Who's your Swami, Mummy ?

Again, time is playing with my concepts...or perhaps, it's just that I'm coming across the "diverse" bit of the "unity in diversity" tag that holds this motherland bound.

For a long time, I associated spiritual healing with the release of mental anguish, the attainment of nirvana, smiling oldies in flowing robes and 'da counting beads.' I was wrong.

Turns out there's an aspect of spiritual healers that I'm totally unaware of. You see, people go to spiritual healers for more than mental freedom these days. They also go to them for the relief of pain, but the kind of pain that I'm more familiar with.. the pain of a person suffering from an acute appendix or a strangulated hernia ( don't know how that feels ? lie on ground, ask passerby to step on testicle.. now you know. )

I mean, I guess it's cute and reassuring from the point of view of maintaining our culture ( our old dudes went to Swamis too, right, not docs ?Did you ever see Vishwamitra or Dronacharya wearing a white lab coat or staring at a nurse's ass in the Ramayana or Mahabharatha series ? No ? What a strange coincidence, Sherlock..) But coming back to the point, I really wish people would use their common sense at such times.

There are some things these spiritual healers can't do. Treating an acute appendix by placing their palm over the tummy is one of them. Skateboarding with their arms is probably another thing they'd struggle with, though I'm not sure of that one. But it's unbelieveable how many people fall for the whole healer thing nevertheless. The old equation of "spiritual = religious = god = miracles" appears in people's heads and they think that it should work.. end result ? We docs get a patient when he's in severe shock from the pain , when ideally the guy could easily have been treated with perhaps even medication, of not a surgery.

Sigh, but belief overrules sense anyday, doesn't it ? Why else do we go to any lengths to watch matches we know we're gonna lose ( "Yes, honey, I AM having sex with the office cleaning lady, now put the damn phone down so we can get jiggy with it !!!! I'll call you after 6 !! " What, you haven't used that excuse ? Am I the only one who thinks of such gems ?)

Seriously, how can you actually be taken in by teleevangelists, I always wonder. Just because they repeat stuff that has been written eons ago by the real BIG dudes, how do you equate them with God's messengers ? If I read Harry Potter to patients then, will I become Dumbledore's messenger ? Sheesh.. what about the whole " touch my hand through the TV and your ailments will miraculously heal " .. reaaaaaly ?Thenwhy don't we just give away recordings of that video of himreaching out to the video camera on his endin every hospital in the world when an accident patient comes in.. at best, they can use the video reel to tie up the wound and stop the bleeding... OOOOH !! IT'S A MIRACLE. PRAISE THE LORD !!!!

Then again, maybe I'm just being me - the Aquarian going against the tide. Because the more I think about it, the more I realise maybe it works. I mean, as a kid, I had really unmanageable hair and used to wish for it to be more ... 'manageable'. Lo and behold ! The miracle arriveth. Without even knowing it, I was aiming for a spiritual haircut and it's worked.. because I can see my hair recede with each and every year.. sure, it's a gradual process, but damn, it's permanent !!! Maybe those spiritual healers do have a point, huh ? Wonder if they can do the impossible though - SPIRITUAL MY BIG BUTT AWAY, MAGIC MAN !!!!! "