror of Allopathy for many reasons I need not
go into. Even for simple home treatment,
having studied something of both Ayurvedic and Allopathic drugs, I have been
obliged to use Allopathic drugs instead of Ayurvedic. For instance, I have
found nothing so efficacious as quinine for malaria or iodine for simple pains
or Condy’s fluid as a disinfectant. I must not, however, worry you with my
own experience. If it is not
troublesome, will you kindly illustrate in what way Ayurveda aims at purifying
the whole system rather than affording only temporary relief? As time
permits me, I shall go through the pamphlets you have kindly sent me. I shall
also await the views from the friends to whom you have shown my letter. You
will please write to me if you do not receive the relevant texts from Pandit
Satavalekar.
Yours sincerely,
SJT. GANGADHAR SHASTRI JOSHIJI
9/2, SADASHIV PETH
POONA CITY
WHY DOCTORS?
Q. Why do you go to the doctors for examination and diagnosis and not to the vaidyas?
A. The
vaidyas do not possess the knowledge of the human body as the doctors do. The
basis of diagnosis in Ayurveda is the theory of tridosh. They have not
got to the bottom even of that. The doctors are ever carrying on research and
making new discoveries. One either goes forward or backward. Nothing
remains static in the world. Those who become static, become lifeless. God
alone is static, but amazing as it may sound, He is described both as
motionless and full of motion. Moreover, doctors and vaidyas are my friends.
The doctors have clung to me. One of them has become more than my own daughter.
One’s own daughter can leave her father; how can one who has chosen to become a
daughter? The vaidyas themselves use,
though indifferently, the methods of diagnosis used by the doctors or else they
advise the patient to go to the doctors for it. The viadyas possess the knowledge of certain drugs which they use effectively.
But the doctors, vaidyas and hakims all slave for money. They do not take to
the profession purely from a spirit of service. That some of them have that spirit does not contradict my statement.
Nature cure is the only thing which has come into existence purely from the
point of view of selfless service. Today even that has become a means of making
money. Thus money has taken the place of
God. The doctors examine me, but I depend on none but God. He is the Master
of every breath I take. If He wills it, He will keep me up to 125 years. If
not, He might carry me off any moment, leaving the medical friends staring as
helpless spectators.
NEW DELHI, May 2611946
BHAI GANESH SHASTRI,
There is too much of cholera around Sevagram. What does Ayurveda have to say? People are succumbing to the disease every day; how can we then promptly cremate the bodies? Where to find all the firewood ? How quickly and in what manner should the body be removed? If they are to be buried, how should it be done and by whom? Please think over the problem. Send a reply or meet Dr. Sushila and discuss the matter with her. Be prompt.
Blessings from
BAPU
POST ANDHERI,
April 5, 1924
My
unfortunate position is that I have faith in the Ayurvedic drugs, but very
little in the diagnosis of the physicians. I therefore never feel sure about a
patient under an Ayurvedic physician if his diagnosis is not checked by a
trustworthy practitioner under the Western system.
DR. G. B. TALWALKAR
AHMEDABAD
19. SPEECH AT AYURVEDIC PHARMACY, MADRAS 2
March 24, 1925
Mahatamaji said that perhaps those responsible for the function did not realize that he seemed to be entirely out of tune there. They did not know that he made these remarks even when he performed the opening ceremony of a medical college with which his esteemed friend Hakim Ajmal Khan, was connected. From his chair on that occasion he had to dissociate himself from much that went under the name of Unani, Ayurvedic or European medicine. He was opposed to indiscriminate use of drugs. It did not give any pleasure to him to hear that Dr. Sri Ramacharlu was able to distribute his medicines amongst two lakhs of people or twenty lakhs of people. He could not congratulate the doctor on his successful advertisement of makaradhwaja. What was wanted among their physicians was a real touch of humility. It was a matter of good fortune to him to have friends among both allopathic doctors and Ayurvedic and Unani physicians; but they all knew his mind thoroughly that he could not possibly endorse their activities in the distribution of drugs.
