Are Prophecies Possible?

Hundreds of people in history are known as prophets because they are believed to have foretold the nature of important events in store for the human race. Jesus Christ, undoubtedly, is the most well known prophet. He prophesied not only the happenings in the end times but also the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. He foresaw and prophesied how his disciples would behave when he was caught and put to trial.
Another set of prophecies is attributed to ancient Judaic prophets like Daniel and Ezekiel. They prophesied the coming of Christ as well as the important events of his short life. There is no reason to believe that the events narrated in the Bible were tailored to suit the prophecies in the Old Testament.
Another remarkable set of prophecies which have not caught the attention of scholars in the West is those in the epic Mahabharata depicting the end of this Yuga that is, this phase of human history. A great deluge is what will ultimately destroy the major part of humanity. Before this, forests will be destroyed, rodents will multiply and dharma will no longer rule the lives of men and women and hedonism will replace morality.
The most remarkable prophecy in the Mahabharata is perhaps that relating to feminine puberty. The great epic prophesies that, towards the end of this Yuga, the maturity age of girls will come down and little girls will give birth to children. It is an accepted fact that, in the last fifty years, the average age of girls becoming women has come down by four months in every decade.
Prophesies of Nostradamus are more modern. In the sixteenth century, he made remarkable prophecies, many of which came true with astounding accuracy. He prophesied the rise of Napoleon, the empire building of the British, the safe air travel and many other remarkable things.
The Mayan calendar prophesying the end of the world in December 2012, and the Malachi prophesies predicting the end of papacy in the near future are perhaps the most discussed prophesies of our time.
Some believe that prophesies are but the ravings of unsound minds and some others hold that ancient writings are interpreted by pessimists who have little faith in the continued existence of the human race and some even go to the extent of portraying them as the death wish of neurotics.
It is an undeniable fact that many prophecies have come true with astonishing accuracy although many of the prophecies have been stated in equivocal terms so that we understand their significance only after the event prophesied happens. For example, the writings in the book of Revelation mean different things for different people. While some believe that the end of Papacy is predicted, some others believe that the book depicts the state of different churches of the first century.
If happenings in the future can be foreseen and foretold, such happenings are pre-decided to happen at specified times. That is, you have no control over or responsibility for the events in your life. If you are destined to murder somebody, you will commit the crime at the specified time. Your ending up in jail or on the gallows is pure fate and there is no escape from it. Nor are you responsible for such happenings in your life. Peter, in spite of his Guru’s prophecy, did what was destined.
This line of thinking reduces man to a mere tool in the hands of fate. His actions, efforts and thought process have nothing to do with his destiny. Your hard work or lethargy never affects your prosperity or happiness.
Even in India, where fatalism is almost a religious tenet, and even the highly educated people consult professional astrologers before arranging major events like marriages, fate is considered something that can be altered with prayers and poojas.
How, then, are prophesies possible?
Prophecies can be explained if we consider our concept of time from a different angle. Our division of time as past, present and future is on account of our limited intelligence which we consider absolute. Some people may be able to transcend our understanding of time. They can see into the future as we see things at a great distance using a telescope. The fictional time-machine is something inbuilt in their brains. Some prophets may have only glimpses into the future, which they themselves do not understand perfectly. Some others may have visions about future events, which appear to them in dreams.
Human mind is a sub set of the omniscient Wisdom of Nature or the Universal Consciousness. Like bubbles floating on water, which have no direct contact with the atmosphere, our minds are separated by a thin film from the Ultimate Wisdom. As long as we are trapped inside our bodies, our knowledge and perception have limitations. But some people have minds of a different or superior make.
In other words, average persons have only three dimensional understanding of the universe. Some others, the seers, have four dimensional consciousness, that is, partly or fully, they transcend the limited consciousness of the ordinary man.
Congenitally, some prophets have foreknowledge of things to come. Some others, after practicing yoga and meditation, or after being initiated into occult methods, acquire such wisdom.
Like many other occult or para psychological phenomena, prophecies are dubbed by rationalists and scientists as frauds or superstitions. But to unbiased minds, they are facts worth investigating into.

The True Religion

A religion is an organization or school of thought which tries to define and practice the correct relationship between the Creator and the creations and that among the creations themselves.

If you agree that a super genius is behind all the visible and invisible forces and phenomena in the universe, worship of this Supreme Being is inevitable. Not that God is pleased when He is praised, but prayer will strengthen your inner self.

