One of the columns that I enjoy reading in the Sunday Star newspaper is written by T. Selva on the subject of Vasthu Sastra. Here is his latest article in on healing using Neem leaves.
Neem leaves hung at the gate of a house tell visitors that it is out of bounds.Sunday December 27, 2009
Help with healing
VASTHU SASTRA
By T.SELVA
When a person has an ailment, Vedic practices can speed up the cure.
UNDER the Hindu belief system, visiting a doctor and taking medication are not enough to cure an illness. The patient has to follow some ancient Vedic ways.
I would like to devote this week’s column to chicken pox because my 11-year-old son had it and he had to observe some taboos and traditional beliefs.
For Hindus, disease is considered a retribution for sins and slights again the Goddess of Home, Mariamman, better known as Amman. She was the smallpox goddess before the disease was eradicated. Now this deity cures all so-called heat-based diseases like pox and rashes.
During the summer months (March to June) in South India, people walk miles carrying pots of water mixed with turmeric and neem leaves to ward off illnesses like measles and chicken pox.
When a person has an ailment, Vedic practices can speed up the cure.
UNDER the Hindu belief system, visiting a doctor and taking medication are not enough to cure an illness. The patient has to follow some ancient Vedic ways.
I would like to devote this week’s column to chicken pox because my 11-year-old son had it and he had to observe some taboos and traditional beliefs.
For Hindus, disease is considered a retribution for sins and slights again the Goddess of Home, Mariamman, better known as Amman. She was the smallpox goddess before the disease was eradicated. Now this deity cures all so-called heat-based diseases like pox and rashes.
During the summer months (March to June) in South India, people walk miles carrying pots of water mixed with turmeric and neem leaves to ward off illnesses like measles and chicken pox.
My son found some of the old practices he had to observe more painful than the illness itself. Although chicken pox is not a deadly infection, it is no laughing matter to elders, who imposed several do’s and don’ts the moment the spots surfaced on his body.
The first step was to hang neem leaves at the main gate of the house to inform visitors that it is out of bounds because someone is down with a contagious disease.
My son was quarantined in his room for the first three days and told not to pinch or scratch the spots as that would aggravate them. He was also asked not to look in the mirror – which had to be covered with a cloth – or more spots would surface.
Neem leaves were spread on his bed and under his pillow and he was given a bunch of them to brush his skin to ease the itching. The Hindus believe neem leaves have medicinal properties and the tree is commonly found in front of Hindu temples and homes.
Following the belief is that the infection is a visitation from Mariamman, no one is allowed to raise his or her voice at the patient – as a mark of respect to the deity.
For a week, my son was fed a soft diet – cow’s milk, jelly, yoghurt, bread and lots of fluid. He received get- well greetings and gifts from family members to keep his spirits up.
From the sixth day onwards, after his fever had subsided, he had plain rice with some vegetables. By then he had lost 5kg.
The belief is that the traditional Indian treatment requires a full five to nine days for an affected person to become cleansed. So my son had his first bath on the fifth day.
A pail of water mixed with neem leaves and turmeric was left in the sunlight in the morning. In the afternoon, he was bathed with the water outside the house – to signify that the rashes should subside with the setting sun and the sins of the patient would be washed away.
The baths were repeated for three consecutive days. Neem leaves and fresh turmeric were also pounded to form a paste and applied on the spots. Parents of the patient are obligated to collect rice donations from house to house in the neighbourhood. This is still done in the rural areas, but often dispensed with in the towns. The rice is cooked into porridge and served to devotees after special prayers offered by the patient at a temple dedicated to Mariamman on the ninth day.
The prayers signal the end of the illness and the patient, now recovered, is allowed to resume his normal routine.
My son followed almost all the beliefs and was glad he had the chicken pox during the school holidays, otherwise he would have had to miss school.
The first step was to hang neem leaves at the main gate of the house to inform visitors that it is out of bounds because someone is down with a contagious disease.
My son was quarantined in his room for the first three days and told not to pinch or scratch the spots as that would aggravate them. He was also asked not to look in the mirror – which had to be covered with a cloth – or more spots would surface.
Neem leaves were spread on his bed and under his pillow and he was given a bunch of them to brush his skin to ease the itching. The Hindus believe neem leaves have medicinal properties and the tree is commonly found in front of Hindu temples and homes.
Following the belief is that the infection is a visitation from Mariamman, no one is allowed to raise his or her voice at the patient – as a mark of respect to the deity.
For a week, my son was fed a soft diet – cow’s milk, jelly, yoghurt, bread and lots of fluid. He received get- well greetings and gifts from family members to keep his spirits up.
From the sixth day onwards, after his fever had subsided, he had plain rice with some vegetables. By then he had lost 5kg.
The belief is that the traditional Indian treatment requires a full five to nine days for an affected person to become cleansed. So my son had his first bath on the fifth day.
A pail of water mixed with neem leaves and turmeric was left in the sunlight in the morning. In the afternoon, he was bathed with the water outside the house – to signify that the rashes should subside with the setting sun and the sins of the patient would be washed away.
The baths were repeated for three consecutive days. Neem leaves and fresh turmeric were also pounded to form a paste and applied on the spots. Parents of the patient are obligated to collect rice donations from house to house in the neighbourhood. This is still done in the rural areas, but often dispensed with in the towns. The rice is cooked into porridge and served to devotees after special prayers offered by the patient at a temple dedicated to Mariamman on the ninth day.
The prayers signal the end of the illness and the patient, now recovered, is allowed to resume his normal routine.
My son followed almost all the beliefs and was glad he had the chicken pox during the school holidays, otherwise he would have had to miss school.
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