He wished the physicians of the modern day
took the role of the physicians of old, when they gave their lifetime to make
researches and distribute relief among the people without taking a single
farthing. That was unfortunately not the case today. What he noticed at present was that the Ayurvedic physicians were
trying to live on the past glories of Ayurveda. The system of diagnosis was
still in the primitive stage and it could not be in any measure compared with
that prevailing under the Western system. Whatever might be said of the Western
system—he had said a great deal on that subject—one thing must be said in its
favour, that it had got humility and it had got research; and there were
physicians and surgeons who gave their whole time to this work, the world not
knowing them. He wished that spirit would fire the Ayurvedic physicians. But unfortunately what he noticed today was
hunger for wealth and renown and hunger for coming to the top. That was not the
way in which they would be able to serve Ayurveda. He knew there were most
potent and efficacious drugs in Ayurveda. But today because they had forgotten
the art, they had really lost the use of that. He had discussed these things
with many physicians and they had nodded assent to all that he had been saying.
You would not call me a dear friend of yours,
when you have purposely invited me to come here, if I do not utter this truth
that is lying deeply rooted in me. And it is a result not of a day’s thought or
a hurried thought; but it is the result of nearly 40 years of observation and
also experiments in hygiene and sanitation. As a result of these things, I have come to the deliberate conclusion
that the best physician is one who administers the least number of drugs.
The surgeon who performed the operation on the late King Edward and so
successfully performed it, has said that in his pharmacopoeia their were but
two or three drugs that he used. Otherwise he left nature to do its own work. I
trust that our physicians understand the secret that nature is the sweetest,
the quickest and the best restorer of health, whereas what I find is that all
kinds of experiments are being made, arousing the basest passions of humanity. The advertisements that I see of medicines
made me sick. I feel that physicians are rendering no service to humanity
whatsoever but the greatest disservice by claiming every medicine as the
panacea for all ills of life. I plead for humility, simplicity and truth.
The Hindu, 24-3-1925
167. SPEECH AT ASHTANGA AYURVEDA VIDYALAYA
CALCUTTA,
May 6, 1925
FRIENDS,
It was not without greatest hesitation that I
accepted the invitation to lay the foundation-stone of this great institution.
You know that some years ago I performed the opening ceremony of the Tibbia
College1 whose presiding deity was my esteemed friend and brother, Hakim Ajmal
Khan . Even then it was not without hesitation that I performed the ceremony. I
could not resist the invitation that was given to me by a bosom friend and
little could I resist a similar invitation coming again from a bosom friend.
But I would be untrue to myself and untrue to those assembled if I did not
express my deepest thoughts about medicine and particularly about Ayurvedic and
Unani medicines and the profession in general. It was in 19083 that, for the
first time, I reduced to writing my views about medicines and the medical
profession, and I am not able, looking at it after so many years, to alter a
single word of what I have said there. No doubt what I wrote in 1908 was
compressed, it was a passing reference to a subject which was included among so
many others which I had to deal within a mere booklet. Since then I have
expanded the same thought, but I have not diminished the strength of the
thought that I expressed in 1908. Every time I approach medical men and their
medicines, I do so in fear and trembling, and it takes nothing away from my
fear that I submitted to the living knife of a surgeon whom I only knew perfunctorily
in the Yeravda jail. I had the fullest confidence in Col. Maddock2 as a man and
as a friend but I had not the fullest confidence in his ways and in the
medicines that he prescribed. If you were to go to him today, he will issue a
double certificate—one in my favour and the other against me. He will certify
to you that to a certain extent I was a willing, obedient and a loyal patient,
a more loyal patient he could not wish for. But he will also say and certify
that I was one of the most difficult patients he had to deal with. He had to deal
with my prohibitions. I will take this and I will not take that and my
negations were far more than my ayes. And, therefore, he always came to me in
des-pair whenever he felt that he wanted me to put a little more weight. It was
with the greatest difficulty that he could persuade me to take so many of the
medicines that he thought I should take and that I thought I ought not to take.