If you always keep yourself in the shade, you can never enjoy the invigorating caress of the sun. On the other hand, if you move out to the open, you will be surprised how you are vitalized. Similarly, if you worship the Ultimate Being, you will find His wonderful Grace descending on you. God never bothers or cares whether you pray or not, it is up to you to choose.

The three major modern religions- Judaism, Christianity and Islam- are all anthropocentric, that is, they consider man as the crown of all creations. All other life forms and resources on earth were created for his benefit. In fact, it is this short-sighted philosophy that encouraged man to cut down trees, destroy forests, dam up rivers, bore into the belly of the earth in search of oil and minerals.

Hinduism and its offshoots- Jainism and Buddhism- on the other hand, are pantheistic. They believe that all life forms are sacred and equally important as human beings. Mountains and rivers have souls and are therefore sacred. Trees and other living things have imperishable souls and therefore deserve respect. Man is but one of the billions of life forms on earth and, in the cycle of rebirths, you may reincarnate and reappear on earth after death as an animal or a tree.

Looked down upon as primitive and superstitious by the followers of modern religions, Hinduism has, in fact, greater depth and relevance. A true Hindu will think twice before clearing a forest because, for him, trees are live things with souls and to destroy them is a sin.

Religions, modern or ancient, have invariably set rules and codes of conduct, assigning to each person rights as well as responsibilities so that society functions without friction and strife. Apparently, most of these rules of conduct vary from region to region and religion to religion. But in essence, religious rules stand for the dignity of the individual and the smooth functioning of the society.

But conventional religions have miserably failed in addressing the challenges the modern life has thrown up. For example, all religions condemn killing of a man. But no religion speaks against the cutting down of a tree. In the modern day context, the killing of a tree is more heinous a crime than killing a human being in that the former crime affects only a given community, but the latter the whole life on earth. In those far off days, when the founders of religions lived and preached, human life was not as complex as it is today. Therefore, the tenets and codes formulated by them addressed problems faced by a rather primitive society. Priests destined to carry the torches lit by the founders have always been bigoted and selfish people who always stood in the way of progress and enlightenment. Instead of reforming religious principles to suit the needs of changing times, they have always tried to chain society to old customs and ancient practices.

Almost all the dos and don’ts prescribed by ancient religions are, to a great extent, applicable even in the modern day scenario. For example, not much can be withdrawn from the Ten Commandments prescribed by Moses without peril to a modern society. But, much more needs to be added to them so that human life may go on without great danger.

Obviously, the ecological and environmental concerns all the right thinking persons are worried about should be incorporated into the religious principles. People should be warned against modifying nature to satisfy the avarice of man. Nobody has the right to transform the planet to suit the short sighted goals of egoistic people. The planet should be preserved as the Creator fashioned it: any attempt to the contrary is a sin for which the human race will have to face collective punishment.

All forms of life on earth should be given equal respect. In his megalomania and insatiable hedonism, man has already trampled upon the sacredness of fellow organisms. Oceans, mountains, glaciers, rivers, rocks and forests are equally sacred. All the animate and inanimate phenomena in the world are the expressions of the Ultimate Wisdom, and to destroy them and tamper with them are great sins which the humanity will have to answer for.

To worship God is to preserve nature as it is, and to destroy nature will be rebelling against Him as angels did in the Bible account.

I know such preaching will be a cry in the wilderness but it is the ultimate truth: by ignoring it man will be inviting the wrath of the Great Wisdom of Nature.

International Food Security

Till a few thousand years back, man lived as a hunter gatherer, living on whatever the nature produced. During the seasons of plenty, he ate to his fill and, during lean periods, he went practically without food. His main occupation, therefore, was wandering in search of food. A grown up person walked a minimum of fifty kilo meters daily.

A given area, say a few hundred square kilo meters, could support only a few hundred or so human beings. If the number went beyond a limit, the surplus would perish, either out of malnutrition or because of clan wars. The human race, believed to have been originated in Africa, gradually moved to different parts of the world, obviously in search of food or to save themselves from competing tribes.

Man invented agriculture perhaps ten thousand years ago. He started to cultivate plantains, nuts, fruits, grains and roots to ensure steady supply of foods. Instead of wandering in search of foods, he settled down in fertile areas most often near rivers. In fact, the whole of human civilization is a product of his agricultural activity. Plentiful and steady supply of foods obviated the need for incessant wanderings and hunger no longer haunted him as in the past.

