The Best of Western Medicine

I just finished a two-day course to become qualified as a "First Aider", able to provide first aid and emergency life support in the event of accident or medical emergency. As a yoga teacher I need to keep a current First Aid certificate, and my work needed more First Aid qualified people onsite so I put my hand up to do the course.

I must say that this course was the best of Western medical technology. All the things that were covered were things for which I would take shelter of modern medical technology - broken limbs, spine and head injuries, penetration wounds, lacerations, venomous bites, and so on.

It was also good for showing all the things that can go wrong with the body. We watched a video about heat, chemical, and radiation burns, and one about diving accidents.

We practiced CPR on mannequins - the chances of reviving someone using this are only 5%, but if you use it to keep them alive until a defibrillator arrives (such as with an ambulance crew) then it increases to 70%. They told about a troupe of young Canadian scouts who rotated to perform CPR on their troupe leader for nearly 24 hours while two of the members hiked out to get help.

H.H. Hanumat-presaka Swami encourages his disciples to do First Aid training. He or one of his disciples was the first responder at a car crash, and was able to sustain one of the accident victims lives until help arrived. If I had to deal with an unconscious person, someone having a fit, or someone whose heart has stopped before doing this course I wouldn't have known what to do. Now I feel confident that I can deal with the situation if not completely competently at least not completely incompetently.

Regardless of all our ministrations, however, at some point the heart will stop beating. There is no avoiding that. It is not a question of whether I give my life to Krishna or keep it for myself. This is the way that Maya presents the choice to you - as if there were a choice. We cannot keep our life - it is slipping through our fingers. We are losing it either way. Better to give it to Krishna while we can, rather than find ourselves at the fag end with nothing left to give, and nothing left to show for it either.

Let this temporary body be burnt to ashes, and let the air of life be merged with the totality of air. Now, O my Lord, please remember all my sacrifices, and because You are the ultimate beneficiary, please remember all that I have done for You.

- Sri Isopanisad Mantra 17