What is the use of our national heritage (Urumaya) – our intangible cultural heritage knowledge if it has not been passed into the psyche of the nation (its leaders and its people) to address the wellbeing of the citizens of the land?
What is the use of the inherited wealth of a national knowledge that could be used for the people of the land - if it is going to be buried six feet deep in the minds of leaders who are dead to the expertise of the ancestors of the country they serve.
Currently our most needed set of knowledge we have inherited from the forefathers of this land is the medical knowledge belonging to the unique branch of medical science; Deshiya Chikitsa (Sinhala Wedakama) that makes up Sri Lankan Ayurveda which is unique to this country. Yes, Sri Lankan Ayurveda had many Indian Ayurveda influence and was interconnected but Sri Lanka stood and can stand alone in its own indigenous medical heritage identity.
What is the use of all the efforts of our ancient monarchs who doggedly saw to it that our medical heritage was kept alive, century after century, if today, amidst post-colonial imperialist health policing, a total alien consciousness is allowed to reign supreme in our minds.
The principles of our intangible cultural heritage do not revolve around profit that becomes more and more lucrative with each heightened fear of sickness injected into the minds of people.
The consciousness of our inherited national medical science that has kept the nation alive and well for thousands of years functions upon an ethical philosophical based that is completely opposite to what governs the West and the now globalised Western science based dominance that the World Health Organization (WHO) stands for and promotes.
Deshiya Chikitsa (Sinhala Wedakama) and Ayurveda is based on a large body of ethics and principles that connects the universe with our bodies which seen as mini universes.
It is deeply connected to the Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. In Sri Lanka Deshiya Chikitsa (Sinhala wedakama) is deeply connected with the concept of Maithri and Karuna; the physician will always use his medical science skill passed down by his ancestors to ensure the patient is completely cured (nittawata suwakirima) and how much he is paid or not does not figure in importance.
To treat patients for profit or to be seen as financially benefitting by another’s illness was anathema in Ayurveda. This attitude was and is seen in Sinhala Wedakama as accruing bad merit (akusal).
Ayurvedic and pre Ayurvedic medical science was directly connected with nature and prospered with the respect, love and homage given to mother earth.
Trees were worshipped, permission was asked and thanks offered before leaves or bark or twigs were cut for medical need.
Sri Lanka remains through Sinhala Wedakama which still exists (although struggling enormously under various pressures) as one of the few countries not fully aping the Allopathic Western industrialised model in traditional medicine.
Whatever the disconnect with the Lankan medical heritage by Lankan policy makers and Lankan Western science medical doctors (who generally become medical professionals for social prestige and money making rather than social service), there is definitely awareness of our traditional medicinal value by the ordinary citizen. This is was and is proved from March last year to now.
People thronged to the beheth kade and nearest shops to buy Kothamalli (coriander) and turmeric and thippili and saadikka and bees honey and onions and lime and garlic and cardamom and cloves (which are just a few commonplace spices and food used in everyday cooking which have miraculous power that can boost immunity without health hazards.
Hence in this Covid-19 time, to look at the Western science paradigm with unrestrained awe is a sad joke.
It is a sad joke because Western science has failed miserably (except for the dubious money guzzling vaccines emerging with its own set of major controversies, bilateral competition and unnecessary draining of money from countries which has its own native options of health).
The current serious lack of depth in understanding what Sri Lanka already own as solution for major health challenge makes us a nation which has uprooted and thrown away the roots of this ancient and blessed civilisation. Because of this it makes us paupers. It makes us slaves. It makes us living corpses. In this backdrop whatever fancy words we use to declare our patriotism and our commitment to our civilization and culture becomes hollow and empty words that only can temporarily waft through election podiums.
What all of us should note is that the philosophy of life that governs the West is different to the East.
The foundations of what we know today as success of the Western world was built upon the exploitation, dominance and coercion of other civilizations. This foundation is based on raping and mastering mother earth and making it man’s slave. It is this attitude that is present in every aspect of Western science including chemical agriculture, the modern poison based food manufacturing industry and with the global environment destruction done in the name of ‘development.’
For the respective Vedantic and Buddhist civilisations such as India and Sri Lanka, each human action is interconnected with what happens in the immediate and in the long term – even beyond life and death. That is why it was considered preposterous for a medical practitioner to unduly benefit financially from the misery of others as it would be a serious accruing of bad karma.
This is why our ancient medical system which was founded upon the labs of perfected minds and their connection with all of the universe knew far more aspects of nature based perfected cures than Western science could never dream of.Our ancient Ola Leaf manuscripts present to date in Sri Lanka are just mostly locked up and rotting in Lankan universities. We have done nothing through national policy to conserve the Ola medicinal manuscripts we have with us.
The body of knowledge existing in these manuscripts are astonishing – most of it which the wisdom lacking infant Western science cannot grasp.
It is because of this malady that we, the post- colonial products of so called ‘Western science’, are trying to treat this Covid-19 totally separating ourselves from nature, living in our concrete jungles and thinking from industrialised minds and unactivated hearts and thus believing that Western science based vaccines are the only route to freeing the country from Covid.
