Tuesday, January 3, 2023

A Doctor as Trinity god

 


                                             A Doctor as Trinity god

 

           Because of his duty and power to save the mankind from suffering and sickness and to give life, restore health to normalcy, divinity is attributed to doctors.

According to Indian philosophy, the Supreme though only one assumes three forms and names according to His various functions. They are Brahma, the creator of the universe , Vishnu, the protector and Rudra, the destroyer of the universe, known as gods of Hindu Trinity. An ideal doctor performs all the three duties of these three gods. In treatment of sickness, the foremost duty of a doctor is to find the root-cause of the sickness  and annihilate the same. Here he plays the role of Rudra. Here the annihilation is not the total destruction of the person, but taking out the roots of illness to save the life and health of the body. While doing the function of Rudra  rooting out the base of the sickness, the doctor has to very careful, alert and cautious to remove the roots of the sickness only ,not the person. In saving the life, he is like god Vishnu who is assigned the duty of protecting the world during crisis. When the sickness is destroyed from roots, life is saved, the doctor gives tonics and nutritious diet to restore the normal health of the patient. Thus the doctor performs the duty of new creator like Brahma, the Hindu god of creation. Thus the same doctor assumes three roles that of Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma according to the nature of his duties towards the patient.

Nothing is more apt than the beautiful lines of Voltaire,

“ Men who are occupied in the restoration of health to other men, by the joint exertion of skill and humanity are above all the great of the earth. They even partake of divinity, since to preserve and renew is almost as noble as to create”.

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