The blog “Surgery, Anesthesia, World War II and a Whole Lot Else” is a blog series that covers:
• Early days of Surgery
• The Anatomists
• Early days of Anesthesia
• Hinduism, Buddhism and other “-isms”
• World War II
• The “27 Club”
• Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud
• Darwin and Homo sapien Evolution
In terms of land size, India is the 7th largest country in the World, the largest being Russia, followed by Canada, China, United States, Brazil, Australia and then India. That’s land size. But in terms of population, India is the 2nd largest with 1.252 billion people, right behind China which is home to 1.357 billion. Some estimates predict India will soon pass China in population. Can we say birth control?
The first civilization in the World was likely a Semitic people in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is today Iraq. The Fertile Crescent pictured left was an area that extended from what is now northern Egypt where the Nile River ends its journey into the Mediterranean, the crescent then extended into the Levant or Phoenicia, which is modern-day Israel and Lebanon, coupled with the lands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers down to the Persian Gulf, modern-day Iraq and parts of Syria. To the east of the Fertile Crescent is the subcontinent of India.
The Indus Valley pictured below along the Indus River certainly can lay claim to some of the first civilizations outside the Fertile Crescent. The civilization of India began along the Indus River before expanding into the rest of the subcontinent of India. In ancient times, the Indus Valley was home to large empires and important trade routes, notably the Silk Road that connected China in the Far East with the Middle East. India is also the birthplace to two of the world’s largest religions, Hinduism and Buddhism. Hinduism finds its origins in the Vedic culture from 2000 BC, a tribal pastoral and agriculture society along the Ganges plain. The core Varna “social classes” from low to high were the Shudrasor laborers, the Vaishyasor farmers and herders, Kshatriyaswere the warriors and rulers, and the Brahminswhere the priests, scholars and teachers.
At the core of Hinduism, which was a fully developed religion by 500 BC is Sanātana Dharmaor eternal law. The eternal laws include Dharmaor ethics and duties, Arthaor work and prosperity, Kamaor desires and passions, and Mokshaor liberation and freedom. Also core to Hinduism is Karma,as opposed to Kama, with karma being the consequence, good or bad, from an action. Finally Yogaor meditation is also a central feature of Hinduism. There are many Hindu gods but the preeminent trinity are Brahma, the Creator, Vishnu, the Preserver who maintains order and harmony, and Shiva, the Destroyer of the Universe with its subsequent rebirth.
The current concept of our Universe posits three scenarios, an Open Universe, a Closed Universe, and a Steady State Universe. An Open Universe suggests our Universe will expand until there is no more energy and just stop, becoming a frozen barren wasteland. A Closed Universe, which is what I hope for, will expand until “gravity” overtakes the energy of expansion and collapses on itself, starting the entire process over again. A Steady State Universe suggests will reach a size and expanding, and just remain there, happy and content. Although the energy for that 3rd scenario is not everlasting. If it is a Closed Universe, when the Universe stops expanding and gravity forces all the matter to be pulled all into one singularity, one “black hole” so to speak, termed the Big Crunch, it is theorized that another Big Bang will renew another Universe. In this scenario the Hindu god Shiva, the Destroyer of the Universe must be or must have been a Hindu physicist who believed in a Closed Universe of destruction and then rebirth.
Although Buddhism also originated in India around 500 BC, it spread outside of India, more so than it stayed inside India, especially growing into eastern Asia, which is where most followers of Buddhism are found today. As Christianity is based upon the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, Buddhism is based upon the teachings of Gautama Buddha. Buddha was historically born around 500 BC in India, the exact date unknown and he lived for about 80 years. He was a sage and is known as the originator of an ascetic life, which is characterized by extreme self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence. There is no god or gods in Buddhism; Buddha is the primary figure in Buddhism. The practice of Buddhism declined in India during the Middle Ages, likely due to the popularity of Hinduism – it had gods – but Buddhism did saturate the Far East into what is today China, Thailand, Japan, Viet Nam, Cambodia and South Korea…and of course there are still many followers of Buddhism in India.
At the core to Buddhism is the Dukkhaor the Four Noble Truths. These four truths include Dukkha, by the same name in which life is an impermanent state that is unsatisfying, Samudayais the craving for impermanent things in life which leads to karma, good or bad, in either case karmakeeps the soul trapped in rebirth until one can obtain nirvana, Nirodhaor overcoming the cravings of Dukkhaand achieving nirvanaand the 4thtruth Maggais complete liberation from Dukkha. Nirvanarepresents the ultimate state of soteriological release or salvation and liberation from rebirths, deliverance from the repeated cycles seen in Buddhism, also a feature of Hinduism. If you come back as George Clooney rather than a garden slug, rebirth can’t be all-bad and that is likely where karma comes in.
…stay tuned…more to follow, much more…
John Bershof, MD
John Bershof, MD is a plastic surgeon who has been in private practice for over 25 years. He is the author of numerous medical articles as well as the first textbook of medicine for mobile phones, entitled skynetMD 2005-2015. An essay entitled Gin & Tonics, Clerics, and Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?, which was extracted from one of his future as yet published books was featured in The Antioch Review.
While working on the medical textbook skynetMD for mobile phones, Dr. Bershof, perhaps not too surprisingly became more interested in the backstories of medical history, like who was Lou Gehrig, what is Lou Gehrig's disease, what was his lifetime batting average for the New York Yankees—.340, nineteenth overall—and who invented baseball anyway. Questions such as these piqued Bershof's interest. Having read At Home 2010 by Bill Bryson, his engrossing narrative journeys room-by-room through his Victorian English countryside home, a former rectory, where each room is a chapter about domesticity, about home. It occurred to Dr. Bershof that in similar vein he could take the reader disease-by-disease as jumping off points into human history, science, medicine—his canvas blank, no subject not within reach—and learn a little medicine along the journey.
The ability of a book that is heavily fortified with science and history to connect with a general readership can be challenging; Dr. Bershof through storytelling, humor, jumping off points and personal anecdotes, accomplishes it, written in a language fleeced of the jargon that normally accompanies such narratives. The first two books, The First History of Man published in 2020 and The Second History of Man published in 2021 are available in print, ebook and audio. The Third History of Man is in final stages of editing to be published in 2022, with more volumes to come after that.