Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Medicine "enriched with spiritual blessing"

Ever since a few days after I arrived here in Dharamsala, my right eye has been giving me problems in the  mornings. (No, not the one that had the crazy infection before I went to India.) I wake up and I feel like something's in it -- not so much an eyelash, but maybe dust. I figured it might clear up after a few days, and when it didn't, I thought perhaps after I moved to a different building the new environment would fix the issue. I thought that maybe the monsoon season and resultant mildewy cushions/sheets/everything was the culprit, and once the sun came out for more than a few hours at a time I'd feel better.

Well, long story short, none of that helped. I still wake up most mornings feeling like there's something irritating my eye and it waters constantly for a good half hour. It's obnoxious. Nothing I do seems to make a difference. I considered just riding it out until I got home, figuring maybe getting out of India would fix it.

The other day, Gusti mentioned that she was going to go to Men-Tsee-Khang, the local Tibetan medical establishment, so I asked if she'd find me some eye drops while she was there.

This is what they gave her to give to me (50 rupees, by the way.. a little under $1):

Apparently they instructed Gusti that I take them with warm water; however, the official instructions are a bit more involved. I've taken the liberty of typing up excerpts so you don't have to squint at the photo:

A night before taking the precious pill, take light decoction prepared from seven grains of yerma (prickly ash) to open up body channels. Soak the pill in a small amount of hot boiled water using an clean unbroken cup covering it with a lid and leave it to stand overnight. The pill should not be expose to bright light. Early the next morning before day breaks, crush and stir the content either with a spoon or with the ring finger and drink the whole mixture after adding little amount of hot water. Retire to bed with warm covering and sleep for about one hour in order to induce little perspiration. Following that take little amount of hot water infused with saffron to close body channels. This will help to retain the effect of medicine in the body. ... When taken for rejuvenation by a healthy person, it should be taken on an auspicious dates like eight, full moon, and new moon days of Tibetan lunar calendar to gain optimum result.

(All errors are in the original text. I copied it exactly.)

The "Cautions" section reads as follows:
For a period of three to seven days after taking the medicine, avoid fish, pork, egg, sour alcohols, onion, garlic, wild garlic, putrid food, hot spices, strenuous physical activities, accidents, daytime sleep, cold bath and sex.

Well damn.

1 comment:

  1. Lol, yeah, be especially certain to avoid all accidents during that time..... ::rolls eyes::

    -D

    ReplyDelete