(Laughter.) Well, there it is. I have merely given you a skeleton of my views
about the profession, but perhaps you will better understand my views when I tell
you that I belong to that noble, growing, but the still small school of thought
which believes more in prevention than in cure, which believes in Nature doing
things for herself even for suffering humanity if we would but let Nature take
her course. I believe in that school of thought which considers that the less
interference there is on the part of doctors, on the part of physicians and
surgeons, the better it is for humanity and its morals. I belong to that school
of thought among medical men who are fast coming to the conclusion that it is not
their duty merely to subserve the needs of the body, but it is their bounden
religious duty to consider the resident within that body, which is after all
imperishable. And I belong to that school of thought among medical men who
consider that they will do nothing in connection with that body if whatever
they do is going to impair, in the slightest degree, the soul, the spirit
within. And it grieves me so often when I find some of my best medical
friends—and you will accept my word—but I assure you that it grieves me when
they discuss with me the question whether there is such a thing as soul and
when they tell me that, if there was a soul, it would not escape their deadly knife.
Little do they know that the soul survives the knife and that the soul is not
to be found by any probing of knife, however deep it may be. (Laughter).
Therefore, it was with the greatest hesitation that I have approached this
function. I wonder whether it is a real sign of civilization when the number of
hospitals in a particular place is larger than in another place. I wonder whether it is really a test of
growth to find in the catalogues and in the directories of medical men that
every year their sales are increasing by leaps and bounds and that the inmates
in the hospitals and dispensaries are increasing. I really wonder whether it is
a sign of real progress. However, I know that there is the other side of it. I
don't want to labour only on one side of this question. But, in all humility I
have placed [these] for consideration of those who are put in charge of the
management of this great institution. I have hitherto confined my remarks to
medicine and surgery in general, but when I come to the Ayurvedic and the Unani
system, I am filled with greater doubts. You may not know that, even from my boyhood. I have come in contact
with many physicians, some of them known to be distinguished in their own
localities. There was a time when I used to swear by the Ayurvedic medicine and
used to commend it to all my friends, who went in for Western medicine, to go
to these Ayurvedic physicians. But I feel sorry to have to own to you that I
was undeceived and I found that our Ayurvedic and Unani physician lack sanity.
They lack the humility. Instead of that I found in them an arrogance that they
knew everything (Laughter), that there was no disease which they could not
cure. (Renewed laughter.) I found that they believed that the mere feeling of
the pulse could enable them to understand whether the patient was suffering
from appendicitis or same such other disease. When I found that their diagnosis
was false, that it was incomplete in most cases, I felt that it was nothing
short of humbug. When I turned to
the advertisements of medicines—I shall not say from Kavirajas—but Unani
Hakims and Vaidyarajas, I felt humiliated I felt a sense of shame coming
over me—these advertisements which pander to the basest passion of humanity,
disfigure our newspapers and magazines. I have handled magazines devoted to
the education of ladies. I have seen magazines devoted to the education and
information of young men, and I have found these advertisements alluring, no
doubt, profitable, no doubt, to those who advertise these nauseating things. I
felt that they are cutting deep into the vitals of the suffering humanity. Therefore, whilst I am going to perform
this ceremony of laying the foundation stone of this noble institution and
whilst I do so with a prayerful heart and wish it all success, I want the organizers
to note my limitations, to understand the note of warning that I have uttered to
those who are called upon to devote their wealth to this institution. I utter
an all humility this note of warning. May this institution be of use to the
real suffers. May this institution take care not merely of the need of the body
but of the imperishable soul that resides in that body. May it never be said of
this institution that it panders to the basest taste of humanity, that it
panders to the basest taste of the youths of Bengal—and I know the youths of
Bengal. I know how their fair life is being sapped by the medicines that are
poured down their throats by physicians who, in the words of the Lord Justice Stephen,
“introduce drugs of which they know little into the bodies of which they know
less”. And so I plead, as I pleaded in
Madras at a similar function, for sanity, for humility, for truthfulness, for
fear of God among those who are the present organizers of the institution and those
who follow. With these words I shall have much pleasure as soon as you give
me room to go to the place where I have to lay the foundation and I shall have
equal pleasure in praying for the success of this institution.
