MEDICINE 22? 



5 . Diseases originating from the Divine Cause (KarTna)? 



All diseases are the effects of previously existing 

 causes. Some originate from natural and others from 

 spiritual causes. Spiritual causes may have been created 

 by a man during a former existence. For such cases 

 there is no remedy but to wait patiently until the evil 

 force is exhausted and the law of universal justice satis- 

 fied ; for even if the just retribution for our sins can be 

 evaded at one time, it will only be postponed, and the evil 

 returns at another time with an accumulation of interest 

 and with increased force. 



"All diseases originating from the above-mentioned 

 four causes may be cured by the power of the true Faith. 

 All health and all disease come from God, and in God 

 is the cure. Some diseases, however, do not directly 

 come from God, but are natural (although they, too, 

 come from God indirectly, because Nature is a manifesta- 

 tion of the power of God), but other diseases are directly 

 sent by God as a punishment for our sins. Each disease 

 is a purgatory, and no physician can know exactly when 

 or how it will end ; the physician is only a servant of 

 God, who works to accomplish His will. If it is the 

 will of Providence (Karma) that the patient should still 

 remain in his purgatory, then will the physician not be 

 able to help him out of it ; but if his time for redemp- 

 tion has come, then will the patient find the physician 

 through whom God will send him relief. The physician 

 may cure the sick by using remedies, but it is God who 

 makes the physician and the remedy. God does not 

 perform miracles without man ; He acts through the 

 instrumentality of man, and restores the sick to health 

 through the instrumentality of the physician, and there- 

 fore the physician should be in possession of faith (in 

 harmony with God), so as to be a perfect instrument 

 through which the will of God can be accomplished," 

 » "ThewUlof God." 



