Good morning friends
Yesterday, I was writing about the importance of spiritual practices in health and healing. I would like to share our own personal experience in this respect.
My husband Manoj, who is a Psychiatrist, suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis more than 25 years ago. Rheumatoid arthritis is an extremely painful condition, affecting several joints and also other parts of the body. Manoj had involvement of most of the major joints, making simple tasks like getting up from bed , brushing his teeth, walking up and down the stairs extremely painful and difficult. In addition, he developed allergies to multiple foods during this time. All in all, it was a very difficult time for us as a family.
After almost a year of this suffering, with no end in sight, Manoj decided to attend a meditation camp along with his music guru Pandit Yashwant Deo. The aim of going for this camp was just to experience a change. We were not looking for any cure. At that time, Manoj used to have bandages on most of his joints, was in severe pain when the action of painkillers wore off and could not eat more than half the food items due to allergies. We travelled for almost 10 hours to reach Ganapatipule where the camp was being conducted. And the first session that we attended was Satsung, in which everyone was dancing enthusiastically. We were not really prepared for this kind of activity, especially with Manoj’s joint condition and seriously thought of going back home. But then Manoj decided that as we have come so far, let us at least give it a try. So, we stayed on and tried to practise the meditation techniques to the best of our abilities. And on the third day, we were pleasantly surprised when we realised that Manoj had missed a dose of his painkillers and still there was no pain! At home, delaying the dose of his medicine even by an hour would lead to excruciating pain. And here we were, 5-6 hours after missing a dose, with no pain at all ! That was when we realised the power of meditation. Manoj and I continued to meditate regularly after returning home and we found a great positive change in his condition. Slowly, we could taper off his medicines, most of his allergies disappeared and he could resume normal life once again. And till date, after 25 years, there has been no relapse. Manoj has been conducting meditation camps regularly for many years now and many people have benefited from these camps. We also conduct meditation sessions in our clinic regularly. He has written about this journey in a Marathi book ‘एका पुनर्जन्माची कथा’. A lot of his readers have been inspired to meditate after reading his book and have had wonderful experiences.
During my own cancer treatment almost 9 years ago, meditation and another spiritual practice ( we are members of a Japanese spiritual organisation) was extremely helpful to me to stay calm and cheerful throughout the 6 month period of treatment.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition in which patient’s own body wages a war against various body parts. Cancer too, has been linked to certain problems with the immune system. Meditation can certainly improve the working of our immune system, thereby improving our overall health.
We have personally experienced the wonderful benefits of meditation especially during the early days of Manoj’s RA, when we would find that there was pain relief and improvement in the range of movements in the affected joints after a meditation session.
We have also experienced reduction in the doses of strong painkillers like morphine in terminal cancer patients with other spiritual practices apart from meditation.
So combining spiritual practices with regular medical therapy sounds like a good idea in case of major health issues, doesn’t it ?
I hope that meditation and other spiritual practices can be routinely used in serious health problems as an adjunct to medical treatment.
Love,
Anjali Bhatawdekar