Amrita Bazar Patrika, 8-5-1925
287. AYURVEDIC SYSTEM
Kaviraj Gananath Sen writes :
I
take this opportunity of drawing your attention to the fact that the speech you
delivered when laying the foundation stone of the Ashtanga Ayurveda Vidyalaya
has been greatly misconstrued both by the public and by the Ayurvedic
physicians of Calcutta. May I suggest that you will kindly explain that you did
not mean to condemn Ayurveda itself or its conscientious votaries but only a
certain section of them who lived by fraud? To me such an explanation appears
to be urgently required in view of the fact that almost all Bengali papers are
misinterpreting your speech and condemning us for not contradicting it.
I gladly comply with the request, the more so
as it enables me to express my views about Ayurvedic medicine. I must say at
the outset that I was reluctant to perform the ceremony referred to as I was
reluctant even to perform the ceremony of opening the Tibbia College by reason
of the views I hold on Medicine in general as expressed in my booklet Indian
Home Rule. Seventeen years’ observation has made no material change in
them. If I rewrote the book, it is just possible that I should state the views
in a different language. But I could no more resist the organizers of my tour
than I could a bosom friend like Hakim Saheb. But I told them that my speech
might prove embarrassing. Had I been absolutely hostile to the movement, I
should, of course, have declined the honour at any cost. But I could reconcile
myself to the performance subject to the conditions I named at the meeting. I hope that the college of which I laid the
foundation and to which I understand the founder, himself a Kaviraj, had
devoted a princely sum, will contribute to the alleviation of real suffering
and make discoveries and researches in Ayurveda that will enable the poorest in
the land to know and use the simple indigenous drugs and teach people to learn
the laws of preventing disease rather than curing them. My quarrel with the
medical profession in general is that it ignores the soul altogether and
strains at nothing in seeking merely to repair such a fragile instrument as the
body. Thus ignoring the soul, the profession puts men at its mercy and
contributes to the diminution of human dignity and self-control. I note with
thankfulness that in the West a school of thought is rising slowly but surely
which takes count of the soul in trying to repair a diseased body and which,
therefore, relies less on drugs and more on nature as a powerful healing agent.
My quarrel with the professors of
Ayurvedic system is that many of them, if not indeed a vast majority of them,
are mere quacks pretending to know much more than they actually do, arrogating
to themselves an infallibility and ability to cure all diseases. These gentlemen
have no humility in them. They will not study the Ayurvedic system and wrest
from it the secrets which appear at present to be completely hidden from the
world. They impute to Ayurveda an omnipotence which it does not possess, and in
so doing they have made it a stagnant system instead of a gloriously
progressive science. I know of not a
single discovery or invention of any importance on the part of Ayurvedic
physicians as against a brilliant array of discoveries and inventions which
Western physicians and surgeons boast. In fact, Ayurvedic physicians’
diagnosis, as a rule, consists in feeling the pulse which, I have known many to
claim, enables them to know even whether the patient is suffering from
appendicitis. Whether the science of the pulse ever enabled ancient physicians
to diagnose every known disease no one can tell. But it is certain that the
claim cannot be sustained at the present moment. The only thing Ayurvedic
physicians can safely claim is a knowledge of some vegetable and metallic drugs
of great potency which some of them succeed in administering for disease they
only guess and, therefore, often with much harm to their poor patients. The
advertisements of medicine that excite animal passions add immorality to
incapacity and make those who resort to these practices a real danger to
society. I know of no association of
Ayurvedic physicians that protests against or endeavours to check this
ceaseless flow of immorality which is sapping Indian manhood and making of many
old men monsters living merely to satisfy their lust. Indeed, I have known such
physicians enjoying a status of respectability in medical society. Whenever,
therefore, I get an opportunity I seize it to drive the truth home to the
physicians Ayurvedic and Unani and plead for truth, humility and patient
research. I am a lover of all that is
ancient and noble. I believe that there was a time when Ayurvedic and Unani medicine
served a noble purpose and was progressive. There was a time when I actively
helped these physicians and believed in them. But experience has undeceived me.
I have been grieved to find arrogance and ignorance among many such physicians.
It hurts me to find a noble profession being prostituted for making money. I
have written this not to condemn individuals. I have merely reduced to writing
the impression that has been left on my mind by a long course of observation of
the practice of Ayurvedic physicians. It
is no answer to say, as has been said, that Ayurvedic physicians have copied
the evils I have named from their Western brethren. A wise man copies not what is
bad but that which is good. Let our Kavirajas, Vaidyas and Hakims
apply to their calling a scientific spirit that Western physicians show, let
them copy the latter’s humility, let them reduce themselves to poverty in
investigating the indigenous drugs and let them frankly acknowledge and
assimilate that part of Western medicine which they at present do not possess.
