Sivananda's Personality-81

03/04/2017.

One night, in the winter of 1949, the Master came out of the Bhajan Hall after the night Satsang.

"Did you take the temperature of Balammal in the evening?" he questioned an Ashram worker. The latter replied in the negative.

The Master at once went to the patient’s room, and would not leave the place until every minute detail in connection with the patient’s requirements had been attended to.

He then said, "Put yourself in the patient’s place. That is the best way to ensure attention to the minutest detail. If you consider that you are the doctor, you might neglect some things. What are all the items you would require? See that all those are available to the patient. You must enter into the patient’s spirit. That is the meaning of real service."

The Master then went on to instruct, "There must be a bed-pan. This is most important, especially in the case of aged patients like this lady. There should be light, matches, water in a bucket and a glass. All these things should be neatly arranged in the room so that the patient can reach out for them without much difficulty. You should pay particular attention to the arrangement of the bed. Even the slightest carelessness in this regard will deprive the patient of nature’s most powerful remedy—sleep. A haphazard making of the bed won’t do. What would be a mild discomfort to a healthy man would be unbearable horror to a sick man. Bear this in mind always."

Sri N. Ananthanarayanan
 To be continued ...