“Karma is the unerring law which adjusts effect to cause, on the physical, mental, and spiritual planes of being. As no cause remains without its due effect from greatest to least, from a cosmic disturbance down to the movement of your hand, and as like produces like, Karma is that law which adjusts wisely, intelligently and equitably each effect to its cause, tracing the latter back to its producer.”[43]
“Karma is the unerring law which adjusts effect to cause, on the physical, mental, and spiritual planes of being. As no cause remains without its due effect from greatest to least, from a cosmic disturbance down to the movement of your hand, and as like produces like, Karma is that law which adjusts wisely, intelligently and equitably each effect to its cause, tracing the latter back to its producer.”[43]
This law ofKarmais in common parlance called the Will of God; which means the action of divine justice throughout the universe, and it is the cause not only of social evils, distinctions of classes in society, of the unequal distribution of wealth and comfort, good luck and misfortune, but also of defects of character, mental abnormalities and physical diseases.
All diseases in fact are effects of the law ofKarma, the effects of causes, which are all based upon one universal Law; but this is not to be understood as if it meant “fatality,” or as if nothing could be done to cure such effects; forKarmais also the source of good, and if the patient finds a physician able to cure him, it proves that it was hisKarmato find him and that he should be cured by him.
“All health and all disease comes from God, who also furnishes the remedy. Each disease is a purgatory, and no physician can effect a cure until the time of that purgatory is over. Ignorant physicians are the devils of that purgatory; but a wise physician a redeeming angel and a servant of God. The physicianis a servant of nature, and God is its Lord. Therefore no physician ever performs a cure unless it is the will of God curing the patient through him.” (“Paramir.,” I., C. iv., 2 and 7.)
“All health and all disease comes from God, who also furnishes the remedy. Each disease is a purgatory, and no physician can effect a cure until the time of that purgatory is over. Ignorant physicians are the devils of that purgatory; but a wise physician a redeeming angel and a servant of God. The physicianis a servant of nature, and God is its Lord. Therefore no physician ever performs a cure unless it is the will of God curing the patient through him.” (“Paramir.,” I., C. iv., 2 and 7.)
To know the theory of a thing is a science, to know how to use it successfully is art.[44]It was the view of the ancient philosophers, and it will also be the view of the physician of the future, that Medicine is not merely a science but a holy art, and that a mere science without true goodness and wisdom is without real value. The practice of medicine must be based not merely upon scientific theories in regard to the laws of that part of nature which is its lowest plane of manifestation, the plane of physical appearances; but at the bottom of all science must be the recognition of eternal Truth itself. Health and disease in man are not determined by physical laws alone, such as govern the lowest orders of being; neither are the laws of Nature created by Nature;but all natural laws are the outcome of spiritual law acting in Nature, and in those kingdoms where intelligence plays a part, where the will begins to become free and individual responsibility takes place, a more direct action of divine law becomes manifest. Although therefore a knowledge of the laws of physical nature is extremely useful and necessary, the student of medicine should above all cultivate nobility and spirituality of character, such as is the result of the recognition of the fundamental law of Divine Wisdom, upon which is based all the order and harmony that exists in the world. Thus the practice of medicine has for itsfoundation not a merely technical side, and is not merely a trade or profession, which anybody may enter who chooses for the purpose of making a living; but it requires for its legitimate object the employment of such faculties as are the result of a development of the higher and nobler elements, the spiritual part in the constitution of man.