Let them shun the irreligion of the Western scientists, which, in order to heal
the body and in the name of science, subjects the lower animal kingdom to the
hideous tortures which pass muster under the name of vivisection. Some will
retort that there is warrant for vivisection in Ayurveda. If there is, I am
sorry. No warrant even in the four Vedas can sanctify sacrilege.
Young India, 11-6-1925
461. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
October 14, 1946
Q. Wouldn’t it be better to set up a public institution at Bordi for conducting research in the Ayurvedic system of medicine?
A. It would be good to make Bordi a public
institution.
Q. The Government Ayurvedic Colleges teach
seventy per cent allopathy. Ayurveda should be taught as a separate science.
When this question was first discussed you had said that you would arrange for
me to meet Dr. Gilder.
A.
The Ayurvedic education is something I have been long interested in. The work
can certainly be pursued if there are vaidyas you know who think like
you and who are selfless. Only then would it be useful for you to go to Dr.
Gilder.
Q. It is difficult to find vaidyas who fully share my views. There are some who are too orthodox to allow any changes or innovations in the Ayurvedic system while others want to turn it into allopathy. In fact Ayurveda is based on theory of tridosha and its cure is based on five basic substances.
A. What do you think of Joshi of Poona? If there is no one else, what can you do by yourself? Many doctors have told me that the treatment based on tridosha is a fraud. It is for you to prove that it is not so. It is also for you to train vaidyas like you. What Dr. Gilder has passed has also been prepared by vaidyas. Bhadkamkar, Lagu, Gananath Sen and Vishwanath are from among you, are they not?
Q. The doctors do not know anything about the treatment based on tridosha . Bhadkamkar and other vaidyas are more of doctors than vaidyas, and that is why they have approved the scheme.
A. I can arrange a meeting with Dr. Gilder. But I would advise you to see Bhadkamkar and Joshi. Have a little talk with Sushila Nayyar, with Satis Babu, too. He is here at present.
Q. I have gone through the book Prakritik
Chikitsa which you gave me. It is full of tall talk and is not based on the
author’s personal experience. He has described properties of medicines without
citing authority.
A. I have noted the tall talk in it. Only you can write authoritatively on medicines.
Q. I will prepare the students. But it is obvious that my syllabus will be different from that prescribed by the Government Board. So what shall we do about its registration?
A. Prepare something. Do not worry about registration. First of all train the volunteers. It is not necessary for them to have degrees. If they are good I will accommodate them. I do not care for degrees.
32. DR. MEHTA’S INSTITUTION
I have received several questions about Dr. Dinshaw Mehta’s institution. Two of them are worth noticing. They are given below:
In order to make the institutions more scientific,
more modern and more useful for the public, is it not desirable that some
capable enthusiastic nature cure man or men should be sent abroad for higher
studies in nature cure? Would not such experts on their return evolve a system
of nature cure suitable for our country and enable it to become popular and
stand on its own feet?
You want a simple and cheap method of nature
cure for our village. Can the methods described by Kuhne, Just and Kneip, etc.,
serve that purpose? Can these methods be useful and suitable for village work? The
clinic at Poona could not serve the purpose of village nature cure in the
opinion of the Trustees. Therefore, it was closed down and an experiment in
village nature cure started at Uruli Kanchan. There the work is going on
satisfactorily, though on a small scale. There is nothing there worth seeing as
yet. Even the land has not been bought and no buildings have been built. Now
let us take the main question. The tendency of looking to the West in order to
make progress in whatever we do, should be checked. If we have to go the West
to learn nature cure, it cannot be of much use to India. Nature cure is a thing
which anyone can practise in the home. The advice of nature-cure experts should
not be necessary for all time. It is such a simple thing that everyone can
learn it. If we have to go to Europe to learn to recite Ramanama, it simply
will not do. Ramanama is the very foundation of nature cure of my conception. Nor
should it be necessary to go across the seas in order to learn the use of
earth, water, ether, sun and air. This is self-evident. Whatever other knowledge is required in this direction can be had in
our villages. For instance, if herbs are used, they must be village herbs. Ayurveda
teachers know all about them. If some Ayurvedic physicians are scoundrels, they
cannot become good men and servants of the people by going abroad. The
knowledge of anatomy and physiology has come from the West. It is very useful
and necessary for all physicians. But there are plenty of means of learning it
in our own country. In short, whatever useful contribution to knowledge has
been made by the West, it has reached everywhere and can be learnt everywhere.
