Om Sri Sai Ram,

It is a matter of great pleasure for me as the Director of this esteemed institution, the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Prasanthigram to announce the publication of e-newsletter of SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram, the “Temple of Healing”. The Temple of Healing is an endeavour of the SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram, to showcase the unmatched work being done by the hospital to the public at large. Beginning February 2018, the newsletter is proposed to be a bi-monthly periodical. 

We have come a long way since the 22nd November, 1991, when Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, inaugurated the hospital. This medical marvel has since then treated around 3.5 million( 35 lakh) patients from across India as well as abroad. Further the hospital has performed around 250,000 surgeries and procedures. All this completely free of charge for all irrespective of caste, class, creed, religion or nationality. A majority of the patients who have been treated at our hospital come from extremely poor backgrounds, who could not have been able to afford such advanced care anywhere else.    

Our Beloved Swami has always said that we should give the best to the patient. Following Swami’s word the hospital employs cutting-edge technology for patient care. And all the equipment is periodically updated to meet the best standards in the world. 

The hospital prides itself for being one of the few hospitals in India, which is almost completely paperless and filmless and therefore is a completely digital hospital. But apart from a state-of-the-art hospital, more importantly this is a hospital where care is administered with love and compassion. 

The testimony for the care being provided at the hospital is the certification by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH), India.  NABH is a constituent board of Quality Council of India, set up to establish and operate accreditation programme for healthcare organisations in India. Moreover, NABH is an institutional member of ISQUA, the International Society for Quality in Health Care, which emphasizes the fact that the hospital has an international stamp of quality for its unmatched patient care.  Moreover, the hospital is the only totally free hospital to receive this recognition.

This newsletter is being brought out, therefore, to inform and educate the public of the unparalleled work being done by the hospital. 

We sincerely hope that you would like and support this endeavor of ours and provide us your valuable feedback. 

Sairam. 

I experienced the divine power of Bhagawan only after I joined the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences( SSSIHMS) as a cardiac surgeon in February 1993. The omnipresence, the omnipotence and the omniscience of Bhagawan got revealed through various experiences. In my very first interview Swami said that I would come to Puttaparthi permanently followed by my entire family. I initially was skeptical about my brother and his family coming here but no sooner, my parents and I had settled down in Puttaparthi, my brother visited Puttaparthi. The first Darshan of Swami had a profound effect on him. During that visit he asked father, whether he could wind up his business in Mumbai and settle down with us at Swami’s abode for good. 

 Thus my brother soon joined the SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram, as executive engineer, my father started working in the hospital accounts department and my sister-in-law joined as a teacher in primary school after being sent by Bhagawan for B.Ed training to Anantapur women’s college. So Swami’s word came true as usual.

An incident that happened during my surgical career always stays with me. I had operated on a five-year-old child with a complex heart problem. Surgery was successful, but baby continued to have fluid drainage from his lungs. 

After few days in Darshan line Swami enquired about my patients when I conveyed to Bhagawan that this small child was doing well but for his drainage from the lungs. In All his mercy, Swami materialised vibhuthi for the child and the child’s effusion completely stopped.

After 3 months, when the child came back to hospital for his follow up I saw that he had gained a lot of weight and was jumping around the whole place. He was the same child who had to be carried around continuously by his mother just three months earlier. This is Swami's love in action. 

Swami always says He is with us all the time and He has a way to prove it too. This incident happened during one Akhand Bhajan, which is held on the second Saturday and Sunday of November every year. During the bhajan while all the campuses were present for Bhagawan’s Darshan, Bhagawan came up to me and asked whether I could sing? To which I replied, “no Swami, I do not know how to sing.” Immediately Swami said: “operation theatre mein to gata hai” (But you sing in the operation theatre). It was then that I realised what Swami meant. I had the habit of rhyming a line or two of any bhajan once the main part of the surgery was over, which could be heard at the most by my nearest assistant. So I realised that Bhagawan was that close to me as I performed the surgeries and was taking care of my work. 

On another occasion I had performed a complex cardiac surgery on a five-year-old child. The child needed two holes in the heart to be closed and a heart valve repair. The surgery went on for long, but was a total success.  Next day in Darshan line, Swami came up to me and said, “ kal ek complicated surgery kiya, sab thik ho gaya (yesterday you did a complicated case, everything went on well). Baby is fine now”. 

I recollect one more wonderful incident of Swami’s omnipresence. Once our group of surgeons was making rounds in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), when a 6-year-old girl told us that Swami had come the previous night and went around the whole ICU and had also spoken to her. This incident made me understand that not only was Swami always with us, but was Himself the Divine Doctor who was guiding us, and taking care of the work He had assigned to us. We were all just His instruments. 

Image credits: Sri Vishwa Naidu (Australia) Sri Mithran Balakrishnan and Sri Devendran Sinivasagam (Malaysia).