After the Naga Illness
There had been severe flooding in the next town. Most buildings, including houses, had had two feet of water the day after the storm. Some still contained considerable pools by the time Khema Samavati and the group of healers arrived. The officials of this town shared that their ritualists had confirmed the naga spirit of the well had been upset since trenches were dug improperly before the storm causing pollution of the wells. A small group of the village’s own ritualists could be seen sitting in a line at the main well performing a puja and offering the naga blue agate gemstones to make it happy again.
The monastery library is situated above the village on a mountain ledge, it is one of the only buildings that escaped flooding. Those who were incapacitated with nausea, vomiting and delirium from the naga illness were being housed there. Khema was accompanied by many official doctors from her own village, they all took to treating the worst of the sick people. First the doctors walked through the library and viewed each individual patient to get an idea of the various advancements of the illness. The healers with more years of experience set out to check the pulses of all of the patients. Those healers and ritualists with less medical experience were instructed to collect the urine from each patient in tiny plastic containers with lids and to set the container down next to the patients’ beds for examination byt eh experienced doctors. Once this task was done Khema led a ceremonial prayer and burning of incense sticks for the hastening of health, the prayers and incense nourish the healing and balancing winds of the village.
While the experienced doctors remained with the patients in the library Khema and the other ritualists headed down the ledge to the residential area. Those who were less physically ill but still experiencing delirium were in homes marked with orange flags on sticks to the right of the doorway. The ritualists had to burn incense outside the home for the appeasement of the naga spirit, then to enter the home and see the patient. These patients were communicative but had paranoid and agitated mental states. The ritualists’ task was to clap their hands three times and chant nine times a mantra to nourish a clear mental state, then to hold the hands of the patient while they repeat the mantra and have them clap their hands three times. Depending on the severity of the indivual’s mental state sometimes this had to be repeated more than once. The patient would either be shaken immediately from their unwholesome mental state or they would fall into a deep sleep in which the healing process is enhanced. Khema alone visited 20 homes and saw thirty-nine patients.
When the ritualists reconvened at the library the sky had been dark for many hours. The doctors were all still working, but there was nothing more the ritualists could do. The group of ritualists were invited to the monastery to sleep for the night, they set out the next morning for their own village.