I might add here that the knowledge of anatomy and physiology is not essential
for learning nature cure. The writing of Kuhne, Just and Father Kneip are
simple, popular and useful for all. It is our duty to read them. Practically
every nature cure physician knows something about them. Nature cure has not taken
to the villages so far. We have not thought deeply and no one has thought of it
in terms of the millions. This is just the beginning. No one can say where we
shall stand in the end. As in all great and good enterprises, sacrifice and
dedication are required to make this successful. Instead of looking up to the
West, we should turn the searchlight inwards.
NEW DELHI, May 24, 1946
Harijan, 2-6-1946
I am unable to subscribe to the condemnation of the State for not providing institutions for research. I have always blamed the vaids’ apathy in the matter of real research. The top ones are busy making money. The others are too ignorant to do so or are easily satisfied with what they find in the orthodox Ayurvedic books. I am sorry for this view. I come to it, in spite of my great regard for the Ayurvedic system and the Yunani which are suited to the soil.
URULI KANCHAN, August 4, 1946
Harijan, 11-8-1946
465. AYURVEDA AND NATURE CURE
Vaidya Vallabhram, Professor of Ayurveda and Vanaspati Shastra writes :
Cure through Ayurveda is based on the five elements. . . . Pathya (diet cure) is a scientific term of the greatest importance in Ayurveda. Its real meaning is that freedom from disease depends on a proper observance of the laws of nature. I have no doubt whatsoever that the repetition of Ramanama and pure living are the best and the cheapest preventives of disease. The tragedy is that doctors, hakims and vaidyas do not make use of Ramanama as the sovereign of cures. There is no place given to it in current Ayurvedic literature except in the shape of a charm which will drive people further into the well of superstition. Ramanama has in fact no connection with superstition. It is nature’s supreme law. Whoever observes it is free from disease and vice versa. The same law which keeps one free from disease applies also to its cure. An apt question is as to why a man who recites Ramanama regularly and leads a pure life should ever fall ill. Man is by nature imperfect. A thoughtful man strives after perfection, but seldom attains it, for he stumbles on the way, though unwittingly. The whole of God’s law is embodies in a pure life. The first thing is to realize one’s limitations. It should be obvious that the moment one transgresses those limits one falls ill. Thus a balanced diet eaten in accordance with needs gives one freedom from disease. How is one to know what is the proper diet for one? Many such problems can be imagined. The purport of all this is that everyone should be his own doctor and find out his limitations. The man who does so will surely live up to the age of 125. Vaidya Vallabhram asks whether well-known home drugs and condiments can be included in nature cure. Doctor friends claim that they do nothing more than investigate the laws and act accordingly and that therefore they are the best nature-cure men. Everything can be explained away in this manner. All I want to say is that anything more than Ramanama is really contrary to true nature cure. The more one recedes from this central principle the farther away one goes from nature cure. Following this line of thought I limit nature cure to the use of the five elements. But a vaidya who goes beyond this and uses such herbs as grow or can be grown in his neighbourhood purely for service of the sick and not for money may claim to be a nature-cure man. But where are such vaidyas to be found? Today most of them are engaged in making money. They do no research work and it is because of their greed and mental laziness that the science of Ayurveda is at a low ebb. Instead of admitting their own weakness they throw the blame on Government and public men. Government is powerless to help those who through their own fault become helpless and thereby drag the name of Ayurveda in the mud.
