As we mentioned last week not only that there is no treatment in western medicine for Rajarata Chronic Kidney Disease Unidentified Etiology (RCKDunet) the causes are also not known as the words unidentified etiology indicate. Apparently the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) has under these conditions given permission to their members to make use of any reliable treatments found in the so called alternative systems of medicine. I do not know the exact words used by the SLMC, but usually the educated people in the country use the terms alternative system of medicines when they want to refer to systems of medicine other than the western system.
This terminology itself is objectionable as it implies that the western system of medicine is the chief or the default system and the others are systems alternate to western system. Medicine in today’s context means western medicine just as much vedakama meant Sinhala Vedakama during my childhood. When we were small my mother would say beheth for Sinhala beheth without a qualifying term and would refer to western medicine as ingrisi beheth. However, over the last fifty years or so the roles have been reversed and now people would say Sinhala beheth with a qualifying term and beheth for western medicine without a qualifying term.
A similar observation can be made in respect of Avurudda. Sometime ago the aluth avurudda (new year) dawned in April and people got ready for it from about early March. What was dawned in January was simply called Janeruva derived from January. However, it has become trendy to call the avurudda dawned in April as the Sinhala Avurudda with the qualifying term. The former Janeruva has gradually become the aluth avurudda and people now celebrate the aluth avurudda in January very much more than the way they used to do about fifty years ago.
These are nothing but examples for cultural invasions and it is quite clear that the Sri Lankans are now under the hegemony of western Christian Judaic culture and what we would call the Greek Judaic Christian Chinthanaya. In fact it is a worldwide phenomenon, and very recently after the “Tunisian Revolution” the pundits said the former Muslim country had now become a secular country. The westerners would warn the non Christian countries to become secular, to separate state from religion etc., without telling that their countries are Christian. To celebrate the New Year in January is to adopt a Christian tradition and nothing else, especially if the country had been celebrating the New Year on a different date in a different month.
It is true that the New Year was celebrated in January by some of the other cultures before the Christian culture adopted it, the way they adopted twenty fifth December the day of God Mithra (Sun God) of the Egyptian tradition as the birthday of Jesus the son of God (Christ). In fact this particular day was celebrated by the ancients as according to them it was on that day the Sun began its journey relative to the earth northwards. It is now known that this particular event takes place on the twenty first of December rather than on the twenty fifth of December but no correction has been made in this regard.
Today the word secular is used as a synonym for Christian. When the pundits want us to become a secular country what they mean is a Christian country. Secular England, Britain or UK for the pundits, is Christian England with all the paraphernalia of the English culture attached to it. Surely England has not separated the Christian religion, English or Anglican Christian religion to be specific, and when William Windsor marries later this year the pundits will know how secular England state is. Secular, I repeat is now a synonym for Christian and Tunisia though still not secular is on its way to becoming a secular state. We have been so much brainwashed by the western Christian education that we receive in Sri Lanka, even the Muslim pundits among us who shout from roof tops on Sinhala Buddhist hegemony would have no problem in seeing Tunisia becoming a so called secular country. Secularism is Christian but there are Christians, such as Born Again Christians in America who are not satisfied with Christian Secularism, who want more Christian features and Christians introduced into the world.
The faculties of western medicine, western engineering, western science, western humanities, and western social science are all referred to without the adjective western, as in the case of the vedakama and the avurudda, as western is supposed to be the one and only TRUE knowledge in any particular field. Thus western medicine is the medicine with other medicines referred to as alternative medicines. However, RCKDunet (unet in western medicine and not in Vedakama) has exposed the inadequacies of western medicine, and also of western science. In our vedakama it has been identified that the so called RCKDunet is caused mainly by Arsenic and Mercury found in what is now fashionably called drinking water (paneeya jalaya in Sinhala!) in the relevant areas in Rajarata. The kivula or the hardness of water also contributes as without kivula the mere presence of Arsenic would not cause so called RCKDunet, though it could result in other diseases.
There is a cure or a vedakama for this disease and already a number of patients who have been treated by western medical practitioners using the herbs that are found in the areas have been cured. In any event we have to be thankful to the SLMC for permitting these western medical practitioners to deviate from their normal practice. The western hospital in Padavi Sri Pura had been very active during the weekend with chanting of Pirith as vedakama is not dissociated from religion and unlike the westerners we do not pretend that religion and other practices are separated from each other. It is to the credit of the western medical practitioners who participated in this exercise and I understand that they too are now devout Buddhists observing the five precepts. One of the features of vedakama is that the vedamahaththaya has to be a person who at least observes the five percepts as otherwise he would not have the “power” to cure. Vedakama is not for those who take a “shot” or two or who indulge in other vices (please note that vices are culture dependent) and they are not welcome to treat the patients.
How we (the group at the University of Kelaniya) diagnosed the disease and how we came across the vedakama (treatment) is a separate story to be told later. In the meantime we would be thankful to the SLMC that has the power in virtue of being associated with the hegemonic western medicine to continue to give permission to the western doctors to make use of so called alternative treatments, though eventually it will lead to their downfall. We have been suppressed by western knowledge for more than five hundred years and it is time to realize that we also have our own systems of knowledge whether in vedakama, govikama, vadukama or anything else and we should be teaching these to our students, of course together with instructions on religious aspects.
Copyright Prof. Nalin De Silva