Tranquil Malaysia

Is your personal filter working?

We are all part of the Universe and have access to the infinite knowledge. But majority remains in the illusion of ignorance. Their faith in their own ignorance is so deep that it is difficult to easily penetrate it. When they come in contact with others whom they think are more knowledgeable, they look up to them and believe blindly.

Even though the ultimate truth is One, the personal truths vary because of the circumstances of life, beliefs and conditionings. For example, vegetarianism is good from many aspects. If you are going to tell an Eskimo that he should follow vegetarianism, how is he going to survive in his place where vegetables are not available?

Even when one is knowledgeable, the truths that he/she speaks are veiled by his/her own beliefs and conditionings. So we have to pass it through our own personal filter, which Nature has endowed us with, before blindly believing or following it.

If your personal filter is not working, you can be in real problem if others’ directions are followed. Once I was told by a supposedly learned man that ladies cannot attain Moksha. When I passed it through my personal filter, I found it to be not true. Then I searched literature and found that he was wrong.

How can one keep the personal filter up to date? By doing meditation daily it is very much possible. Then we can do Reiki self healing or any other spiritual practice. For me, daily puja is also very helpful. There is a misconception that we do puja to appease God. God is Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omniscient. It is the macrocosm, of which we are the microcosm. The macrocosm doesn’t need the puja from us. But by doing puja and some rituals, we are disciplining and purifying ourselves. Through this we can become aware of our strong connection to the macrocosm! 

PLRC4 - A step Ahead

Do you have a vacuum?

Recently I met this person who was constantly arguing, many times even contradicting his own statements. It is so very easy to get irritated with some one who is out to prove wrong every point you put forth. For some time, I was perturbed, and then it set me to deep thinking. When I looked beyond the words I could see the emptiness in the depth of his eyes, could sense the relationship problems he was going through (which was later confirmed).

Then we were having food with some friends for a few days. I was shocked to see the amount of food they could eat! The short girl half my age was already putting on so much weight. I could see the amount of fat getting deposited on her shoulders and back of the neck, which will surely  lead to joint problems soon. What you eat is making the future you, your body. So the callous attitude towards what and how much is going into your body can invite problems.

Whether it is talking too much or eating too much, they point to a vacuum existing in one’s life. Unconsciously the person is trying to fill that void by indulging in excess. But this attitude will not bring healing and peace in the long run. One needs to look within, and make firm resolutions and bring about some life style changes.

Do you identify any vacuum in your life?

Reiki spreading smiles

She came to learn Reiki because her brother- in- law told her it will make a difference to her life. She was depressed, for lack of love and attention from the husband. She was stressed, as her daughter was not studying in spite of being an intelligent child, and also due to the fact that in her joint family, nobody lent her a helping hand to manage the household chores.  

Though she was doing acupressure for many clients, nobody ever paid her and she was too meek to mention anything about the need of exchange of energy. After finishing the Reiki training, I asked her to teach me some acupressure points and I gave her a fee, ‘This is your first payment for acupressure’, and she beamed. I felt so nice to watch her smile.

After a week, she called me up. She was laughing all the way through the conversation. “You won’t believe it, Reiki is doing wonders for me. My daughter now studies herself, without me nagging her. I am full of energy to manage the house work. I don’t know how, but Reiki is working. And you know what? Clients who come for acupressure are now asking me how much to pay.”

Her words made my day, and my heart sang, ‘Thank you Reiki’ 

Acupressure can do wonders

A 36 year old lady came to learn Reiki from me. She is into acupressure therapy and has helped many people get rid of their physical problems. She heard about Reiki and thought it will complement her acupressure therapy.

It was an interesting story how she tumbled upon acupressure. At the age of 25 she was diagnosed with hyper thyroids and the doctor put her on allopathic medication. With time the dosage kept on increasing till it reached 150 mgs. She had three kids to look after, apart from all the house work. As a side effect of the medication, she started losing memory, she was tired all the time and she lost the grip of her fingers. While picking up vessels in the kitchen, the vessels used to slip from her fingers and fall down. She was going through hell.

Meanwhile she developed back pain and was advised surgery.

One day her parents came to see her and her mother was devastated. They went back and on another morning they took her forcibly to the Brahmakumari center where an acupressure therapist was visiting that day. She received a session on acupressure therapy, and to her relief and astonishment she was relieved of her problems to a great extent. She was called again in the same evening for a second session, to which she obviously went.

