AYURVEDA & HOMOEOPATHY

                                           by Ranjan Mathews

  Ayurveda is orginal Indian system of medicine while Homoeopathy is an Alternative system, orginating in Germany and quite popular in India. Homoeo medicines have cured me of many an ailment, but first let me tell you of an Ayurvedic miracle. It must have been 1954, when I was Five or Six years old. There was a terrible boil or carbuncle under my left arm-pit. At the same time my cousin brother (he is now Head, Church of Christ/ Kerala Christian Mission, with HQ in Atlanta, Georgia, USA), 3 years younger had the same malady at the same place ! My maternal uncle (his father), a Homoeopath Doctor, opted for the lancet and with an incision and great pain, got rid of the damn thing. In my case, my grandfather, preferred Ayurvedic treatment. He took me to the son of Appavu Vaidyan, an Ayurvedic practitioner on Chetty Street, Kottayam, adjacent to my Grandfather's ancestral house. He took a look at the oversized boil, asked me to undress and the examination was over ! He prescribed an application of a mixture on the boil, made of rubbing land-tortoise shell on a stone to get a paste, mixing it with honey and the mud which an insect uses to build its nest(commonly found). Believe it or not, the boil subsided in a couple of days without any surgical procedure !

The next healing relates to a Homoeo miracle. The next year, ie. 1955, mygrandparents told there was something of a white patch like skin over my right eye's cornea. I was not aware of  it. Immediately Grand Dad's brother who was still staying on Chetty Street ( we had shifted) and was a lead Choir-boy of Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kottayam, suggested seeing a British Priest, known as Kolassery Achan, a Homoeo practitioner, who used water as his base medicine. Around the same time a boy of my age in the Bailey Hill neighbourhood had a similar affliction and was operated upon for halting the deterioration. Kolassery Achan  asked me to lie on a cement slab inside a Chapel, located in a valley some distance from the Arthooty Bridge which has a stream with fierce currents during monsoon. For half hour or so he poured water in both my eyes continuously. Then he gave one bottle containing some liquid to be diluted with water and used likewise at home for 3-days. The patch vanished after 3-days ! Both incidents are etched deep in my mind forever.