Hindu Medicine c5.s3.13

c5.s3.13

lysis of Hindu thought and culture in general, medicine is at least occasionally referred to, and some of its major aspects are emphasized. Thus, the origin of medical knowledge is characterized: “The sages, the wise men, who achieved knowledge comparable to that of our experimental science, in India were called *Kavi*, prophet-poets. It is on their immediate observation of the body, for instance, and of the powers which preserve and heal it, that all mediate and communicable knowledge of later medical tradition was based. Subsequently teaching and application ensued, where formerly prophetic experience of an inexpressible all-in-one of insight and fullness of meaning had prevailed.”⁵ Zimmer points out that according to Hindu medicine “ ‘it is impossible to fathom the causes of all worlds and of all beings’—why in every detail they are as they are: their hidden law—‘this is the secret of the gods . . . and that which cannot be thought out should be left to itself.’ This attitude implies that one rests satisfied with the juxtaposition of description and observation, of sifted experience and speculative synthesis.”⁶ The philosophical concept of fate is introduced into medicine: "The power of our decisions, their determining might [as Karma] is evidenced by the color of our hair, the shape of our nose, the diseases we suffer, the successes we gain, the length of our life, and the maturity of our understanding."⁷ Besides, Zimmer analyzes the Yoga technique of respiration in minute detail: he shows how "all the gods within our body" are made subservient to the human will. He elaborates on the parallel between medical teaching and the teaching of the Buddha. While Spinoza speaks *more geometrico*, the Buddha speaks *more medici*, as a practitioner.⁸ In his review of the translation of a play, *The Bliss of the Life-monad or Soul*, Zimmer finally clarifies the attitude of the average Hindu toward the medical art. His confidence in medicine is great. Yet the value of medical care is measured by man's higher destination. The sound body is,