Thus we are unable to take bold decisions that would save lives and change our karma.
We have to clearly understand that Covid-19 is a disease shrouded in the mystery of Western science labs co-existing with the prediction of Bill Gates made several years ago of the emergence of bio weaponry viruses and the resultant need for investments for vaccines.
Although named Covid-19 by the West, for our traditional physicians disease is not identified by fancy mindboggling modern names given but by the basic symptoms.
Another word for Covid is influenza especially at the first stage of it (within the first hour/s of the day one feels throat irritation).
As witnessed by many real life accounts, (carried out by this writer- who never uses Allopathy- under any circumstances) a few basic kitchen spices, drinking hot water, thambung hodi and steaming with herbs will clear all initial flu like irritation. A traditional Lankan diet with ample indigenous vegetables and pala warga (variety of leaves) will ensure that the body is fully restored.
Apart from these basic ‘kitchen based cures’ there are hundreds of medicinal wattoru of different weda mahattayas (numbering to about 60,000 in Sri Lanka) who all can efficiently handle the baby stages of Covid and also the complex stages when and if the infection is allowed to enter the rest of the body. If the infection enters the lungs and rest of the body it can attack weak elements of the system especially in a population where cancer, diabetes and kidney disease is rampant.
We have now created a monster out of Covid by being copy cats of Western desperation borne out of their lack of ‘medicines’ except for ‘vaccines’ from which they can earn billions of dollars.
Vaccines represents the direct injecting of the virus to the body. What we have not realised as a nation is that if the body is not prepared for this infection by eating very good food and attending to other diseases such as diabetes etc., (especially soon after the 2nd dose) that the results could be fatal.
This is what is happening all around the world but the so called ‘experts’ seem clueless about this basic commonsense or purposely choosing amnesia.
And in a lockdown situation where jobless salary-less masses (who are not the elite) can barely get or afford a loaf of bread a day naturally we are breeding weak humans who will be crushed by the injected infection. Thus we are making the country a lab of breeding Covid.
We hence need a national traditional food policy and a mass scale media awareness campaign that will educate people to cultivate nutritious herbs/vegetables/fruits for their consumption. We need a renaissance of Deshiya Aushada (local herbs) and Deshiya Beeja (local seeds).
We can, if we use even a small portion of our thinking ability see that Covid-19 is fast becoming the new diabetes or the new cancer.
The survival of diabetes and cancer – modern diseases that surfaced upon humanity with the modern scourge of chemical agriculture may take a backseat in what these diseases does for the boosting of the medical industry money making; Covid-19 and the resultant mutations, variations and all kinds of unexplained manifestations rotating unexplained amidst fully vaccinated countries is clearly now the new kid on the disease block. It is the golden goose of a heartless modern Western science based medical industry.
Hence if Sri Lanka does not for once and for all get our act together, we will have to add to our soaring indebtedness to the world to be able to buy vaccines from other nations (with money we do not have). This is not just a medical or economic problem. This is a problem also of national security. An indebted nation loses its sovereignty. We know this.
Looking purely to the Western or industrialised world for vaccines shows us that we have much to learn about the history of vaccines, where it originated from and what the Ayurvedic/Deshiya Chikitsa form of vaccines were.
This writer has interviewed a range of indigenous medical physicians of Sri Lanka who have come up with treatments for COVID19 and duly featured in this paper. This includes Sinhala Wedakam practicing Laxman J. Embuldeniya (who is also a systems engineer) who developed an oral vaccine equivalent specifically for Covid-19, based on an earlier similar initiative for Dengue within the past ten years. Information of his medication for Dengu has been formally given about 4 years ago to the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) by then Private Secretary to the then Minister of Health.
We function today as if the medical experts of our civilisation did not develop vaccines prior to Western science. If we knew an iota of the history of vaccines within Ayurveda and how this spurred the Western world to develop the modern world’s version, we would not have ignored our medical science specialists of Sinhala Wdakam fame such as Embuldeniya.’ Our problem is ignorance and ignorance alone.
This traditional oral vaccine using mainly herbs is administered targeting the nerves of the tongue that strongly impacts the brain and the rest of the body. This vaccine of Scientist and Physician Embuldeniya is currently been courted by several countries around the globe through various sources. In Sri Lankan it is being used by thousands.
Our national calamity is that we spend billions on foreign vaccines while doing absolutely nothing to take our traditional medical science to the world.
Hence we are blind to the fact that the so called advanced world could one day stealing this knowledge and sell it back to us. Taking it ethically from us to serve humanity and raising the name of our nation is one thing and dubiously and cunningly taking it from us and reselling it to us is something else. Our Lankan so called Western education gained professionals should remember this so that they never stoop to being a Judas and selling our national medicinal heritage for a pittance. Therefore if we are to merit the use of the term ‘Sri Lankan’ we should reprogram our mind to each play a role in learning the A B C about our medical heritage that we have lost in years of colonization/post colonization/neo liberalisation. It is only this re-programing which will lead to sane policy making suiting the natural and intangible heritage of the nation.
