Twins Towers of Healing - by Dr. A.N. Safaya

[Guest guest]

black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">ESIRE TO HAVE KNOWLEDGE about the Divine and its

manifestations including the phenomenon of life in the living has been in the

human mind since the beginning of human intellectual evolution. Along side it,

there has been the urge for the practice of the art of healing the afflictions

and injuries of the human form. The two have been together since eternity. The

Vedas, which present the most ancient documentation on spirituality, amply

exemplify the togetherness of thoughts on Divinity and the art of healing.

The Principles of Arogya It is therefore but natural that Bhagavan Baba

emphasised the importance of human body and mind remaining in a

state of good health to achieve the desired results when He initiated the Sai

Seva Mission for the service of mankind. Advocating the importance of the

awareness of Divinity and the practice of the principles of

spirituality, He emphasises the need for the prevention of bad health and

avoiding unhealthy personal hygiene and unhealthy lifestyle. Every now and

then, Bhagavan keeps on laying stress on the observance of good and healthy

principles of personal hygiene, food, nutrition, and healthy lifestyle.

Bhagavan advocates the golden principles of Arogya (absence of ill health).

Seva Dal volunteers of Sri Sathya Sai Samithis all over the country are

spreading the awareness of these principles effectively and diligently. Under

this programme of awareness, society is going on a steady march, at grass root

level, towards a state of positive health for its members. This is how Sai

Health

Mission took its first step towards Arogya with the message that it was the

foremost duty of man to keep his body healthy. Sri Sathya Sai General

Hospitals The

0.6pt">second step in the direction of treatment of disease, once it had

occurred, was the establishment of two Sri Sathya Sai General Hospitals, one at

Prasanthi Nilayam and other at Whitefield, Bangalore. These two general

hospitals look after the patients of all general ailments, conduct tests, give

treatment, drugs and do surgical interventions completely free of charge.

Nearly one crore patients have been benefited by the services of these two

hospitals since their inception years ago.

MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%" align="justify"> Sri Sathya Sai

Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Prasanthi Nilayam The third step was to

establish the twin towers of Sai Health Mission in the form of two Sri Sathya

Sai Institutes of Higher Medical Sciences-one in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh

and the other

at Whitefield, Karnataka. On the occasion of His Birthday on 23rd November

1990, Bhagavan made a momentous declaration of establishing a Super Speciality

Hospital in Puttaparthi for highly specialised treatment of diseases of heart,

kidney and eyes. As a consequence of

0.45pt">this Divine Sankalpa of Bhagavan, Institute of Higher Medical Sciences

was conceptualised, planned and built in a record time of six months. It was

inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of India, Sri P.V. Narasimha Rao on 22nd

November 1991 and started functioning fully from that day. It has never looked

back. Established in an architecturally and aesthetically beautiful building,

which sits majestically in the centre of

its sprawling lush green lawns, it lodges the specialities of cardiology,

cardio-thoracic surgery, urology, ophthalmology, anaesthesiology, laboratory

medicine, blood bank, bio-medical and general engineering services. The staff

working in these departments is hand picked, well chosen with care and

dedicated to the service of ailing patients. The equipment used in diagnosis

and treatment of the patients is the latest and state of the art. All the

parameters of functioning of the Super Speciality Hospital in all its branches

are highly satisfactory and

of international standard. It is highly popular, well renowned and well known

all over the world, and is open for treatment to all, irrespective of the

distinction of caste, creed, colour, religion or country. All the diagnostic

investigations, laboratory tests and the treatment including surgery are done

completely free of cost to one and all, rich and poor! Service with Love

and Humility All this workload is shouldered by the hospital creditably and

completely free of cost to the enormous number of patients it has served so far.

All the treatment is given by the dedicated staff of doctors, nurses and

technicians to each and every patient with humility and love, amidst spiritual

environment, with the name of God on their lips. The hospital maintains very

high standard of cleanliness, purity and discipline with the help of nearly 100

Seva Dal volunteers working round the clock.

white; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%" align="justify"> Seva Dal

volunteers are the dedicated devotees of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and come

by turn from every State of the country under a laid down scheduled programme.