SIMLA, May 9, 1946
Harijan, 19-5-1946
79. RAMANAMA, THE INFALLIBLE REMEDY
Shri Ganesh Shastri Joshi, vaidya, tells me after reading my article on nature cure in Harijan of 3rd March, 1946, that in Ayurveda too there is ample testimony to the efficacy of Ramanama as a cure for all diseases. Nature cure occupies the place of honour and in it Ramanama is the most important. When Charaka, Vagbhata and other giants of medicine in ancient India wrote, the popular name for God was not Rama but Vishnu. I myself have been a devotee of Tulsidas from my childhood and have, therefore, always, worshipped God as Rama. But I know that if, beginning with Omkara one goes through the entire gamut of God’s names current in all climes, all countries and all languages, the result is the same. He and His Laws are one. To observe His Law is, there-fore, the best form of worship. A man who becomes one with the Law does not stand in need of vocal recitation of the name. In other words an individual with whom contemplation of God has become as natural as breathing, is so filled with God’s spirit that knowledge of obser-vance of the Law becomes second nature as it were with him. Such a one needs no other treatment. The question then arises as to why, in spite of having this prince of remedies at hand, we know so little about it, and why even those who know do not remember Him or remember Him only by lipservice, not from the heart. Parrot-like repetition of God’s name signifies failure to recognize Him as the panacea for all ills. How can they? This sovereign is not administered by doctors, vaidyas, hakims, or any other medical practitioners. These have no faith in it. If they were to admit that the spring of the Holy Ganges could be found in every home, their very occupation or means of livelihood would go. Therefore they must perforce rely on their powders and potions as infallible remedies. Not only do these provide bread for the doctor, but the patient too seems to feel immediate relief. If a medical practitioner can get a few persons to say ‘So and so gave me a powder and I was cured’, his business is estabished. Nor, it must be borne in mind, would it really be of any use for doctors to prescribe God’s name to patients unless they themselves were conscious of its miraculous powers. Ramanama is no copy-book maxim. It is something that has to be realized through experience. One who has had personal experience alone can prescribe it, not any other. The Vaidyaraj has copied out for me four verses. Out of these Charaka’s is the simplest and most apt. It means that if one were to obtain mastery over even one out of the thousand names of Vishnu, all ailments would vanish :
POONA, March 10, 1946
Harijan, 24-3-1946
Charaka Chikitsa, m, 311
Several physicians are taking an interest in my experiment. They send me texts from Ayurvedic writings for or against the articles I have been using. Two or three have sent me the identical text against taking honey mixed with hot water and pronouncing dire results. When I ask them whether they have verified the text from their own experience they are silent. My own experience of taking honey mixed with hot water extends to more than four years. I have experienced no ill effect whatsoever.
……...
Another
physician quotes a text against the use of sprouted pulses but he too lacks
actual experience for supporting his text. And this has been my complaint
against many Ayurvedic physicians. I have no doubt that there is abundant
ancient wisdom buried in the Sanskrit medical works. Our physicians appear to
be too lazy to unearth that wisdom in the real sense of the term. They are
satisfied with merely repeating the printed formula. Even as a layman I know many virtues are
claimed for several Ayurvedic preparations. But where is their use, if they
cannot be demonstrated today? I plead,
for the sake of this ancient science, for a spirit of genuine search among our
Ayurvedic physicians. I am as anxious as the tallest among them can be to free
ourselves from the tyranny of Western medicines which are ruinously expensive
and the preparation of which takes no count of the higher humanities.
Young India, 8-8-1929
128. LETTER TO MATHURADAS PURUSHOTTAM
July
6, 1932
……
For
instance, if anybody translated Charaka1, the work would not be of any use
today since we cannot find many of the herbs and plants described by him and,
with regard to those which we do find, cannot prove the properties attributed
to them.
……
453.
LETTER TO NARAYAN KULKARNI
October
20, 1932
BHAI NARAYAN KULKARNI,
I have your letter. I regret my inability to write in Marathi. I hope that you will find no difficulty in following my Hindi. Several vaidya friends of mine had informed me three or four years ago that honey should not be taken in warm water. My other friends, the allopathic doctors have no objection to it. But I am not influenced by their opinion as they have not made a close study of the effects of articles of food. In their system they do not observe much1 distinction between what may be eaten and what eschewed. But I am writing of my personal experience. I have found no harm but rather benefit by taking honey with warm water. I started taking honey on a doctor’s advice which came about in this way. Owing to a lack of
carbohydrates in my system sugar was needed.
