Ancient practices that made sense

The threat from the tiniest of the creations of nature shows where homo sapiens stand in the scheme of things of the mighty universe. Pushed to the wall inside the homes, the haughty humanity seems to be at its wits end trying to tone down its ambitions of conquering the sun, the moon, the stars and the oceans. Once again, we learn the basic lesson that survival of humanity is a formidable challenge that economic prosperity may not help in fighting. But against this backdrop comes an important realisation that what our ancestors practiced during the ages which we lost in history and complacence made much more sense than what we thought, inebriated by the power of modern science. As the pleasant and mild Namaste becomes the norm replacing a hot and vigorous handshake, we understand the importance of social distancing. The present scenario takes me back more than 5 decades in the time machine when my mother had quarantined me after the infection from chicken pox virus and those painful and itchy eruptions had made life miserable. I was lodged in a room where only my mother would enter and give whatever was required. No outsider was allowed to visit the house nor anyone from the house would leave station. It made little sense to me as I had started studying everyday science in my standard 6 class. But my Quarantine was religiously followed in the name of Goddess Shitala and no chappals were allowed. My clothes would be taken and dipped in boiled water. The treatment, though largely palliative would involve warm water in which Neem leaves ware soaked to wash my face and body, and a few branches of thin Neem twigs with new leaves to brush and fan the rashes that had erupted. It all appeared so archaic. But I was given no option. The other regular feature of those days was that just in the beginning of first month of the Hindu calendar, the chaitra month, for the first 7 days we were all made to drink a few spoonful of juice of Neem leaves which was too bitter to consume. Again no option. Of course to counter bitterness we were given a few small pieces of sugar candy or jaggery. Similarly, there were many such practices that appeared meaningless but were religiously followed. One thing was always emphasised. The religious significance of those practices that made us adhere to them. As modern science now explains the significance of many of those practices we come to realise that our ancestors, too, had wisdom and scientific temper. It was our attitude towards those practices and the assumptions ingrained in our minds that West was best led to dismissing our traditional knowledge as trivial. But we need to revisit the treasure trove of our traditional knowledge and use them scientifically. Traditional knowledge and modern scientific information need not be two discrete bodies of knowledge but a Continuum for the benefit of humanity. We need to understand, as we struggle to buy hand sanitisers, that the potash alum the village barber used as after shave was quite effective and cheap. Similarly, the everyday practice of lighting lamps at dusk, with camphor pieces, also had a scientific basis. The rituals which we practice were not just rituals. They had meaning. It is time to recapitulate what has been gradually obliterated from our memories as a result of interventionist informational onslaught.