They dedicate their Seva at the Divine Feet of Bhagavan Baba and work in the

hospital in honorary capacity for varied intervals of time of few days to few

weeks or months. This is an excellent example of community participation in the

healthcare programme. Middle level management and the care of the equipment

including its preventive maintenance is done by a group of Technical Officers

who are highly skilled graduates and postgraduates from Sri Sathya Sai

Institute of Higher Learning, a deemed university. Their dedication and

diligence is responsible for nearly 100 per cent uptime of all the equipment of

the Institute. This Institute of excellence has developed within typical rural

environment and has been functioning in a purely rurai setting since its

inception. Of course, now an airport and a railway station have come up in

close proximity, a great boon for the patients and their attendants. Patients

of concerned specialities come from all over the country and are examined

fully. Urgent cases are given prompt medical attention and those who can wait

are put on waiting list and are called when their turn comes. Attendants of

patients have a dormitory facility with a canteen attached. Sri Sathya Sai

Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Whitefield Bhagavan's infinite love and

compassion for the suffering masses concretised in the establishment of yet

another Super Speciality

Hospital at Whitefield, Bangalore. It is, in fact, a second Sri Sathya Sai

Institute of Higher Medical Sciences. The Institute was inaugurated by the then

Prime Minister of India, Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 19th January 2001. It is

functional since then. The Institute is situated in a fully developed

urban-cum-industrial setting, in fact, next door neighbour being the world

famous International Technology Park. The palace-like architecture of the huge

hospital building is breathtakingly impressive. This white brilliant jewel of a

building sits pretty in the emerald green lawns surrounding it. It lodges the

super specialities of cardiac sciences and neurosciences with all of their

necessary support services. It has a bed strength of 333 which is looked after

by

highly dedicated, well qualified and experienced staff. Like the Institute of

Higher Medical Sciences at Prasanthi Nilayam, this Institute also gives

international standard treatment to its patients for the diseases of heart and

brain completely free of charge. Patients are served by the staff, doctors,

nurses and technicians with love, understanding and sympathy in keeping with

Bhagavan's principles of loving selfless service.

justify">The hospital is equipped with latest, state-of-the-art equipment; some

of the systems for diagnosis and treatment are made available to patients for

the first time in the country. A bigger team of Technical Officers keeps the

equipment of the hospital in a state of perfect functioning at all times with

practically no down time. They are supported by the Biomedical and General

Engineering Departments. Though not connected directly with the treatment of

patients, the workers of the support departments have thorough technical

experience and knowledge to keep the hospital infrastructure and support

services in ideal state of functioning in a manner which should serve as a

model to other hospitals of the country. The data and the indices of patient

care are

0.55pt">comparable to the data available from any other hospital at

international level. Patient Counselling Service A unique feature in

the patient care process of the two Institutes is the Patient Counselling

Service. This service has been introduced as a model project in Super

Speciality Hospital at Whitefietd. The consultants of the treating department

of the Institute keep the patient under health surveillance after he is

discharged from the hospital with the help of the volunteers of Sai

Organisation.

150%" align="justify">The counselling activities cover all the three phases of

the hospital-patient contact period, that is, the pre-hospital phase, the

hospital phase for which the patient is admitted for surgery or treatment and

the post-hospital phase after discharge of the patient from the hospital. This

arrangement ensures that the counselling continues at the locality of the

patient's residence also. Counselling to every patient also includes spiritual

counseling and offering suggestions on issues like faith, prayer, meditation

and control of emotional stress, etc. Such a comprehensive counselling care is

not only disease and person specific but is also holistic, and amounts to

almost emotional adoption of the patient with a firm promise of help for his

ailment. This is a distinct feature of the functioning of Sai Health Mission.

The

-0.05pt">system is in operation in the State of Karnataka at present and is in

the process of being extended to all other States of the country. Our country

has incomparably large population and has equally huge incidence of disease and

ill health. We have no illusion that these Twin Towers of Healing will treat

all the patients of the diseases of heart, brain, kidney and eyes and will wipe

the tears of all suffering

patient population. No, it will help only a few - a drop in a big ocean! But,

these two Towers of Healing will serve as models for establishing such

Institutes all over the country and all over the world. Such centres will

provide state-of-the-art medical treatment through dedicated staff with love,

understanding and compassion, free of cost and without any restriction of

caste, creed, colour and country, like these two Institutes provide to every

patient everyday.

justify"> Sourced: Sanathana Sarathi Pgs 332-336 November 2005 Special Edition

Courtesy: http://worldnet24.tripod.com/articles/healing-twins.htmSai Ram

Website: http://www.ssso.net