The best sugar in his opinion was obtained from honey. I have taken honey since
then and he never objected to my taking it in warm water. My complaint against our vaidyas is that they hold on to whatever is
expounded in the ancient texts even if it be contrary to experience as they
consider them the last word. I am sure in the Ayurvedic system there is need
for further research. It should be revised in the light of experience. Does
honey lose its property by being poured into hot water? Have you made a
chemical analysis of honey? Obesity and leanness are relative terms. For which
kind of leanness is warm honey undesirable and why so? To conclude, have you
proved by experience what you write? Vaidyas do not follow this method but are
content with quoting shlokas from the old texts. I beg you to give up
this irrational attitude and test by trial whatever is written in the ancient
works.
442. LETTER TO D. B. KALELKAR AND B. D.
KALELKAR
February 19, 1933
I can find no plant or herb which can equal milk in food value. There is certainly some truth in the belief that milk is a wholesome food even for yogis. It is the only substitute for meat. Only our vaids could have discovered a vegetable substitute for milk, but, lacking zeal for dharma, they made no such attempt. I have failed in my search and given it up. We do not know if anybody else will take it up and succeed. Perhaps in the West they may succeed. Among us there is no one who possesses the necessary medicinal knowledge to make such a discovery. We do not regard it as our dharma to acquire such knowledge and to make experiments with that aim. Anybody who wishes to undertake the task should be inspired with zeal for the welfare of the cow. He should be convinced that no milk other than the mother’s milk can be the proper food of a human being. Such a person should then study medicine. We do not have at present men with such a spirit. If India is destined to discover such a substitute, God will send among us a person with the necessary gifts. Till then, let us sing praises of milk and do the duty which lies before us.
78. LETTER TO VALLABHBHAI PATEL
August 31, 1941
BHAI VALLABHBHAI,
I have your letter. I do not expect any letter from you at present. If you can politely get yourself released from the doctors and come here, I should like it. I believe that your intestines can be soothed by remedies like mud-packs and changes in diet. I have not much faith in ayurveda. The vaids do not master their subject. Some of the remedies are effective, but I have not observed what the vaids know, how they work and so on. This is only my guess-work. Do what satisfies you. I have only expressed my personal view. Anyhow you must get well. I would not let you spend a whole hour in the lavatory.
Blessings from
BAPU
259.
LETTER TO KRISHNADAS SHAH
April
17, 1942
BHAI KRISHNADAS,
I have your letter. I do have faith in
Ayurveda but what can I do if the vaidyas lack competence? All the same I keep
in touch with them and take what I can out of them. It is precious little,
however.
7. LETTER TO VALLABHRAM VAIDYA
SEVAGRAM,
June 81, 1942
At present it is allopathy that commands enterprise, industry and knowledge. It is a developing science. It has many defects. Its pharmacopoeia is vast and yet very restricted. But it is systematic and so can draw upon whatever is special in Ayurveda. However, it is worth reflecting upon that if Ayurveda were to take what is special in allopathy the latter would be left with nothing but a few drugs.
Blessings from
BAPU
LETTER TO
VALLABHRAM VAIDYA
June 28, 1942
BHAI VALLABHRAM,
I have already told you that Ayurveda cannot be saved either by money or by State help. Would the State be able to revive Ayurveda even if it gave thousands of rupees every month to the purveyers of indigenous tonics? Hundreds of people have laid down their lives to spread allopathy. Allopathy by itself is not expensive but the doctors and the chemists have made it so. You have not seen their books giving the formula and cost of each important medicine. The cost price of Bayer’s Sarsaparilla is one and a half pice but its market price today is ten rupees. The same is true of the doctors’ fees. Ayurvedacharya Gananath Sen charges one thousand rupees for a day when he goes out of station. Without yajna there can be no achievement. Yajna implies ceaseless intelligent labour to the extent that it makes a person sweat and all that, again, dedicated to the Lord. Ayurveda has not yet become a science. In a science there is always scope for progress. Where is any progress here? Come when you feel like it.
