Single legged quadruped – Amazing facts about AYUSH

Is possible for lion or zebra if looses all its three legs but can still walk around in single leg, run, jump, escape, hunt etc., like other quadrupeds (four-legged animals) in the jungle?

If so, does that not mean one leg is sufficient and other three legs are not required or are redundant? The answer is simple. It is about faith. Faith surpasses everything. If people trust you and have faith in you, no matter what reward or benefit you could really provide to them, the faith can win you and also will help you to out-throw even the most deserving.

Look at the state of affairs in AYUSH especially the Siddha system or Ayurveda. It has evolved with certain fundamental principles such as Tridosha (Vata, Pitta and Kapha), the primary causes of all human diseases as its first leg, its unique diagnostic methods as its second leg, the disease descriptions & its treatment products as third leg and finally the faith of people in the system owing to its spiritual, religious and divine origin as fourth leg.

If we systematically dissect and analyze AYUSH – especially the Siddha and Ayurveda, we can easily learn that most of the present generation Siddha vaidyas in private practice does seems to employs nadi pariksha (pulse reading) such as vata, pitta and kapha nadi, its proportions, dominance, its movement pattern such as frog, snake or bird or its relative ratio such as V5, P2, K4 etc., these days.

On close encounter and during in camera discussions many AYUSH vaidyas in private practice admits the truth that Tridosha concept is more of philosophical in nature and it does not have any science in it. Therefore, they are neither taught in the colleges nor are used in practice, admits Dr.Abdul Abbas, MD - Siddha. As a result, most of them take pride to hang a stethoscope around the neck and engage in reading the heart beat than a pulse. It means, the first leg has broken or has gone vestigial.

Coming to the second leg of Siddha i.e., the method of diagnosis of diseases also, no one seems to follow these days largely due to the availability of many reliable and scientifically proven diagnostic procedures of the allopathic system. It means the AYUSH vaidyas directly admits the truth that the methods of diagnosis of Siddha are least useful. The second leg also has gone out of use for the system.

The third leg of Siddha system, the description of diseases are also no one follows these days and instead, they use the scientifically proven terms of the allopathic system. The so-called AYUSH drugs carry least to no effect due to multi-various reasons. Further, even the kindergarten eligibility a drug also none of the AYUSH products would ever qualify such as details about their pharmacokinetics, bio availability, active content and its dosage, receptor binding mechanism, metabolism etc.

It means, the third leg also has worn out and become partially and or fully useless to most of the institutionally qualified AYUSH vaidyas in private practice otherwise why they should engage in cross pathy?

It means all the three of the four legs of Siddha system such as tridosha principle, diagnostic methods, disease descriptions & products have got paralyzed and failed miserably to support the system. But our country still recognizes AYUSH as the system of medicine, drug, and cure based science and produce graduates from such school as a doctor.

Then what keeps the system going? It is the mere faith and faith and faith of several innocent people who believe and trust the system may be due to ignorance, fear, bhakti or having reached a finite state of despair & hopelessness due to some untreatable diseases they suffer and wants to experiment anything new. The other possibility is that the patients can also talk for hours with AYUSH vaidyas narrating all their problems and such scope is limited to MBBS doctors because they believe in science more than philosophy.

It means AYUSH is performing all its magic and miracle just with a single leg. It is like lion chase and hunt zebra just with one leg or zebra run fast and surpasses the speed of cheetah just with single leg!!!

What can be impossible for lion or zebra or any other life form on earth seems to be possible for AYUSH because of unchallenging faith of many people?

AYUSH is more of ‘faith medicine’ and ‘faith-based medical system’ than drug or science based medical system.

All the diseases that can be cured through faith can be cured by AYUSH.

Today AYUSH runs around, hoop, climb & crawl and make all incredible claims just with single leg called faith. Just with single leg, it does all.

When we become blind & slave to certain faiths, even the villain and demon would appear God to us with overflowing love, care, virtues, and values.

When some group directly en-cash the faith of people and promote the system for own growth and luxury some institutionally qualified vaidyas in private practice do en-cash the same faith of the innocent patients’ indirectly through cross pathy.

The patients due to their faith visit the AYUSH vaidyas for AYUSH treatment. Some institutionally qualified AYUSH vaidyas in private practice smartly prescribe allopathic drugs may be for a short course to hide the ineffectiveness of AYUSH products and to retain the faith of the patient undisturbed.

If we look at the way how AYUSH exist today, it is the faith of many people and the scientifically proven allopathic drugs that help the survival of AYUSH.

When faith drives patients to AYUSH system, some AYUSH vaidyas fulfill the faith and expectations of the patients with allopathic drugs albeit openly or secretly.

The question is, when the situation is such, why we promote AYUSH as drug and cure based medical science and produce AYUSH graduates as a doctor to practice allopathic drugs?

Faith may be linked to our gene and hence finding people with more or less same faith in AYUSH generation after generation is not difficult. Therefore, faith medicines and faith-based medical system would remain immortal and time tested.

The problem is not about its deathlessness or the sacred status it enjoys from the Government. When faith medicines started to appear as scientifically validated drugs, mock the science and affect the health care system, it raises serious concern to all nationalists.

Faith medicines and faith-based medical science can be given importance to offer paramedical support to patients. Once the patients are treated by MBBS doctors, the patients can be sends to AYUSH vaidyas for counseling to catalyze their faith and self-belief to speed up the cure. Such kind integration of both systems we must practice.

Further, for accomplishing several missions of our Government such as creating health awareness in rural India, clean India campaign, wellness and massage therapy, YOGA etc., the AYUSH vaidyas can be engaged where our nation would heavily benefit. Cross pathy neither helps AYUSH nor the poor patients.

S Ranganathan