Man’s personality has three components — the body, the mind and the soul. Since times immemorial efforts have been made to keep all the components healthy.
Our ancients had evolved their own means and methods to do so. A healthy mind in a healthy body had been the urge and the ever going effort and on the healthy soul depended the health of the other two components.
There were our saints, our sages, our Rishis who lived a long life — they kept themselves pure in mind, heart and spirit and that kept their bodies healthy which gave them a long life. That is what we know and that is what has come down to us in our history and culture.
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The modern age has given new dimensions to our thought process but the human body remains what it ever had been — the human physiology and anatomy has not changed, except that the mechanism of keeping it robust and healthy has vastly changed.
Man of today is ridden with cares and concerns which ultimately affect the physical machine. But the effort to keep that machine working in good shape is the desire and the quest of all men at all times. That is why there have been constant and continued efforts to know more and more about the mechanism of the body within and to find cures for the maladies, which cause any damage to any of its parts.
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The modern medical science has based its findings on vast and in-depth study and researches and has also succeeded in finding cures for ailments which an age ago were considered fatal and incurable.
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Such researches had kept on being made even in the past and the Ayurvedic system, the Unani system; even the Chinese system of diagnosis and cures had shown miraculous results.
There had been ‘Vaidyas’ like Sushen who was brought from Lanka to treat the fatally injured Lakshman and the ‘Sanjivani buti’ was prescribed by him as the only cure, that also if given before sun-rise.
The whole mountain containing the herb was brought by Hanuman; the herb was found by the Vaidya and Lakshman who was virtually dead fully recovered. Charak and Shrushruti had been great physicians and even surgeons. The ‘Charak Samhita’ and Shrushruti Samhita are monumental works on medicines and cures.
Hakim Lukman was an honoured name in the Unani system of medicine. The acupuncture and acupressure methods are the Chinese system and have been resurrected and revived in our country in the recent times.
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Naturopathy, homeopathy and such other ‘apathies’ have their own methods of diagnosis and cures. But all these different methods are coming into wider use only because the body and mind of the modern man is found suffering from multifarious diseases.
‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ — this is a very true saying indeed.
With the advancement of science, newer and still newer researches have continued to be made in the field of medicines and surgery, particularly in the field of allopath. The methods of diagnosis and cures and even the methods of prevention of diseases have taken long strides.
Such diseases as small-pox have been eradicated and tuberculosis is now no more an incurable or fatal disease. Plague is now unheard of and vigorous efforts are going on to eradicate malaria and polio. Quick and sure methods of diagnosis are being used to reach to the root of the diseases.
Biopsy, C.T Scanning, Laser treatment, and so many very intricate devices have been discovered to diagnose the inner most disorders of the liver, the kidney and the lungs and the bye-pass surgery of heart patients has now become a ready cure even of the precariously unsound cases.
The ultra sound can discover the gender of the fetus within the womb and so also many other internal disorders and now operations with the laser method have made the process very quick and painless.
Recently American scientists have gone to the extent of replacing an irreparably damaged heart of a man with the heart of a pig and are now experimenting at manufacturing an artificial heart.
There are specializations in every field and there are orthopedic surgeons who have specialized in the joint of the knees, similarly in the joints of the arm or the wrists.
Specialization has taken such leaps that there are specialists for all parts of the body-ophthalmologists, cardiologists, dentists, nephrologists, astrologists, and for the mind psychiatrists. There are dietitians who specialize in prescribing the right diet.
Plastic surgery now has become an old story. There are apparatuses and appliances which keep even the cripples going. Except for AIDS, cancer and diabetes which are diseases still defying a complete cure, all other diseases have, more or less been made curable.
Of course, man is a mortal being and death has to come for which there has never been and can never be a cure. The above is all about the physical ailments of the human body.
But most of the diseases are mental. Mind is the seat of all thoughts and thoughts generate fluids which flow through the veins of the body. The modern man suffers more from the mental ailments which cause physical disorders.
Hypertension, heart attacks, even liver or kidney failures have their origin in the mental state of a man. Life of the modern man has become so stressful and tensioned that it leaves its black spots in the physical shape. Hence it is that the psychiatry and counseling is also becoming an important feature of modern treatment.
Further more; our environment all around has also to do a lot in causing diseases and deformities in our life. Pollution of every sort, all around has made life and the environment around so unhealthy.
Even our foodstuffs are vastly adulterated and there have been cases detected that milk, the staple diet for children, has been found adulterated by mixing urea in it. Even synthetic milk has also been floated in the market. With all these risks to the physical well being, diseases are bound to aggravate and spread. Short term gains to some make long term loss to many; this is an unhealthy social scene with which also the body of man has to fight against.
Unhealthy, surroundings, polluted atmosphere, vitiated environment, unhygienic water supply — all these also add to the diseases for which cures have to be found.
Lastly, we have to cast a look at the third component the soul — which also stands diseased. Evil thoughts, evil designs and evil feelings make the soul of a man diseased. The cure for that does not lie with any physician. Here one has to say—’Physician heal them.
Every man has to be a physician to him. Noble thoughts and noble deeds elevate the soul and give it a healthy feeling.
A pure soul lends health to the mind and a healthy mind lends health to the body. This is a panacea which saints and sages have ever practiced and preached in our country.
Let this be a treatment—assured to us by our own selves and that would make the world a healthier place to breathe in, the health no medicines and no surgery can ever provide.
‘Yoga’, meditation, ‘pranayama’, ‘yogasans’ are the processes of purifying the mind and the body and eliminate the possibilities of diseases and the elevation of the soul to a higher level are the cure for all ills. This is the real sphere where the ultimate cure lies. Even the West has recognised it in good measure.
Let us go back to the old ways and that would be a great help to the researchers of the modern medical science the contribution of which to human health can also not be underestimated.