CC Adi 10.51 (1975)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT 51
- cikitsā karena yāre ha-iyā sadaya
- deha-roga bhāva-roga,--dui tāra kṣaya
SYNONYMS
cikitsā—medical treatment; karena—did; yāre—upon whom; ha-iyā—becoming; sadaya—merciful; deha-roga—the disease of the body; bhāva-roga—the disease of material existence; dui—both; tāra—his; kṣaya—diminished.
TRANSLATION
As Murāri Gupta treated his patients, by his mercy both their bodily and spiritual diseases subsided.
PURPORT
Murāri Gupta could treat both bodily and spiritual disease because he was a physician by profession and a great devotee of the Lord in terms of spiritual advancement. This is an example of service to humanity. Everyone should know that there are two kinds of diseases in human society. One disease, which is called adhyātmika, or material disease, pertains to the body, but the main disease is spiritual. The living entity is eternal, but somehow or other, when in contact with the material energy, he is subjected to the repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. The physicians of the modern day should learn from Murāri Gupta. Although modern philanthropic physicians open gigantic hospitals, there are no hospitals to cure the material disease of the spirit soul. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement has taken up the mission of curing this disease, but people are not very appreciative because they do not know what this disease is. A diseased person needs both proper medicine and a proper diet, and therefore the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement supplies materially stricken people with the medicine of the chanting of the holy name, or the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, and the diet of prasāda. There are many hospitals and medical clinics to cure bodily diseases, but there are no such hospitals to cure the material disease of the spirit soul. The centers of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement are the only established hospitals that can cure man of birth, death, old age and disease.