Steady supply of foods resulted in an explosion of population. When he depended solely on foods found in nature, human population could never exceed a certain limit. Now that man produced what he needed, he could father and support a larger family. Unmodified nature could never have supported more than a few million people in the entire globe. So, it is obvious that the present human population of nearly eight billion is another product of agriculture.

Until a century back, agriculture meant cultivation for food production only. Moreover, there was scope for expanding areas under cultivation. Around the middle of the last century, it became obvious to scientists and planners that clearing more areas for farming would adversely affect the Eco system. The only way to increase food production was to improve the per acre grain output. Better varieties and systematic agricultural practices like applying chemical fertilizers were recommended. To protect plants from pests, pesticides were invented and lavishly applied.

Insecticides and chemical fertilizers not only eroded the quality of foods produced but also depleted the natural strength of the soil to support healthy plants. Half baked notions of scientists and the avarice of industry were the villains. The scope for further improving per acre out put of grains is next to nil.

Simultaneously, there was shift from agriculture for foods to farming for industry. Rubber and softwoods started to be grown extensively to cater to the needs of industry. Growth of towns, cities and suburbs made great inroads to areas under wheat, paddy and other crops.

To make matters worse, some wealthy countries like the US are going on with their programme of producing ethanol from grains so that their dependence on petrol for powering vehicles is reduced. This will further worsen the already grim global food availability.

Modifying plants genetically to produce more and to protect plants from insects is a modern way to fight scarcity and ensure plenty. But, the advisability of tampering with nature’s unerring wisdom thus is a matter of dispute.

It is evident that the food production potential of the planet has reached the maximum possible limit. Trying to further increase it is an almost impossible task.

Let’s examine the ways in which an acute shortage of food, perhaps the most challenging task before governments and policy makers, can be addressed.

The most urgent step should be arresting the growth of population in third world countries. Paradoxically enough, the rate of growth of population is high in economically backward countries. The vicious circle of poverty, grater birth rates, and more poverty is visible in all the poorer countries. Spreading literacy among people with particular emphasis on literacy among women is the first step. In every country with a high rate of literacy, birth rates are found to fall.

Third world countries backed by wealthy nations should, therefore, put in every effort to spread literacy among their people. A small percentage of money spent on the manufacture of weapons will be sufficient to send all the children in the poorer countries to school and ensure universal literacy.

Electrification of villages has been found to reduce birth rates considerably. Here also, the funds needed to electrify villages world wide, will be very small compared with the huge amounts spent on defence.

Government policies should be so oriented that couples are encouraged to have smaller families. Preventing child mortality will encourage couples to have only two or three children.

Food production should be made a more profitable occupation. This can be ensured partly by increasing the price of foods and partly by subsidizing food production. By increasing the price of grains and vegetables, people will be forced to economize the consumption of foods: by subsidizing food production governments can ensure that agriculture is a profitable occupation. Farmers should no longer be tempted to shift from cultivation for foods to more lucrative cash crops for industry.

In every economy, there will be years of plenty and those of scarcity. To bridge the gap between the two, buffer stocks should be created. Buffer stocks will help price lines of foods to be steady while it will ensure equitable prices for farm products.

Unless governments all over the world are careful, the world population especially that in the poor countries, will be in the grip of a horrible shortage of foods, which will shatter world peace, especially now that the world food production is projected to fall on account of the impending changes in the climate patterns.

HOW LONG WILL HUMAN RACE SURVIVE?