That kindled her interest in acupressure and she followed her heart’s calling. Now she is off the allopathic medicines, her memory is back to normal and she can perform her house hold duties well. And she didn’t have to undergo the surgery for back pain, which was also relieved through acupressure therapy.

'Oxford - 8 centuries of learning' - Alive , May 2001

Bumps and road rumblers of Karnataka

I have travelled quite a bit in India and can safely say that maximum bumps and road rumblers are found in Karnataka. They are provided at such short distances that I doubt some orthopedicians and dentists have close relations who make these. Many youngsters come with fractured teeth to the dentists for repair and old persons undergo fractures on fall due to bumps and rumblers.

Speed bumps and speed humps are among many types of “traffic calming” measures. Speed bumps are applications, usually asphalt, that are from two to six inches high and one to three feet from front to back. Speed humps are usually less than four inches high but 10 to 12 feet from front to back. They have to be marked with white paint so that it is visible from a distance and one can reduce the speed of the vehicle. I have reasons to suspect that the people of Karnataka are sadists because it is very very rare to see them demarcated or to find boards telling there is ‘Bump Ahead.’

Recently we had to drive from Belgaum to Raichur, and you can’t even imagine the number of bumps and rumblers on the State Highway. When we encountered one bump I started counting and by the time I reached ‘twenty’ there was the next bump on the road, many times. The rumblers, there were even six of them together at many places!

I was pitying the bus drivers who ply this route on everyday basis. No wonder many drivers suffer from bad back ache! When I saw the loaded trucks going over the rumblers, I was really praying to God! How much of fuel wastage and wear of the vehicles this must be causing?

Stinking ‘God’s own country’

I used to take pride in being a Keralite. We were known for our cleanliness. During our  travel from Lucknow to Kerala, when the train passed through my home state in the early morning, I used to show proudly to my husband the scene of ladies brooming the front yard of houses. It was the habit of many people to clean their houses, inside and outside, take bath and then enter the kitchen.

A normal scene in Kerala tody is uncollected garbage- pileup and stinking waste across both sides of national highways. Its rivers, tiny water canals and all other natural beauty, foundation of its growing tourism industry are getting affected as lack of waste management system in the State is causing havoc to normal public life.  

The common man brings the house hold waste and dumps it on road side. The corporation workers also dump waste on the road side and set fire to it. There are all sorts of things in the waste, including plastic, so the fumes are dangerous, affecting children more than the adults.

It is sad to see that there is a lack of proper Waste Management system in place in a state with 100% literacy. In several places locals are up in arm against prevalent practice of dumping and landfill Contractors who transport garbage to dump in the interior village dumping sites or near forests or water bodies often face severe resistance from locals and environmental activists.

Unofficial estimates indicate that Kerala generates 6000 ton of waste every day. However, local issues and sentiments have prevented even the collection of solid waste. The end result is that the stunning Kerala landscape has been converted into a stinking, garbage strewn one.

Ref:

http://www.universalecoservices.com/wastemanagement_in_kerala.cfm

Watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxvZX2JHDos

Is dishonesty our National character?

The road we go through daily was so full of potholes. After months, one day we saw a road roller, and we thought that repair was imminent. But they were just patched up with small stones and sand. It is anybody’s guess how long it is going to last, with our rainy season just starting, which will last for four more months!

All the street lamps won’t be lit, and to the complaints, the answer is ‘No money”. When there are discussions on such matters, always the final fault comes to the politicians. Yesterday I heard on the TV news that ‘Situations will improve only when honest people come into politics’.

That set my mind into a thinking groove. It was searching for honest people around, from the lower class to the upper class. It is so difficult to get workers here, because they can have an ok life with the availability of Rs.1/kg rice. The families manage to have multiple ration cards (that brings in middle class citizens taking bribe to issue multiple ration cards). So they have enough rice to eat and also, sell it back at higher rate and earn some money.

There are middle aged class IV employees in private institutions, who manage to get old age pension from the government, by giving wrong age certificates (again, who issues the certificate? What’s in it for him?)

Many people don’t think twice before stealing flowers and curry leaves from other houses. More daring ones will come with gunny bags, jump inside the house compound when nobody is there in the house and fill these bags with mangoes plucked from the tree in the back yard, leaving nothing for the house holder, and they are  proud of their achievement!

