TV Channel

Hari Om. Good evening, dear brothers and sisters around the world, my friends around the world. I am happy that you joined this webcast today on this evening. This webcast is coming to you from Vishwadeep Gurukul Swami Maheshwarananda Ashram in Jhadan, Rajasthan. In this ashram, we have several social projects: a school, a goshala, a talab, and one of the projects is the hospital project. For seventeen years, we have been working on this hospital project based in a society in Vienna, Austria, for a hospital in India. Through the support from so many donors, from the yoga group and all non-yogis, we achieved, three years ago now, that the construction of the hospital is finished. In the beginning, I want to show you what we have already achieved in these two and a half years since we started to work inside the hospital. So, if you can, please start this short video to give an impression of our hospital work. With all my heart, I am trying to help in India. The scenario of medical and health facilities is very grim in rural Rajasthan, with no access for the rural population to these services. They always remain at the receiving end, and the possibility of routine and regular medical check-ups is a far too distant dream for them. In such a grim scenario, the Om Viśvadīp Kuru-kul Centre of Jhadan and the Kriyā Hospital in India of the Society of Vienna realized the craving need of providing medical and health facilities to the destitute villagers and laid the foundation of a humanitarian project, completely dependent on the income through treatment of patients and donations. This hospital has so far arranged facilities like basic medical treatment, 24-hour emergency services, a fully equipped ambulance, ECG, X-ray, laboratory, dental, and eye treatment. Besides general health and preventive medical check-ups for school children, women, and infants at a very nominal cost. I spent thirty years of my life here in India to build up the health situation in Rajasthan. I love Rajasthan, and I see how medical help is needed in this area. One in fifty women dies during childbirth, and there is only one doctor for 5,782 people. So, out of this, we try our best to make a good hospital so that the needy can increase their happiness, their health, their prosperity, and their quality of life. With this humanitarian initiative, equipped with the latest and modern treatment techniques amidst a badly deprived rural habitation, not only the people of the village but also people of the villages and towns around will be set to have better, round-the-clock medical care. Dear friends, I hope you saw in which area our hospital and ashram are situated. We are in the desert of Rajasthan. In this desert area, people, villagers, have big difficulties to provide the income for their family. An Indian family is never only two persons. There are a minimum of four persons, and seven to nine persons are living as a joint family in one house. For instance, 80% or 90% of the surrounding area of the ashram is villagers who live as farmers. There is no industry here; they are living as farmers and are depending on the rainy season. The rainy season is also not sure, and there were years where there was very little rain, and only this time they can earn the money. The income from this is very, very little. So, there are a lot of people who are living under the poverty line here. Out of this, they don't have facilities just for life, meaning for eating and drinking, and maybe they give for their children's education. The government is trying a lot to help in this field. There are a lot of benefits which people can get, but also there is another thing: 80% are un-alphabet, illiterate here, and they don't even know which benefits they can get from the government. So there are many things which we can't even dream of, what is here in this area. And, of course, since life is so difficult for surviving, it is completely clear that health education and the health standard are not very high. Also, they don't have enough education for this. For instance, we are making in our hospital not only treatments, but we are also going outside into the villages and giving free camps. Camps means our staff is going there, mostly in a school. We open a camp, and then the villagers can come, and we give them a free consultation and free medicines. Also, in these camps, we select patients for eye operations. Our website is www.helphospital.org. On this website you will find a lot, also on our blog, you will find a lot of stories about the patients who have to have eye operations. This is due to climatic reasons. Here, the farmers, as I told you, most of the surrounding area are farmers. They have a sun exposition. Near Jodhpur, 80 kilometers from us, is a village. In this area is the highest sun exposition in the whole world. That means that the eye, which is mostly without protection, is exposed to the sun, and over the years it develops a cataract, and they cannot see anything anymore. So what we provide is that we select patients to give free eye operations. They get an artificial lens inside, and then they can see again. Of course, they should wear eyeglasses, but I never saw till now a farmer with eyeglasses. Only our yoga people are wearing eyeglasses, and so they are not aware of the prevention which they can do. These eye operations are given in the camps. We had just yesterday one eye camp, and we selected about 15 patients, and they were operated on today, and we keep them in the hospital, and tomorrow they can go out with sunglasses. The cost of this operation is only 30 euros. This means if you can help, sometimes to give some donation, like 30 euros for one eye operation, to give the eyesight to these people, that would be really great. You can find all the details on our website. Three days ago, we also had a camp