VI. SPIRIT OF
SERVICE
My profession progressed satisfactorily, but that was
far from satisfying me. The Question of further
simplifying my life and of doing some concrete act of
service to my fellowmen had been constantly agitating me,
when a leper came to my door. I had not the heart to
dismiss him with a meal. So I offered him shelter,
dressed his wounds, and began to look after him. But I
could not go on like that indefinately. I could not
afford, I lacked the will to keep him always with me. So
I sent him to the Government Hospital for indentured
labourers.
But I was still ill at ease. I longed for some
humanitarian work of a permanent nature. Dr. Booth was
the head of the St. Aidan's Mission. He was a
kind-hearted man and treated his patients free. Thanks to
a Parsi Rustomji's charities, it was possible to open a
small charitable hospital under Dr. Booth's charge. I
felt strongly inclined to serve as a nurse in this
hospital. The work of dispensing medicines took from one
to two hours daily, and I made up my mind to find time
from my office-work, so as to be able to fill the place
of a compounder in the dispensary attached to the
hospital. Most of my professional work was chamber work,
conveyancing and arbitration. I of course used to have a
few cases in the magistrate's court, but most of them
were of a non-controversial character, and Mr. Khan, who
had followed me to South Africa and was then living with
me, undertook to take them if I was absent. So I found
time to serve in the small hospital. This work brought me
some peace. It consisted in ascertaining the patient's
complaints, laying the facts before the doctor and
dispensing the prescriptions. It brought me in close
touch with suffering Indians, most of them indentured
Tamil, Telegu or North Indian men.
The experience stood me in good stead, when during the
Boer War I offered my services for nursing the sick and
wounded soldiers.
The question of the rearing of children had been ever
before me. I had two sons born in South Africa, and my
service in the hospital was useful in solving the
question of their upbringing. My independent spirit was a
constant source of trial. My wife and I had decided to
have the best medical aid at the time of her delivery,
but if the doctor and the nurse were to leave us in the
lurch at the right moment, what was I to do? Then the
nurse had to be an Indian. And the difficulty of getting
a trained Indian nurse in South Africa can be easily
imagined from the similar difficulty in India. So I
studied the things necessary for safe labour. I read Dr.
Tribhuvandas' book, #Ma-ne Shikhaman# - Advice to a
mother - and I nursed both my children according to the
instructions given in the book, tempered here and there
by experience as I had gained elsewhere. The services of
a nurse were utilized-not for more than two months each
time-chiefly for helping my wife and not for taking care
of the babies, which I did myself.
The birth of the last child put me to the severest
test. The travail came on suddenly. The doctor was not
immediately available, and some time was lost in fetching
the midwife. Even if she had been on the spot, she could
not have helped delivery. I had to see through the safe
delivery of the baby. My careful study of the subject in
Dr. Tribhuvandas' work was of inestimable help. I was not
nervous.
I am convinced that for the proper upbringing of
children the parents ought to have a general knowledge of
the care and nursing of babies. At every step I have seen
the advantages of my careful study of the subject. My
children would not have enjoyed the general health that
they do today, had I not studied the subject and turned
my knowledge to account. We labour under a sort of
superstition that a child has nothing to learn during the
first five years of its life. On the contrary the fact is
that the child never learns in after life what it does in
its first five years. The education of the child begins
with conception. The physical and mental states of the
parents at the moment of conception are reproduced in the
baby. Then during the period of pregnancy it continues to
be affected by the mother's moods, desires and
temperament, as also by her ways of life. After birth the
child imitates the parents, and for a considerable number
of years entirely depends on them for its growth.
The couple who realize these things will never have
sexual union for the fulfilment of their lust, but only
when they desire issue. I think it is the height of
ignorance to believe that the sexual act is an
independent function necessary like sleeping or eating.
The world depends for its existence on the act of
generation, and as the world is the play-ground of God
and a reflection of His glory, the act of generation
should be controlled for the ordered growth of the world.
He who realizes this will control his lust at any cost,
equip himself with the knowledge necessary for the
physical, mental and spiritual well-being of his progeny,
and give the benefit of that knowledge to posterity.
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