The Blind and the Lame Revisited

by Rukmini Walker

A little while ago, I wrote to say that I’m still in India, and that I’ve been walking with crutches for the last six weeks. So, I’ve been slightly lame.

But it’s been a healing kind of lame… A brilliant osteopathic surgeon here in Chennai has had me following his regimen of walking with crutches, while taking vitamins and medicines he prescribes in order to avoid hip replacement surgery that was indicated by the MRI test I had done a month before.

So after six weeks, I went back to see the doctor. He said that his regimen has worked. He gave me more vitamins and meds to continue taking on into the future.

I am amazed and so grateful. It seems that no one in the West has heard of this before. Good medicine, a good doctor and lots of prayer…

When I was on my way to India, a friend said to me, “Oh, you’re going to the land of the techies!” I was surprised. I said, “Well, it used to be known as the land of dharma.”

Here in Chennai, one of the tech centers of India, it is my dharma to be so grateful for the advances of modern medicine and a surgeon with integrity who advised me how to avoid the surgery by which he makes his living.

 Srila Prabhupada wrote in one of his purports that, “Everything is moving, acting, under the supreme desire of Krsna. This consciousness is called Krsna consciousness.”

Who can understand the mysterious ways of the Lord? Sometimes even with the best doctor and the best medicines, a patient does not heal or survive.

Unconditional gratitude would mean gratefulness  even when there has been no healing or no option of survival. As Sri Caitanya says, in the mood of Sri Radha, “…even if He handles me roughly in His embrace.”

There is a beautiful prayer that says:

By the mercy of the Lord, a lame person can climb mountains, a dumb person can speak eloquent words, and a blind person can see the stars in the sky. I offer my respects to such a most merciful Lord.

Now that I can walk again, I can only pray to take each step forward, each day, and each year of my life, in service, in joy and in gratefulness.

 All the best,

Rukmini Walker