The informer (to the robbers) for the theft in a house was a worker from a mutt ( religious organization)! And today I see a news item, “The woman who has made the allegations started to work as a cook there and is originally from Hubli. After lunch the Godman asked her to keep a plate in his room and when she entered he allegedly locked the room and molested her. Malamaruthi police have registered a cased under 376IPC.The godman is originally from Bagalkot.” (http://allaboutbelgaum.com/news/godman-arrested-alleged-rape-cook/)

The cream of society, the doctors who want their kids to become doctors (irrespective of their capability) would go to any length of dishonesty (which are unthinkable) to achieve their objective. And the widely prevalent dishonesty of many doctors in the approach to treating patients is an open secret.

Majority of these people who blame the politicians for dishonestly taking personal advantages, would do exactly the same thing (or even more?) if they are in the same position. So what is our future? I can’t think of any other way than to wait till the end of Kaliyuga when a God incarnate will come to eradicate the evil!

Disappearing skill of clinical diagnosis

We had the subject of general medicine and surgery in the third year of BDS. To train us to do the clinical diagnosis for the exam, we had some good teachers. When any of us fell sick, they would diagnose by clinical examination, give appropriate medicine and that was it! The health was restored.

In that period of time, one day my aunt who stayed next door, frantically called me home. Her daughter, about 4 years old, was having deep purplish color inside her oral cavity. My cousin who was doing MBBS, was already there, checking her with his stethoscope. I looked at the girl, she seemed to be completely normal, the breathing rate, pulse and all. I called her aside and asked,’ Tell me, where is the thing that you put in your mouth?’  She took me to the place where potassium permanganate was kept!

When I joined my job and started working, I developed a pain in the neck and shoulder region. The pain was a bit more and we went for consultation. He diagnosed some problem in the neck area and told to go to the physiotherapy department to get traction done daily for a number of days, apart from taking some tablets. Well, I am not a lover of tablets, but went for traction for a few days. Then I got the intuition that something was not right. I didn’t want to continue with the traction. I started thinking deeply what must have gone wrong.

While doing post graduation, my friends had talked me into buying a very high heeled chappal, and I was continuing to use it.  I thought of discontinuing its use and see the result. Well, that was it! Within a week, I was totally free from the pain.

I had a maid whose mother used to fall sick often. She would be admitted to the hospital for saline infusion, for at least two days. Now I have another maid, who absented one day and told that her mother was having abdominal pain. She took some pain killers herself, the pain got worsened. So they took her to the doctor.

I was experienced now, so asked her, ’They admitted her for saline infusion?’

‘Yes,’ she answered with a look of admiration.

I was surprised that her mother took pain killers. I asked her, ’Don’t you people have any home remedies (gharelu davai)?’

‘No’, she told with an expression, ’What are you talking about?’

‘The bill came to Rs. 7000. The doctor told that there may be problem with the heart also, it is very necessary to get a check up done (of course another fat bill).All of us are worried and are thinking about it.’

On further questioning her I came to know that her mother had a hernia operation last year. The day prior to getting pain she had carried big vessels of water to store in the house. Mostly the pain must have started due to the strain and then her self medication must have created acidity or something like that.

From our friend circle and others, we come to know that doctors who can make a correct clinical diagnosis are very rare now. They will write for investigations and even repeat investigations again and again! Doctors are proving to be ‘karmic police of the kaliyuga’ (my daughter’s words). The sins are increasing and doctors are here to mete out punishment by misdiagnosis, draining people of their money by repeated investigations, unnecessary hospitalization and surgeries.

To one of my colleagues’ mother, immediate heart surgery was advised, with a warning that she might not last even for 3 months without the surgery. The lady was very courageous and decided, ‘ I have spent a life time and had a good life. I am ready to die any time now.’ She didn't get the surgery done and was alive even three years afterwards. I lost contact with her after that.

I have reliable information from a hospital that there is standing instruction to the ICU unit that any patients that came with chest or abdominal pain have to be kept in the ICU for at least one week. The cost of doing an MBBS course is almost one crore now. If they do post graduation also, spending a fortune, they are in a hurry to make money after starting the practice. Then cuts from the drug companies and pathology labs are very lucrative. Even some dentists are routinely writing tonics for every patient for their cuts from the drug company. Is there any comparison to the earning if one does correct clinical diagnosis and cure the patients with minimum medicines? 