The human race is nearly two hundred thousand years old. Perhaps we are the youngest species of all life forms on earth except the fast mutating mono cellular organisms and viruses. All other primates, mammals and reptiles have inhabited this earth for longer periods.
The advent of man on earth was a land mark in the history of this planet and that of the universe known to us. Unlike other animals and life forms on earth, man is the creator of his own destiny and that of the planet itself. Till recently, man has been more or less like other animals depending on the nature for his livelihood and survival. Not that, even now, he is totally independent of nature - but he lives in a transformed environment. Instead of the energy produced by the intake and assimilation of foods into his system for his activities, he has come to depend more and more on the energy released from the fossil fuels. This has tremendously enhanced the scope and reach of his activities.
Plenty in the availability of foods always influences the number of any species. For example, when the bamboo flowers once in half a century in the north eastern states of India, mice and rats multiple in astonishing rates playing havoc to crops. During this period the rodent population explodes owing to the increased availability of food. Similarly, when man invented agriculture, and started farming in organized and mechanical ways, availability of foods improved and consequently human population has reached more than seven billion.
The Wisdom of Nature, which some people would like to call God, is amazingly superior to human intelligence: in fact human intelligence is only a minor subset of the Universal Intelligence. This all-encompassing wisdom has decreed that on the planet earth, the number of such and such species, be it an animal or tree or plant, should not exceed a certain limit. If it does, it will be at the expense of other species. The increase in the number of deer in a given system will exert great pressure on the system. To counter this, the population of predators like tigers and leopards will increase. The triggering factor will be increased availability of prey. If the deer population dwindles owing to the increased predator population, the predators will have less food and therefore, fewer kids. In some cases mothers themselves may eat up the cubs.
It is simple logic that man is but another mammal and if human population exceeds the permissible limit, the limit beyond which other life forms on earth will face irreversible ruin, the Ultimate Wisdom will see that human population is cut down to a reduced level.
Human civilization and technological advancement have made the planet a global village and movement of people from one place to another cannot be stopped. It therefore follows that, if the ultimate ruin or near extinction of human race is destined to be through a pandemic, no force can prevent it. Governments around the globe put up frantic efforts to prevent the spread of the bird flu virus and the H1N1 virus without any result. In a few months the virus reached every nook and corner of the globe. If nature opts to prune down human population to the first century level with a pandemic like the Spanish flu, it is easier now than ever before. Only a few isolated tribes in the deep Amazonian forest or the still uncharted areas in Africa or Asia might survive. Human population will go back two or three millennia both in number and sophistication.
There is certainly some inbuilt mechanism by which both the number and material advancement of human race will be kept in check. It may the climate change. It may be a meteoric shower. A nuclear war or any other momentous event which will send a shock wave around the world triggering the economic time bomb, which will annihilate the present day human civilization.
If Homo sapiens are allowed to multiply and mutilate planet earth for another half century, not only the human race but also other forms of life on earth will vanish for ever. The Ultimate is not likely to allow this to happen. It is likely that scattered and unconnected clans which have not so far got exposed to the comforts of the present day civilization will survive.
Scientific knowledge and technical innovations always depend upon the ideas left behind by past generations. You always step on the shoulders of the stalwarts of the past to attain newer heights. It would, therefore, be impossible for the survivors to reconstruct the sophistication of the present day world.
In other words, the cataclysmic end of the world, prophesied by seers and prophets, is certainly close at hand. In a way, there is some poetic justice in what is going to happen. Human hedonism has reached such a level that man will destroy not only himself but the planet itself if he is allowed to go on ‘progressing’ like this for half a century more.

Islamization of the West, Further Thoughts

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the complete islamization of the West without any jihad. Here are some after thoughts on the subject.

When two cultures, one rather ‘primitive’ in the view of the more ‘advanced’ one, are allowed to co-exist, frictions and fears naturally arise in the minds of people belonging to the majority culture. The white people in the West have, over half a century, welcomed fugitives, job seekers, students, and scholars from the third-world countries in Africa and Asia. A good percentage of this great demographic flow belonged to the Islamic faith. Not only because their culture was totally different from that of the host country, but also because the immigrants identified many of their cultural peculiarities with their religion, most Muslims steadfastly refused to be assimilated into the mainstream of social life.

In a democracy votes matter much. No politician can afford to ignore a minority. Therefore, even when the social behaviour of Muslims collided with the accepted norms of social conduct, politicians tried to ignore it. Islets of alien culture, with virtually nothing in common with the mainstream social behaviour, came into existence in different parts of Europe. Into this secluded areas, law enforcement agencies are very often denied access.

The major area of conflict is the treatment of women by Islamic communities. A white woman has complete freedom in her sexual or married life. But among Muslims, the sexual behaviour of a woman is always dictated by the community, that is, by men. This varies from coercion in the choice of husbands, to honour killings. Displaying body parts including the face is taboo and as a result, self esteem among Muslim girls is very low.

As Muslim power and influence in Europe grow and liberal Muslims are browbeaten or suppressed, the reaction of the majority culture is likely to assume harsher tones. Europeans, despite their apparent tolerance to alien models of social behaviour, are capable of extreme cruelty and bloodshed. We have any number of examples before us. Recent Christian- Muslim conflicts in Serbia, assumed the proportion of genocide. What Germany under Hitler did is another example. Six million Jews are believed to have been sent to the gas chamber simply because they were Jews.

