Chapter 36: Interested In Remaining Disinterested
1960Page 4,727 of 5,444
Ordinarily, it takes 20 minutes, or 25 minutes, to make a successful injection for an experienced surgeon. I have also seen very experienced surgeons, including my teachers from whom I had learned, taking one and a half to two hours fiddling about trying to hit the nerve. So, I knew that in a place like Meherazad with the two cottages, with what little equipment that I had, this was going to be a very, very difficult proposition. But that thought did not come to my mind at all. I said, "I am going to hit this nerve and Baba is going to be all right." That is the only thought that came to my mind. And, believe me, that this was the quickest injection that I have ever done in my life! I must have given over 700 to 800 injections, by now, but I just put the needle inside and within half a minute I had pushed the needle about four to five centimeters inside from a given point and Baba just winced. I stimulated and the same pain came and Baba says, "Yes." I injected the alcohol and Baba is all smiles within a minute.
And he says, "I am hungry. Give me some food!" And immediately, they brought a huge plateful of Indian pulao containing meat, and I have never seen a hungry man eating and gobbling that plate of pulao in the way he did. I thought this man has not seen food in his whole life. In less than a couple of minutes, practically the whole plate was completely empty. But, as you know, Baba is not so selfish! The last morsel he kept. He said, "Open your mouth," and he put that in my mouth, which I gobbled very quickly. And there were all smiles and he put his hands on his stomach as if he was very satisfied, asked for some water and he had two glasses of water.
I was much surprised as to what I had done. Well, actually, he had cured himself! If you believe me, you see I had become, at that time, nothing but completely a channel, entirely in his hands, without any thought of myself as a separate entity, because I still do not know how I did it and what had happened! I have no knowledge even to this day, because the needle just went in, within half a minute it was in the nerve, I injected the alcohol, it was blocked, and the whole thing, like a drama, was finished in less than five minutes.1
Footnotes
- 1.Transcript of a talk given by Ram Ginde to New York Monday Night Meeting on 7 October 1968 courtesy of Suhas R. Ginde.