Hey folks, whaz up? Everybody rockin..? This time I m going to break your heads with some philosophical stuff..
“Knowledge is enemy of faith …….If you look deep into the abyss… some times it looks back at you……” these punching words are from a character role from the movie “Sin-eater”, the one which I happened to see a couple of times. I don’t know about others, but some of the movies or some books are more thought-provoking to me rather than the voluminous, ‘heavy-weight’ text books of my profession which I’ve been reading for the past one and half decade. I can’t say that my excitement and interest towards the field of Medicine and its vast knowledge is lost-but somehow, I’m getting more confused, as I‘m reading more about my subject i.e. in doing so called ‘super’ specialization in Cardiology. My intense inner feeling is that the knowledge is the one- which is COMPLETE; knowing that means, afterwards there won’t be anything to know and everything is known to you; knowing which brings you endless happiness and knowing that means nothing but knowing TRUTH-which is constant, ALWAYS. I do know that the purpose of Sciences is to find the truth, but it always wants proof by evidence. i.e. should be ‘demonstrable’ in a practical way. Though the world is said to be advancing in multi dimensional ways (Medical and Informative Technology,Electronics, including molecular and Genetic Engineering, Space Engineering etc)- I feel all these are either comforts/luxuries for us i.e. just for a human being. There is no true “PURPOSE” in this research i.e. many a time the research is not in ‘search’ of truth.
Though there is extensive research in the field of medicine, unknown and unanswerable things are too many, than the ones that are ‘known’ or understood.
Extensive reading of the ‘new’ research leaves me only in confusion. Once I presented an article in the Journal Club stating the adverse interaction between two important drugs in Cardiology. A couple of months later, in the same journal, there was another article stating that- there won’t be such adverse interaction and both drugs can be given safely. If the purpose of the second article is exactly to find what is true, then it will be appreciable. But in this present day era of ‘Pharmaceutical industry-driven’ research, my confidence is not enough to believe in everything of the published research. The true purpose of research is vanishing in just paper publishing attitude of many doctors (After all, we are not born as doctors, first, we are just human beings with normal drives of name and fame, money etc.) . Especially so called ‘evidence based medicine’ era and ‘guideline/ protocol driven patient care,’ I feel the field of Medicine has deviated from its target or the purpose of its existence. Actually the concept of ‘evidence-based’……..is true, but it should have that type of evidence that once it is proved or experienced, it should be feeling of ‘truth’ nothing but truth.
Apart from struggling to understand about the disease process, medical research has not touched the root cause of human suffering. There is no answer in Science, why the diseases occur in an otherwise healthy people who don’t have any risk factors. Many a time, we only assume (U know what 'assume' is - making ASS of U and ME) or hypothesize the things that this may be the cause or explanation. Medicine thinks that normality is what majority of normal population has-either anatomy or physiology. The research also focuses on-statically significant ones or any other study which shows ‘positive’ association. Should we say-any thing that does not fall into the category of ‘majority’is abnormal or rarity or exception. How can a person be there in the water without any air for an hour, how can one sit a box filled with ice-cubes almost barely for so many minutes, how can one have a sip of liquid metal burning at 9000C, breaking a wall with head or bending an one-inch diameter steel rod……………..all these things are not magics………….they are the ones that I watched in AXN channel in Guinness world records. How can the Tibet monks travel in Himalayas with just a ‘gochi’ (lion cloth). It is said when they meditate, they generate heat so that even the wet clothes become dry after the meditation. How can Bhagvan Sri Ramana Maharshi gave life to a dead child who had a snake-bite (this had been witnessed by so many people in his ashram).Should we allow the scientific research not to touch them? It is the most funny thing, if we neglect these facts and doing research on so called ‘micro things’. If whole life is spent in finding the role of nucleotidechanges (one genetic mutation) when will a person know everything about the knowledge of the whole universe. We are just having pseudo satisfaction that we have done research on so many things………… all researches which are not the final answers. If we find the ‘ultimate thing’ or the ‘target’ of research, then we can feel we achieved it. But it is not, that is why this research is ‘going on’. And we assume in future it will be found by some others. If we ourselves don’t experience or know the truth in this one hundred years of life span, what is the point in others finding it and experiencing it?
Once I happened to read” Health and healing by Yoga” by the Mother (the disciple of Sri Aurabindo). The first sentence of the book itself stunned me. “We suffer from the disease because we think and believe that we have the disease”. It also puzzled me. If that is true, what about children born with disease? It is also true some times that, many of our disease are ‘psychosomatic’, as many disease are acquired by us. But what about the advancements in the field of trauma care, anaesthesia and surgery? It is definite that health profession is giving life in certain conditions. We just can not deny the role of a doctor and health science in relieving human suffering. Any how the ultimate question to be answered is “Why this happens to a person without any reason?”- and as per Science, for an effect, there must be a cause. The same question was a discussion in 'Prasnopanishadh’ of our Vedas. Though it gives the answers, for many of such questions, the human science has to go a long way to have an answer- for which it needs a 'Vision' at the visible things beyond the present scientific knowledge.
YOURS LOVINGLY
-Dr GURU
http://drgurucardio.blogspot.com