Democracy is the only dispensation which will protect minorities anywhere in the world. Though conservative Muslims shun democracy as an unscientific western invention, as long as the West is democratic, minorities, especially Muslims do not have to fear anything.

If islamophobia is used as a clever political plank to grab power by a person or movement, and if democracy is substituted by dictatorship in a major European country, the fate of Muslims in that country will be sealed. The world will discover that all the talk about human rights, freedom of expression, freedom profess and propagate any religion etc are letters written on water. The cultural credentials of Germans have never been suspect for centuries. But they witnessed the massacre of a multitude without a whimper of protest.

It is therefore, in the interest of Muslims in the West to strengthen democracy. The elite and liberals among Muslims have a duty to transform Islam to a modern, peace loving religion, compatible with the mainstream social order. It is the duty of Muslims to free the community from the clutches of bearded and chauvinistic religious teachers with medieval mindsets.

The end time prophesy of Jesus Christ warns of widespread unrest and clashes among religious and ethnic groups towards the close of the prevailing phase of human history. Such bloody conflicts, ruled out as peculiar only to less civilized African countries and communities, can happen in Europe unless the policymakers and Islamic leaders are careful.
(Please also see my posts titled Islamization of the West, Religion and Culture, religion and Conflict and Islam and Terrorism)

Again on the economic time bomb

Economists assume that by the ever expanding spiral of more consumption and more jobs, economic growth and prosperity could be kept on growing.

In some countries, there is a statutory regulation that furniture in offices should be replaced by new pieces even if the old ones could be used for a number of years more. The aim is to promote the furniture industry. During the Great Depression of the thirties, Roosevelt’s exhortation to common people was to spend more. By increasing the money circulation he hoped to increase consumption and thereby bring about economic recovery.

All throughout human history, this has been the story of economic growth: more consumption, more production, and more jobs. Even today, governments around the globe apply this method to stimulate the economy. They pump into the system more funds, causing a spurt in consumption and thereby energising the economy.

There is the story of Pakistani agents dumping fake currency notes in the border districts of India, hoping to ruin the Indian economy. The outcome astonished not only the Government of India and its Pakistani antagonists. The border areas rained with fake currency notes witnessed a brisk economic growth.

We hear a lot about economic stagnation in developed countries like Japan and the US. What is the actual reason? Consumption has reached a peak, so that further increase in consumption and creation of more jobs become difficult.

The economists of all hues assume that further increase in consumption in any economy is possible and a decent growth rate can be sustained. But this may not be possible under all circumstances. On the other hand, it is possible that a sufficiently important but unexpected event can sent back the global patterns of consumption and consequently, job opportunities, to those prevalent a hundred years back. Such a catastrophe has never happened before, because the present level of globalisation and interlinking of world economies is something new. Besides, consumption at the present rates has never before been achieved.

The table below gives the patterns of consumption in Kerala, the South Indian state, now, and a century back. The rates of consumption are not as high as in the wealthier countries, but, definitely higher than those prevailing in most developing countries. However, a hundred years back, patterns of consumption in most parts of the world were similar except in footwear, clothing and housing. Cold climates always called for more sophistication in these areas.

Item	Consumption now	Consumption in 1910	Remarks
Housing	Units built by skilled labour using industrial products	Units built mostly by the user, using locally available materials	Job opportunities created in these areas are tremendous. They are not proportional to the growth in population. The percentage of people engaged in the production of foods has fallen sharply. Food self sufficiency is a thing of the past.
Electricity	Universally used	Use was not known
Footwear	Everybody uses	Only a selected few used
Phones	Almost everybody owns a phone	Use was not known
Clothing	The cost and quantity of clothes used by men and women are on a par with those used by the people in the West. .	Scarcely. Only young women wore upper garments
Transportation	Vehicles powered by petroleum fuels are used for travel and transportation of goods.	People mostly travelled on foot. Vehicles drawn by animals were used in the transportation of goods.
Farming	Most people have abandoned agriculture and those who are still in the profession have shifted to cash crops.	Majority of people were engaged in agriculture

In my previous article on the subject, I pointed out that some great event of global impact may send the demand of most goods as well as stock indices plummeting ruining the world economy. Just imagine the extent of job loses if the economy suddenly slid back to 1910 levels.

The fate of the world depends on how far the level of consumption may go back in a crisis. If it goes back to 1910 levels billions of people around the globe will be thrown out of employment and the fate of humanity will be doomed. It may take another millennium to regain the present level of industrial production and employment generation.

