Spiritual Values in a Hospital

  November 6, 2003

Hospitals are valued for the experienced, expert doctors, the latest equipment, good service, and attention to patients. Spirituality can raise all these good aspects to greater heights and accomplish what none of these can ever accomplish. There are occasions when no expert doctor can be of use, as the ailment is of such description. At those rare exceptional moments, the spiritual approach of the doctor can bring that elusive cure. Often such a cure comes to be delivered through one of the known methods, now forgotten for some reason. Or it may arise through the same method which has consistently failed so far.

Recently a middle class lady of advanced age had a slipped disc. Arrangements were made for an operation. She was in the hospital. Someone called on her and asked her to pray and see a doctor in Mysore. The patient went to Mysore. The doctor laid her face downwards and examined the spine. He pressed hard at certain parts. There was cracking noise two or three times. She was asked to stand up. She could stand up. She was asked to walk. The doctor had the good humour to ask her to run gently. She did run. What happened here is the science of medicine has unexplored avenues of cure. Resort to Spirit brings those methods to us.

India is a land of Rishis. The light of their tapas is imperishable. It is there in all our bodies. We consider a country rich if she has natural resources. We consider a nation powerful if the professionals there are in great number. We envy the nation that produces great thinkers. Natural resources are material wealth, which belongs to the physical plane. Professionals belong to the vital (nervous) and mental planes. Above the mind lie the planes of Silence, Light, Intuition, Jnana, Creation, Chit and Sat of Sachchidananda. Spirit is of that plane. We belong to India which is richly endowed with the Spiritual realisation of Knowledge, Power and Ananda. The literal fact is we are poor and those who do not have that spiritual greatness are rich, prosperous, and affluent. A greater truth is India will become as prosperous or more if we all draw upon the hidden inner Spiritual wealth. Is it a dream or a reality?

The one method by which the inner spiritual greatness can come to the surface is to offer that Spirit the avenue of values. Truthfulness, Honesty, Kindness, Soft speech, Calm, Quiet, interest in others and a host of values are there. It is not that we do not know those values. In life we follow the values of convenience, do what everyone else does. Thus we end up espousing the values of present day life which are directly opposite to spiritual values. When we need an admission we never hesitate a moment if we have access to influence or money. Only when they fail we think whether there is anything else that may give us the admission. Not only in the case of admission, we do it all the time. When an unpleasant man calls on the phone, we have a convenient reply that we are not at home. Can a person be utterly truthful? If he is, the Spirit will emerge by itself.

An American citizen travels all over the world; for several countries he needs no visa. He is received with a royal welcome. We can become the Citizens of the Spiritual Kingdom. This is a hospital. What have all those things to do with us, is a question. Our age-old formula is Sarvam Brahmam. And a hospital is not excluded. The values of the Spirit are cleanliness, soft speech, perfection, attention, the other man's point of view, thoughtfulness, resourcefulness, calm, peace, Silence, light, Joy, purity. Any organisation that espouses all these values will rise high. Practise all these values to perfection.

1. Cleanliness. It is an important value for cleanliness. Hospitals have standards of cleanliness. All hospitals do not often rise to that standard. Think of the dirtiest hospital you know and see how far your own hospital is cleaner than that. Our own hospital may be that different from a hospital of ideal standards of cleanliness. Even doctors trained in Western countries after a few years of their return feel that in their own practice they have let the standards down. An ideal establishment can improve upon Western standards. It is worth aiming at. As an experiment one may think this is not impossible. In practice it is highly impossible. Our people generally have no sense of orderliness or cleanliness. We may give orders. But others have to execute orders. We may train them. Let us not forget that the training we give will be at variance with their domestic life. To maintain high standards of any value, the person in her own house must do it with such an atmosphere. The required psychological infrastructure is not there.
2. Soft speech. It is equally difficult but equally desirable when someone is ailing. Soft speech means total SILENCE in the patient's room. The silence in the mind will raise the strength of all the personnel of the hospital and that of the patient which will generate results exceedingly desirable.
3. Among the rest of the list of values the most important is the view of the patient. Those who feel "We fully listen to the patient" will be surprised when they evaluate their performance on a scale of 1 to 10. The scale when constructed will reveal a 'perfect performance' as 3 or 22. The scale is a rational instrument, not our impression.

Suppose a hospital creates a corner of Perfection, it may be only in one of the 400 beds, but still the very atmosphere of the hospital life will be far different, as now they have a standard to compare with.

Churchill said that insurance brings to the last man the average benefits. Spiritually insurance is an arrangement by which the entire community rushes forward to meet a single individual's tragic circumstances. The Upanishad says all in each, each in all. Insurance institutionalises the Upanishadic principle. One question arises when we speak of the great power of Spirituality in the hospital. If it is so powerful why do we not apply these ideas at home to make the house happy and prosperous. A wife who has a dissipating husband may ponder the question "Is there a power to wean him away from his wayward ways?" The husband gifted with a wife who talks nonstop - even in her sleep - may think that the Spirit itself will not be able to stand this blabbering. In both cases it can work, as it has worked in several cases. Generally the results are very good. When the spiritual power of correspondences - the outer reflects the inner - is accepted, the results will be TOTAL and lasting.

When Sri Sri Prakara was a Governor here, he fell ill. The ailment defied treatment. Rajaji who went to see the Governor asked whether he consulted Gurusamy. Obviously the Governor had not heard of Gurusamy Mudaliar, the doctor who 'sees' the disease. Prakara said in a commemoration meeting of Gurusamy Mudaliar's service, "He came, knocked at my chest a few times, spoke nothing, gave me some mixture. I was cured." It is generally understood as the result of long experience. There are those who smell the disease. More than the experience and sense of smell, there is one more factor there. Health is a whole. Disease and cure are parts. One who is in touch with the Spirit will easily have a vision of the whole. But these faculties can be trained. If we cannot produce an Avatar by training, we can create in one who takes the training an ability that would otherwise be acquired over several decades of work. Needless to say, most can be thus trained, not ALL. The segment between the most and ALL is a residue of social evolution that can defy a process of training, a part of social growth.

Another Indian Company contemplating closure came into contact with consultants based on Spirit. The consultants advised against closure and claimed profits could be doubled. While they were writing the report, someone felt it could be trebled. ONE person felt it could be six fold. The company, without engaging the consultants discovered NOT the six fold profits but double that. That is the native, buried talents of the Indian entrepreneur. The capacity for ORGANISATION is there in all of us, as it is the inherent trait of the Spiritual Mind. The editor of Life Magazine or someone in the editorial board was given penicillin and he began to die. He put up an inner fight to prevent the cells dying, but death defying him reached close to the heart. He redoubled the effort. The trend of dying reversed. After a marathon monumental fight he came back to life and published his experience. When the story was told to Mother SHE said, "The Supramental Force is there in the atmosphere since 1956. It has responded to the fighting spirit of the editor."

The Indian has faith; the Westerner fights his way through. Both are commendable spiritual qualities. Success is for those who dare and risk. It is not for the timid and weak. As soon as India rises out of her timidity - the new generation already does - she can launch herself on the adventure of Prosperity.