that is free, with medicine given and doctor consultation in our hospital. We had seven doctors there with different specializations, like an orthopedic doctor and a skin doctor, et cetera, because also specialization is here not very much. For instance, there are only two orthopedic doctors, I think, in the next town, and only physiotherapy, for instance, which we have now in our hospital, is not part of the normal treatments here. We have in our hospital now five different departments. We have general medicine and 24-hour emergency services. We have a dentistry, which is the oldest department and which is running very well and has a good name. We have an eye department, which is used mainly on the camp dates. We have physiotherapy, which is the newest department, and this is Mr. Dr. Dananjay. He has been with us for two months, and he is a young doctor and very well qualified. Myself, I was his first patient, Dr. Dananjay, and I had a frozen shoulder, and I'm 95% already better. And he's very engaged, and we are improving with his help. After, maybe he will speak something about special treatment. Thank you. So this is our news, but physiotherapy, for instance, is not known at all in this area also. And a new department also we will open. A few months ago, sorry, that is an Āyurveda therapy center, and this is also existing. Yesterday, Swāmījī said one thing. He said, "Health is not everything, but without health, everything is nothing." So, our duty here in India, as Europeans, I see that we are so fortunate in many ways. We have health insurance, we have so many securities. Here in India, the people don't have health insurance. That is the main cause that they sometimes cannot afford to pay the doctors and the treatments. So without health insurance, they have to pay each and everything, and that's why it is very difficult for them. Our subject also is to go out in the villages to see and to help people. I saw, especially when in the villages, when I... I am very near to the local people, as you saw in the video. Villages which may be 100 people, just in the middle of nothing, that even a broken leg, even if they have a broken leg, they don't go to the hospital. They were treated even only with plants always. So once in our physiotherapy department, a person who has a shoulder problem was treated with iron, a burning iron, which was burnt on his shoulder. So there are many things which are for us incredible. We picked out one case, and this is a case of Kākūbāī, and I want to speak about her life and what happened to her. Kākūbāī is a lady; she's 60 years old, and she's living in the nearby village, only eight kilometers from Jhadan. And she has three boys who are already big and married, and two daughters. But mainly, the children are out of the house, and the daughter-in-law is here, and one daughter is with her. We had a camp in this village, I think it was two months ago, and in this camp, you know, the people are coming and they get the consultation, medicine, then they go. And suddenly, in this camp, one lady came, but she could not walk, and she could not stand, so she was like crawling on the floor, as crawling, I don't know if the word is right, on the floor and supporting with her hands. And I asked her, and so she came inside of the room, and I asked her what is happening with her, and what is the cause that she cannot move her leg at all? She cannot sit, and very bad sitting, not standing. And she said that one year ago, in her house, she slipped on the water, and she fell down, and she broke her femur and her hip joint. But nobody took her to the hospital, and actually, nothing happened. Nobody took her to the hospital, and as I told you, nothing happened. But the body is always helping itself, you know? The body is always trying to solve problems, but it is not the restitutio ad integrum, we say in medicine. That means it is not like it was before. In our countries, we try. That is the status: how the person was before an accident or an operation. It should be like after the accident and operation, the treatment should be like before. Here it is like this: the body cures, but anyhow, anyway, some way. So the way by this lady was that the bones are already completely joined, so there is not anymore possible. If she would have been treated immediately, then she could have been mobile, and she could move her joint, but because this doesn't happen, everything is stiff. The bones were joined in a very strange way, and so she has just one leg without any movement in the hip and the spine. When I saw this two months ago, I said, and she's a very intelligent woman, and I said, "You know, maybe we can help you in a way." And I said, "You know what? We take her to our hospital back, and we make an X-ray." Because till this one year after, no X-ray was made because she was not in a hospital. So we took her to the hospital, and there at this time, there was a camp, and also an orthopedic doctor was there. And we took an X-ray, and then we saw that we, in our hospital here, cannot help because everything was already solid, you know. The bones were, in a way, already joined, but completely not in the right way. And so I went to her when I spoke to the doctor, and I knew that I could not help her in this. I went to her, telling her, "I'm really sorry. I wanted to help you, but in this case, I cannot do anything." And she looked at me and said, "Yes, I know. And, you know, I accepted this already, but maybe you can help me with my eyes." Because she also had a cataract in both eyes, which means that she cannot really see properly, very, very little, like shadows, and one eye nearly nothing. So I promised her that at least we will make the eye operation. And because yesterday, Swamiji, I mentioned this case yesterday, and Swamiji was so kind to tell we should help this lady. That's