No government can totally prevent a global catastrophe caused by the sudden shrinkage in demand. However, by ensuring regional food security, much can be done. Food production should be heavily subsidised so that farmers may be dissuaded from straying into more lucrative areas such as rubber and soy cultivation.

Many of the cottage and village industries everywhere in the world used to produce goods with locally available raw materials. Industries using coconut fibres, jute, bamboo plies, etc. gave employment to millions of workers. Surky, a mixture of sugar and lime was used even in building dams. Invention of cement and plastic has ruined these industries. Government policies can revive the old industries ensuring employment to millions of workers in the event of a collapse of the present industrial culture and consequent loss of jobs.

In half a century, we have forgotten, discarded or destroyed the survival methods evolved through millennia and it is impossible to fall back to the old ways overnight. A gradual reinvention of the age old methods may ward off a total ruin.

Mahatma Gandhi advocated for the revival of the rural small-scale industries in India But the intellectuals of that time like Russel mocked the idea. A global crisis will show how prophetic and wise the ‘half clad fakir’ was.

How Safe is Modern Medicine?

Diseases, including the terrific ones like small pox and malaria, are the products of unnatural living, that is, they are the consequences of civilization.
No animal in the pristine forests suffer from disease or old age. They are the curses of man only.

As soon as diseases appeared, man divined cures for them. These remedies were mostly herbal in nature. If you visit a traditional herbal shop in Kerala, India, you will be surprised to find heaps of dried leaves, roots, berries, and nuts there. A concoction of a few of these often aromatic plant products used to cure almost all the diseases known to the local people. There were also mono cures, that is, a single dose of a particular leaf, root, or nut that could effect a miraculous cure of a particular ailment.

All life forms are filled with the Universal Life force Energy, the energy that manifests itself as growth, regeneration and response to stimuli in living things. More than the chemical composition of the ingredients the Life Force in them, cause the healing. For example, when the njavara kizhi, a very effective Ayurvedic preparation in the treatment of acute rheumatism and consequent wasting of the limbs and muscles, was subjected to chemical analysis, nothing other than the usual compounds common to milk and rice was discovered. Still, in practice, the cure brought about by the preparation is undisputable.

In the eighteenth century, Pasteur discovered that many diseases were caused by microbes. Search for methods to prevent the infection of viruses like the rabies virus, and medicines to kill harmful bacteria in the human body resulted in the invention of vaccines and antibiotics.

To alleviate aches and pains and to stimulate retarded body functions, medicines were invented. For quicker action, the practice of injecting medicines intramuscular or intravenous came into practice.

There are only two ways in which foreign materials can enter the human body, the mouth and the nostrils. By piercing the muscles or veins and introducing medicines into the human body is clearly against nature, and therefore, unscientific. Most injections do not kill people but many do. In any case, the number of cases in which human lives are saved are not greater than the number of people killed immediately or gradually by injections.

Most drugs used in modern medicine are synthetic products. Man has lived on plant products for the last two hundred thousand years and, instinctively, human body can assimilate or eliminate plant products. In the case of low molecular weight chemicals, human body is incapable of breaking up or eliminating them. For example, aluminium hydroxide, used as an antacid, is converted into aluminium chloride in the stomach and finds its way into the bloodstream. Human body has no experience and mechanism in expelling this chemical. It may, therefore, get deposited in some part of the anatomy causing unexpected and often catastrophic effects. There are people who believe that the Ulshimer’s disease is caused by aluminium deposits in the brain.

In the desperate and often vain attempt to eliminate drugs from the system, the kidneys are damaged. The unprecedented increase in the nephrological disorders is a direct result of the use of modern medicines. Even the apparently harmless painkiller like paracetamol may damage the liver and kidneys in the long run. The thalidomide tragedy is one of the numerous misfortunes the advent of modern medicine has gifted human race.

Because modern medicine is the contribution of the West, which has had undisputed say in matters relating to science in the last few centuries, and because the political clout of the Europeans during this period was overwhelming, other system like Ayurveda and Acupuncture did not receive the attention and admiration they deserved. Even in India and China, where these great sciences got evolved, these systems of healing were neglected.

For most diseases, effective treatment without side effects is available in Ayurveda. It is high time that people in this globalized era woke up to the dangers of modern medicine and thought about ancient parallel systems of medicine.