It is only such a national endeavor which will instill this knowledge in each of our minds – from the media, to the educators, to the politicians who take up ministerial positions. It is pertinent to mention here that ministerial positions are not for decoration or to watch people die of ailments curable within Sri Lankan traditional medicinal expertise. It is also pertinent to repeat that ‘Western medical professionals’ in Sri Lanka are not foreigners but Sri Lankans who are alive today because their ancestors had benefitted from indigenous medicinal science,
Most important of all we need a media that actively researches the counter narratives of Western science especially in this pandemic backdrop and learn the many facts involving the pandemic that do not reach Lankan policy makers. Since we are dealing with the lives of our people and not inanimate objects we cannot leave people to die on hospital floors. It is hence the responsibility of politicians to educate themselves.
They should also genuinely ask their conscience if they are allowing this Covid-19 tragic fiasco to become a carnival of profit for vaccine making companies. We should question if these Western medical industries would ever want the Covid-19 – the golden goose of fear and misery that would forever make poor countries poorer and desperately dependent on rich ones (who manufacture vaccines), to ever leave. Would it not be killing the pharmaceutical dream?
It is probably the likes of Bill Gates, the prophet of lab made bio weapons in the form of disease and the resultant need for ‘vaccines’ who could answer about the mysteries of modern day pandemics that are king makers of the Western Medical Industry and now in the process of taking the global vaccine industry to never before seen profit making levels.
It would not take an extraordinary intellect to understand that it is only by injecting abject fear into the minds of people that greatly assist in breaking down immunity through weakening the strength of mind, spirit and body. Hundreds of Western scientists and psychologists give modern science based explanation of the mind and body link. Lord Buddha explained this 2,500 years ago. Everything begins and ends with the mind.
It is the mind that will ensure the ‘spread’ of the pandemic that will equally ensure the greatest expanding potential of this pandemic era vaccine profiteering opportunity.
Even if the West scoffs at the mind-body linked analysis of how disease is manifested it should not be rocket science to a Buddhist nation unless we have replaced our entire mental construct indiscriminatingly within this post colonial Western centruc education system and use Buddhism only as a political token. It is no secret that the Western pharmaceutical industry was founded upon the blind hero worshipping of Western science that certain nations have used as talismans for world control.
Having for centuries vanquished traditional indigenous sciences of ancient civilisations in many subtle and overt ways and through many diverse means and agents, the stealing of this knowledge and re-packaging and re-selling for profit to these same nations *(us included) has and will be carried out under our nose if we remain the ignoramuses that we seem to be when there is a health crisis.
Currently there is talk of moves to send kilos of sample of herbs used in our traditional medical science of Deshiya Chikitsa (Sinhala Wedakam)/Sri Lankan Ayurveda to various industrialised vaccine making countries.
Certainly there must be attempts by these countries to also cart samples of rare herbs from countries such as Africa and other nations which had superior indigenous medical knowledge which was buried with the Colonisation of these nations followed up by the Western science hegemony that followed.
Our Lankan ignorance of our own medical heritage is clear when we authoritatively announce that there is ‘no cure for Covid-19’ and imprison our herbal medicines for ‘Sempathrishyawa’ which is what Covid-19 first stage is, only within the confines of ‘immunity boosting.’ We are only proving that we are Sri Lankans without even a scant vestige of consciousness that belonged to ancestors. We are looking at the definition of ‘medicine’ using the Western prototype.
We with our so called modern minds rigged with PhDs and complicated theories and dry rhetoric cannot connect with wisdom to realize that this Covid-19 is not the first pandemic that the world has faced. Exactly hundred years ago there was the Spanish flu.
Recently Ayurveda physician D. D. Hettiarachchi, veteran specialist in the Deshiya Chikitsa/Sri Lankan Ayurvena medical science made a prominent set of Western knowledge specific Sri Lankan academics from diverse field laugh when he humorously stated that ‘strange names such as Covid-19 given to the current set of initial flu like symptoms should not scare us and elicited much laughter when he said : ‘….yes of course virus change and take different forms. That is the nature of viruses that have some basic symptoms. But now we give strange and fancy names for these viruses and then go looking for ‘medicines’ for these names…now they are saying Delta… soon it will be called something like Bulto and we will run around looking for ‘medicines’ for Bulto…’ What is happening around us with people dying daily in Western medical hospitals which has no ‘medicine’ for Covid-19 is no joke but the accuracy of the explanation of Physician Hettiarachchi hits home through dry humour the basic common sense we have not understood. Hettiarachchi is one of the first physicians of Sri Lankan Ayurveda/Sinhala wedakama to start researching on eliminating the first symptoms of Covid-19 through the scores of herbs of Deshiya Chikitsa/Sri Lankan Ayurveda. His medicines were sent to Sri Lankans and even some foreigners in Italy in the earliest phase of the pandemic outbreak there early last year.
There are many like him this writer has interviewed and featured in this paper. Why are Lankan policy makers not maximizing the life saving skills of these physicians to use for the nation at this time of desperate need?
Refer also:
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2021/08/29/impact/sri-lanka-faced-epidemics...
https://www.sundayobserver.lk/2021/01/17/news-features/sinhala-wedakam-p...