This article is an excerpt from an informal talk that Srila Govinda Maharaj gave at the London Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math in October 1996. Here is a link to the original article: click here.
From 1973 I was treating Srila Guru Maharaj as his doctor. Guru Maharaj was so ill that all the doctors had said that no medicine could work in his body, and they were sure that within a few days or a week at most he would leave his body. Of course Guru Maharaja’s body is siddha body, but still all the most qualified doctors said that it was beyond their capacity to treat him.
“Whenever there is a great difficulty or an obstacle creating trouble within the universe that no one can solve, it comes to Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva has the power to correct anything.” Srila Govinda Maharaj
Then one day, I was taking my bath and I was crying, and I called to Lord Shiva, “Oh Lord Shiva, you have said that I am your son, and really I feel that I am. You are the master of all medicine, so please my Lord give me some medicine for my Guru Maharaja.”
After my desperate prayer I heard the name of a medicine, as if from the air. At first I thought I had mistaken the sound of the water from the shower as the name of the medicine, so I prayed again, “Please let me hear that name again so that I may be sure.” And again the sound of that medicine came. Many miracles have occurred in my life, and that was very much a miracle to me!
I knew that medicine because at that time I was practicing as a doctor of homeopathy to the people, but until now I had never treated Srila Guru Maharaja. This was because firstly I was not always staying with Guru Maharaja, and secondly I had never considered myself to be a very good doctor. I was able to give some help to the poor but I felt that was as much as I could do.
Srila Sridhar Maharaj, Hari Charan Prabhu & Srila Govinda Maharaj
In any case after hearing the medicine from Lord Shiva, I felt very free in my mind and I knew that Guru Maharaj will not leave us now. In the meantime Hari Charan Prabhu called me on the telephone, “Srila Guru Maharaj is sinking fast, he has no pulse, only a slight heartbeat, and no blood pressure.” I told him, as a matter of fact, “Prabhu, don’t worry, I have just now been given a medicine by Lord Shiva, give it to Guru Maharaj and he will be cured. I am coming right away.”
I took the last train from Calcutta, which was late, and arrived at the Math at about 12 o’clock midnight. When I arrived I saw Guru Maharaj sitting in his chair and taking Prasadam with his own hand. I asked Guru Maharaja, “What happened? Hari Charan Prabhu told me you were sinking.” And Guru Maharaj replied, “Yes, I was but Hari Charan Prabhu gave me the medicine that you told him, and now you can see.” Then his pulse came back and blood pressure became normal, and Guru Maharaj said, “From this day you will be my doctor!”
Srila Sridhar Maharaj with Srila Govinda Maharaj in Nabadwip, India
All of Guru Maharaja’s doctors consented, but still I was thinking that Guru Maharaj is so great that somebody will chastise me. “Why are you not calling the doctor, why are you treating Guru Maharaja?” I was a little afraid and still I did not consider myself as a very good doctor. Then Guru Maharaj said, “All the doctors have already said that no medicine can work for me, so now happily you can treat me.”
So I became Guru Maharaja’s doctor, and after that his main illness was chronic headache. He had suffered from the headache from the age of seventeen, and from twenty two it became very strong. When Guru Maharaj was suffering with this headache he could not eat anything. Only he would take water and constantly throwing up. Sometimes this would last for three days, sometimes six days, and sometimes up to twelve days. So I began researching, and finally I told Guru Maharaja, “Maharaja, now your headache must go. I can treat you and forever it will be gone.”
“Once I was almost dying and suddenly Govinda Maharaj came and gave me some medicine and that helped me, it gave me new life. His mother prayed to Shiva: “May I have a child” and then Govinda Maharaj was born. Shiva has given one holy person, with some sort of siddhi (mystic power)”. Srila Sridhar Maharaj
All the homeopathic doctors who had treated Guru Maharaj had prescribed nux-vomica and administered it from 30 to ‘m.m.’ potency, but none had had the desired effect. As they had all prescribed this same medicine, I concluded that nux-vomica must be Guru Maharaja’s constitutional medicine. I then went to an allopathic doctor and asked him: what is the dosage of nux-vomica mother tincture in allopathy? It was eight drops maximum, so I decided to give Guru Maharaj five drops. When the first signs of the headache came I administered the five drops of the mother tincture and the headache was reduced to a standby position. I was confident that now this headache will go because previously no medicine could check it. The only other medicine that could give Guru Maharaj relief from his condition was cafergot, a type of ergotamine. Ergotamine is a very serious drug, and through taking this, all of Guru Maharaja’s health problems came, but it was the only relief possible before now. After about two or three hours again the headache came and so I gave Guru Maharaj 1/4th dose of the ergotamine, and again after about another six hours the headache returned and I gave the nux-vomica. In this way alternating between the two, and then after twenty four hours I stopped the ergotamine and continued with the nux-vomica along with Lord Shiva’s medicine and two other homeopathic medicines I had selected. That headache was then completely gone forever and so in this way I was the doctor of Srila Guru Maharaja.
Still if I was not at the Math I left instruction that if the need arose then the allopathic doctor should be called. Once Guru Maharaj was suffering from bronchitis and so Hari Charan Prabhu called the top doctor of Nabadwip, the president of the district medical board. He came and after seeing Guru Maharaj prescribed some medicine. Guru Maharaj flatly told him, “No, I will not take your medicine. Govinda Maharaj is my doctor and only after he comes and says, will I take your medicine.” Then the doctor was very angry and said, “Then why did you call me?” Guru Maharaj said, “I did not call you. Hari Charan called you.” So the doctor replied. “Do not call me again if Guru Maharaj will not take my medicine then why should I come?” And angrily the doctor left.
Sri Sada Shiva Gangadhar at Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math
When I arrived, I asked Guru Maharaj what had happened and he told me the events, so I went to see the doctor. When I reached there the doctor was still angry and he said, “Oh, Govinda Maharaj you have come. It is not necessary to come. I shall not go with you. I shall not see Guru Maharaj as my patient.”
Lord Shiva’s faithful servant, Nandi
I told him, “You must continue to see Guru Maharaja.” “Why should I come, he will not take my medicine, No!” I said, “He will not take your medicine that is the truth. That is because you yourself have said that your medicine will not work on him. I am calling you because I am not a very good doctor and you are the best doctor in all of Nabadwip, and if you will examine Guru Maharaj and give your diagnosis and prescription, then immediately I can understand from your medicine what homeopathic medicine I should give instead of that. This is why I call you, and you have love for Guru Maharaja, so you must come.” Then the doctor was quiet and said, “Yes, if that is the cause, then I shall come.” Anyhow this was the history.