February 3rd 2007
Hare Krishna
Wow time really flies. It's already February. So much to do in so little time.
Well, we're moving slowly along with our gallery at Gopinatha dham. Today is very uncomfortable weather. Perth is experiencing a summer that is mix of unseasonal rains, extremely hot days and humidity inbetween. Today's humidity reminds me of Mumbai. My thoughts drift back to our visit last November.
I would like to share something I discovered in Mumbai - an extraordinary hospital.
It's called the Bhaktivedanta Hospital.
When we visited this hospital,and entered the foyer we saw Srila Prabhupada, seated there,ready to receive both the patients as well as the worship of the staff who work there.
Once inside, I was given a thin notebook with pages which were gradually filled in by reports from the many different specialists who were to examine me.
Sometimes I experience a lot of uneasiness in modern hospital proceedures, yet when placed in the hands of cultured devotee doctors, my experience was quite different. There was great comfort in knowing that [like myself] they are trying to approach spiritual realization, which includes the difference between the body and the soul. Thus in difficulty or pain they know what to do and what to say, to help spiritually as well as try to fix the body.
The devotees working there told me that His Holiness Radhanatha Maharaja inspires them by insisting that greater preaching work could be done in this hospital than in the temple. Radhanatha Maharaja, wellknown for his affection towards devotees, would like to be able to extend these facilities to as many devotees as possible.
Srila Prabhupada generally wasn't in favor of welfare work. He preached about the eternal soul and our relationship of service with the Supreme Lord Krishna. Nowdays everyone focuses on the body as if it were themselves, but Srila Prabhupada wanted to bring our attention to the needs of the soul.
Nevertheless most of us sometimes requires medical assistance!!!
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Now I'm back in Perth having just returned from an appointment with my local doctor. He looked through the booklet and read the specialist's reports. While he was clearly impressed by the thoroughness of the testing, I was impressed by the sythesis of medical awareness and spiritual care.
"How many hospitals do you have like this throughout the world?" he asked.
Right now we have only one such extraordinary hospital.
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