why today I tell you in detail about her. And I was there in the afternoon, and I bring you very fresh photos and video from her. And tomorrow morning, she will come to our hospital, and she will be operated on her right eye so that at least she can see. And when I came now in this afternoon to her, she had just many, many children and grandchildren, neighbors with her. She saw me and said, "Ah, you didn't forget me. You didn't forget me." I said, "No, how can I forget her? It was unforgettable for me." And I'm very thankful for Swāmījī that he took up this case. And in the end, I will also request you to help her. So let's see, maybe now, how she's living and that you have an impression from her. Her name is Kākubāī. So she's living in Mālpuriyā, which is a very simple village. And that is where she is living. In this house she's living, backside in the room. Just let the slideshow go. Here, like this, I found her. She was just, she's here in the middle. You will see her orange shawl in the middle, down on the floor, sitting on the floor here. And now you see her. She's a lady in the middle in blue with arm rings. And in the middle, there is a neighbor, and on the backside is a daughter with a grandchild. So we came, and she's mostly sitting on the floor because she cannot get up alone. She always needs some help to get up. And now, just you see in the photos how she's moving. She's moving on the floor, putting one leg in front and then the other, like this. She's coming, but I have another video, then you will see this near morning. So, like this, she's moving only on the floor, coming like this, 20 centimeters by 20 centimeters. It's like this, so. Getting up, this is only with the help of others. She cannot get up. This is after getting up. So this is her, that is she, Kākūbāī. And you can see in the face that her life was not easy, is not easy, but she's a very strong woman. And here she shows you that it's a broken leg, which you see also because it's not used, so all muscles and all tendons are completely stiff. She cannot even move the foot up and down because of immobilization, you know, if you have a long time in one position without any exercise, so all muscles and joints are all reduced and have no function anymore. So the whole leg actually cannot be used, and that is she. And you see her right eye has a cataract. It is very white and not transparent. So, tomorrow we will take her. We will go by car to the village and bring her to our hospital, because the main thing also for the people here in the village is that they don't have transportation. That is the other thing: they don't have a car; they have no possibility of transportation. That is another problem for them, I think that's already, and that is last. With her grandchildren, she is very happy, so we will see her tomorrow here in the hospital. And now, with her grandchildren, they took actually the grandchildren very much care of her, she said after the accident when this happened to her. And now this is Anil, our lab technician. He came with us, and he explained to her now what she has to do tomorrow and so on, and that she has to stay in the hospital, and that we made another x-ray, and that we tried to help her to get... Actually, she needs a hip joint replacement. So now Anil is explaining that Swamiji yesterday told that maybe we can help her, with the help of all of us, so that she gets a new hip joint. Actually, I was today inquiring about the cost here in India, and it is maybe only half of this cost in Europe, but the price of the operation plus rehabilitation after the operation will be around 8,000 euros, approximately, up to 10,000, approximately. Included the post-operation, yes? It will not be done in this area. It must be somewhere else, outside, yes? Because that's like this, yes. And I have one more slide. That is, so this is Kākubāī. And I have also, maybe if you can show the video. This video I took just to show you how the function is, I think. Okay, it's running. Somebody should help her. Hey, now. You can come and sit with us if you want to. Shishu, Ipsik is here. Can you sit like this? No, I can't sit like this. Can you sit like this? ... Yes, I can sit like this. She is helping you, you should help her. She is helpless. Help her. Two people should go together. She should go on the floor. Come a little further. Our Avatā is coming. What do you want to eat? I don't know what you want to eat. I don't know what you want to eat. ... What do you want to eat? What do you want to eat? ... What do you want to eat? We are going to take a look at some of the things that we have seen here. I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to do it. ... Whoever wants to help Kakubai, you are most welcome. And I'm grateful that we already have a first donation of 500 euros from Slovenia. Thank you very much. And I request you, please, go on our website, www.helphospitalinoneworld.org. And there you find everything: how to donate. You can give it on a bank account. It is there, or you can pay also over the – you can donate over the website on PayPal also, as you wish. And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to mail us at our info, SSMR, helphospital.org. No, org cannot be, www, no, info at SSMR Hospital, gmail.com. It's not completely right again. So info.ssmrhospital, in one word, at the rate of gmail.com. Now, we say all good things are free. So this mail address, and whoever donates, I will always hold you on the line about what is going on. We'll put it also on our blog, and you will always be informed about her state of being. So, thank you also for listening. And as I told you, as a European, it is very, very interesting, or how to say, it is very touching to see how the people, not only that they don't help, but how they are able to support their destiny. You know, that