The changing lives of medical students

When I joined the dentistry course, there were so many things expected of a medical/dental student. Ladies had to wear saris, had to cut short their nails (this is the reason that my daughters decided in their childhood not to go into the medical field, because they liked to keep long nails), and make the hair neatly into a bun at the back. We had cupboards in the college where we were supposed to keep the doctor’s apron when leaving the college every day.

Look at the changed scenario now. Lady dentists may be thinking that they look older if they put up their hair. This is an age when ‘youth’ is the most coveted quality. Some are ‘gracious’ enough to put a clip at the back, but others believe in open hair policy. Sometimes the hair style is such that they come in front of their eyes (see the photo I got from the net).

 I am at a loss to understand how they get a clear vision of the area being operated on. Yes, many dental treatments are considered surgical procedures. Our counterparts, general surgeons keep the protocol of covering their hair in the surgery. Don’t dentists consider their work serious enough?

Many lady dentists also love to have long painted nails. Fashion statements are very important in today’s world. Earlier it was for the actors and ramp walkers that designer clothes were made. Now even for the healing profession members, designer clothes are necessary. Western influence has changed the general mind set, there are no qualms about exposing the body as much as one likes.

I see medical people with aprons (hopefully, only students, but I haven’t verified) in the hotels (not very close to the college or hospital they work), dust filled roads, and busy market places. Yes, they do shopping with doctor’s aprons!

One colleague was joking, ‘They have paid so much money as donation to get into the medical/dental college that they want to show the world what course they are doing.’

 It so happened that after I wrote this, I had to go for a communal lunch. Four medical students in aprons were standing close by and having lunch. Slowly I went near them and asked, ‘Are you medical or dental students?’  They were medical students. I asked, ‘Why do you wear the doctor’s aprons?’ They had the expression of ‘what a stupid question that is!’ I persisted, ‘What is purpose of wearing the apron?’ One girl thought for some time and told, ‘To see patients.’ Aha! So she has some idea. I told them that the apron is to be worn during working hours. ‘You should find out the reasons for wearing the apron, you are going to be doctors. It is a disgrace to our profession to roam around in doctor’s aprons in the market places and the like.’

Belgaum being a place with many dental/medical colleges, some of the local house owners keep students as tenants. Some parents also don’t like their kids to stay in the hostel. So they stay in houses, have bikes or cars. They throw the garbage in front of neighbors’ houses; have late night parties where both genders have a gala time. Since money is not a problem for these kids of rich parents, plenty of alcohol consumption goes on. One land lord of such medical students had a serious doubt once, which he disclosed to us, ‘I don’t see these people studying at all, but they keep passing exams. What kind of doctors will they make?’

Now coming to the examinations, once during a viva, the college chairman was also sitting nearby. The examiner kept asking the student questions after questions, but no answer was forthcoming. Getting frustrated, the examiner told,’ you must be knowing the answer, unless you speak out, how can I give marks?’

The student looked at the chairman and told,’ He had told me that even if I didn't answer any question, I would pass the exams’!!! Well, this may not be the case in all colleges, but even if it is happening in some places, isn't it serious?

Death around the smokey corner

The significance of human body

Will we use a huge knife to cut a cloth? Or a scissors to cut wood? Around us there are myriads of things for our daily use. We know exactly what should be used for what purpose so that our work is optimized.

When we know that ‘we’ are not the bodies and the bodies are just clothing the souls, it is necessary to think whether we are putting the body to proper use. How exactly are we supposed to be treating the bodies?

We may have so many aspirations and dreams. The body is the only machine with which we can accomplish anything in life. That means we have to take care of this machine, just like one who loves driving a lot, takes great care of his car.

Unlike the car, the human body is a self healing machine. It can take a lot of abuse. So when somebody falls really sick, he/she has taken matters to the extreme that the healing capacity of the body is not able to cope with.

When poisonous foods (fried, tinned, too much cooked etc) are routinely consumed, the body’s defense mechanism kicks in and to protect the blood vessels from this poison, it puts up a layer of fat (cholesterol) on their walls. Instead of correcting the basic cause (changing the food habit), people get angioplasties done. I know people who get it done multiple times. And humans are supposed to be ‘intelligent’ beings!

One of very basic things we can do to keep the body healthy is to get up before sunrise (or at least when the sun rises) because our body rhythm is related to the circadian rhythm. Are we doing that?

Ref: http://www.tunedbody.com/heart-surgeon-declares-really-causes-heart-illness/

- Core idea courtesy Dr. S Goel