Probably the most crucial moment in my strange long journey to beat cancer, was the moment I walked into the high mountain village of “Shimla” in northern India over 24 years ago.
The venerable old professor at the Hahhneman University in Bombay (now called “Mumbai”) had pressed a letter into my hand that would introduce me to a little-known healing center and place of Hindu religion that he felt would benefit me in my fight.
All he would say was, “we’ve done all we can for you, now you need go meet the Holy Basil.”
When you’re fighting cancer, if someone suggests dancing with dolphins, you do it, since as we all know life can turn on a dime. So off I trudged by rickety train and bumpy bus for eight days and nights to Shimla, where part of me still resides, high up in the Himalayas and as close to God as you can get I think, in a physical sense.
Maybe it was the altitude, but my head was spinning and struggling to cope with the amazing surroundings. The address on the notepaper got me to a pale blue temple up a side street with a yellow painting of a diety on the outside.
This diety I learned was Lord Vishnu, the Preserver or Sustainer of life in Hindu religion, the Supreme Lord. For thousands of years, he has been revered and prayed to as the source of all Peace and Truth. No wonder I was sent there!
I met the Holy Basil my first day at the temple, but I didn’t know it.
In the days, weeks and then months that I lived there, every split second helped me heal and in every possible way; mentally, spiritually and also physically. I consumed mysterious herbs, teas and tinctures that are an integral part of Lord Vishnu’s philosophy. It was like I entered a very special “Healing Zone” where other-worldly powers took over and enveloped my every second.
What the disciples taught me so well was the power of “adaptogenics” in coping with the maelstrom of life around us. And how to arrive at a state of calm in the midst of a storm, whether mentally, spiritually or physically.
This was done through what we ate, what we thought and what we prayed. It was done through meditation, to arrive at place and a state of calm and reflection that washed away the stress and the noise and clamor of daily life.
Everyday at the temple we consumed countless cups and bowls of special teas and soups and curries that contained the supreme herbs in all of Ayurvedic medicine, practiced in India and Asia since time immemorial.
And then it hit me. I kept waiting and wondering when I was going to meet this amazing doctor, the Holy Basil, that would help me in the final step of my healing and recovery.
It turns out the old professor wanted me to meet a plant!
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