is completely astonishing for me, for instance, and she did not ask me for help or something, you know, because she is already used to her destiny, and she accepted her destiny. So that is a very great thing, so she's a very divine and great soul, like all of us—we are divine and great souls. But you know, when you have a hard life, then your progress in spirituality is much bigger. And I think a person who can accept each and every situation of life is just a great soul. I don't think that the person who is reciting the Bhagavad Gītā by heart and afterwards is shouting at his neighbor and is jealous of somebody is a great divine. And it's always divine soul, of course, but the simple person who is living simply and high-thinking has this, I admire more than all intellectual speech. So that's for me personally, and you know, it is said that a thousand kilos of theory is nothing compared with one gram of praxis. Yes, and now I want, actually, my dear friends here in the room, maybe if you have some questions which you want to put to me, in this or in another case, I would be happy to answer you. Please. I would like to ask about the hospital. When we saw the first movie, generally, what is the funding aim of the hospital? Is the option that it should run by donors completely, and according to the income, to make more and more projects, like helping Kākubāī, or should it provide an affordable option in this rural part of India? That they could get the same standards as they would get in a better, how to say, profit-oriented hospital, or is it a mixture of both? A little bit is a mixture of both. It is a non-profit organization hospital, you understand me? It means we are not profit-oriented at all, yes? The aim is, should be one day, hopefully, that income and outcome should be the same. In the moment, it's not the case, yes, because still income is not so much. We are very much dependent on donations, very much. We also have one very good activity: if people are able to give 10 euros per month continuously to the hospital, and this is already something nearly 200 people are doing, this is a big help because it is a fixed income. So we have to make both. First of all, we want to have a higher health standard than the surrounding area. This is the first thing, more European standard, if possible. But at the same time, the villagers should know that they are accepted. And the prices are like in the hospitals nearby. We don't have higher prices. We have exactly the same prices, and are even cheaper than the surrounding hospitals, so that everyone can come. Everyone can come. And even if someone wants free medication, free treatment, he can also ask the higher authorities in the ashram. We give free services to all Kāmyogīs who are here, to the workers of the Om Ashram, and to Jadan villages. We make regular camps, as I told you, which also have costs because we have to buy the medicines. So a camp is approximately also around 1,000 euros, which we donate. But it is, as I told you, not profit-oriented. So one time we hope that we will have more income. In the moment we have more outcome, but we are very happy for all support, even if it's one euro or, as I told you, ten euros per month, whatever. And we try also, we would be happy to have, if we have volunteers here, especially doctors, who could come for a certain time, specialized, you know, then we can always attract with this and give better services to the surrounding people, yes? Because here in the surrounding, they have only very simple facilities for treatment. So we have already, as I told you, for instance, our dentistry is already a higher level here. Many dentists are only making extractions, taking out the tooth, but we try to keep it in. We have a very well-equipped physiotherapy, and we try now to get, I mean, in the speech, there is one maxillofacial surgeon who will come and make operations for cleft operations. You know, if a child is born, there is a society from England, SMILE, and they also give these operations for free. We have just to give the hospital for it. So I'm just on the way that this will be realized. So we try to have a very high level. We try. At the same time, we try, for everyone of course, basic medicine for everyone. That was all from your question. So, yeah, and every kind of help is most welcome, and also volunteers, you know. See, we have in the hospital two different nations, Indians and Europeans. I am at the moment the only European there, but it's a pleasure for me to work with the Indians. I love Indians. Just, it is not so easy with our European system of discipline and organization. The Indians are not used to this, so it is, and we are not used to their relaxed way of life, so we can learn from each other, you know. When you have, I am, if something is happening in the hospital, oh my goodness, the doctor didn't arrive. Or you know, the things are starting one hour too late, and so on and so on, and so I get nervous, you know. But the Indians, no problem, no problem. There is never any problem. I mean, you have to learn to take it more easily. So what we can learn from the Indians is to take it more easily. So, I try—since I'm now 34 years with Swamiji—I try till now to take it more easy. And especially in the hospital, I have to try to take it more easy, because otherwise my health will crack down completely. But I must say they also have one quality. The discipline is not their main quality. But they have one quality which is really very good. And this is called an art. This is a special art, and it's called Jugaad. You know what is Jugaad? I mean, I think here, you around the world, you don't know what is Jugār. I have an Indian here. Maybe he knows what is Jugaad. So Jugaad is like this, you see. How to say? What should I say? Jugaad is, for instance, we have no electricity in this room, but we have to make... an important politician is coming, and he has to speak on the microphone, and some light must be on him because the journalists are coming. So what do we do? We telephone to somewhere and say it's not possible, he should come another day, you know? I mean something like this. Indians know, they take the wire from somewhere, anywhere, nowhere. They put it off, you know this? They open the cable, there are two wires inside. They open another wire on the top somewhere, and then they connect, you understand? This is a black connection. I don't know if you know this, Indians know this, this yeah. So this is Jugaad means improvisation. They are master improvisation, I mean you should not touch after this because of, so the two cables, the fix on another cable, and open everything, and anyhow, the main thing is that the thing is functioning, you know, so the politician can speak, light is there, everything is there. That is Jugaad, so they are able to make a wonderful improvisation in this, they are master. And that's why this is sometimes very helpful. Some other questions, please? Deep Narayan Bhagavān Nikki, either respected Dr. Sādhvī Śāntidī, I request you that I have one contract. How will you help me? Yes, Lakṣmaṇjī, he's one of the pillars of the ashram and has been with us a long time, and is a very, very respected person on whom we can be confident. He is arranging everything, and if you have some problem with your eyes, the best is you come to the camp day because we have there, always a doctor is there. They are checking, and they select you for the eye operation, and mostly it is done on the same day or on the next day, and this is for free. You do not have to pay for it. You just have to come on the right date. Thank you, Dr. Welcome. Jugaad means, you know, Dr. You have to make possibility and create things as you like, and that is what is called Jugaad. Thank you very much. We say improvisation, you know. This is the same. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Shandaji, Dr. Shandaji, can you tell us more about the Ayurvedic practices that are available in the hospital? So I told you already that in this area, because of difficult life situations, the people don't know, or they are not introduced to naturopathy. You know, there may be the Ayurveda system in the villages, but not the Ayurveda which we understand, like with oil and massage and śirodhārā, etc. There are, I think, many Āyurveda Vedas in the villages; there are some people doing this, but not the complete Ayurveda treatment, you know, and in Europe we have many, many people who know very much about Ayurveda. And also, in our yoga and daily life, we have our own faculty where you can study Ayurveda treatment; you can become an Ayurveda therapist, thank you. And so, Ayurveda is actually naturopathy in combination with yoga, and that's why also in our hospital we want to have naturopathy. It will not be on its own part. It is the first naturopathy. And we started last year in August, and we have a center now on the first floor of the hospital. And all facilities are there. You can also have abhyaṅgam and śirodhārā, special oil treatments and massage. But we do not make it all the time, especially. We have some sessions, some certain times, where you can go also on pañca karma treatment. This is a special cleaning treatment, and this will take place in July in the first two weeks of July, and mostly the second week of December, around Christmas time, we also have Ayurveda for two weeks, and in this time we call an Ayurveda doctor. We do not have an Ayurveda doctor at the moment because I think that the people in the area are not ready for this, is my feeling. We have to give them the basic support. For instance, we try now very much physiotherapy, because Indians get too much on medicines, you know. Due to their style of life, they have to be healthy in a few hours, because at home there is nobody to earn money. So the medicine here is, in many cases, very quick medicine, meaning you get a lot of medicines so that you are fit in three hours or that you can work again, and the naturopathy is not like this; it takes time until the body is reacting, etc., so in this time, in the first week of July and second week of July, we will make Āyurveda again, and also in December. So you are most welcome to come to this Āyurveda treatment. We have a very good therapist and also a very good doctor. He is coming from Jodhpur, he will make the diagnosis and recommend to you some plants and teas, etc., which you can take. Also, we have in our ashram, actually, Pushpa was asking, and she is the bio master of the ashram, and she's speaking with the plants and the trees, and that's why our vegetables are very wonderful. And we are really fortunate that we have biological and very pure vegetables in our ashram. Some other questions? So, I thank you very much, dear friends around the world, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. I repeat again, our website is www.helphospital.org, and if you can help in the case of Kakubai, so that we can support her and have a better life, and also if you know people who can come as a volunteer to the hospital? We would be very happy. And for any kind of suggestion, I'm always ready to hear from you or to write to you. And I thank you also for all the support which you gave us, because without your help, it would not have been possible to run this hospital. I thank you very much, and I send you many greetings from Oṁ tryambakaṁ yajāmahe sugandhiṁ puṣṭivardhanam, urvārukam iva bandhanān mṛtyormukṣīya māmṛtāt. Oṁ tryambakaṁ yajāmahe sugandhiṁ puṣṭivardhanam, urvārukam iva bandhanān mṛtyormukṣīya māmṛtāt. Nāma karatā prabhu, dīpa karatā mahā prabhu dīpa. Kartāhi kevalam oṁ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ... Thank you.