What constitutes a good physician
Writers of antiquity have handed down to us the qualities which they considered requisite for constituting the good physician and the following is the extract of a translation from Agastiyar 500:-
"He must be a person of strict veracity and of the highest sobreity and decorum, having sexual intercources with no women except his own wife. He ought to be thoroughly skilled in all the commentaries on Medicine and be otherwise a man of good sense and benevolence; his heart must be charitable, his temper calm, and his constant study should be how to be useful and to do good to the public" "When a sick person expresses himself peevishly or hastily, good physician is not thereby to be provoked to impatience; he should be mild and courageous and should cherish a cheerful hope of being able to save his patient’s life; he should be frank, communicative, impartial and liberal; and yet ever rigid extracting an adherence to whatever regimen or rules he may think it necessary to enjoin upon the patient.
The physician who aspires for success in his profession is expected to treat the poor free of charge, to maintain human sympathy and to be charitably disposed towards the public and above all to be taintless spiritualist.
The Science of Tamil Medicine, unlike other systems, is a peculiarly complex system of sciences as it will be found that it is purely intended for adepts among men and not for the ordinary; and that is why they had included in the works of medicine Alchemy, Philosophy, Magic, Yoga, etc., with a view to elevate them in the long run to the level of spiritualists; and it is also the reason why this science expects every one who practises it to be far above the level of ordinary mankind. There are numerous works on Siddha Medicine containing in every one of them the peculiar distinctive qualities that are expected of physicians on whom rests the welfare of the entire mankind. The following is a summary of those characteristics that constitute a true physician:
The Physician ought to be an Alchemist or the son of an Alchemist. He should understand the Chemistry of Life; and must have every natural qualification for his Occupation. The pseudo-physician bases his art only on books; but the genuine physician depends for success on his knowledge and skill. He should exercise his art not for his own sake or benefit, but for the sake of his patients; and his power should rest not merely upon medicine but also on Spiritual Truth.
A physician should be a philosopher acquainted with the laws of external Nature. A knowledge of Nature is the foundation of the Science of Medicine; and it is taught by the four great departments of science viz., Alchemy, Physical Science, Philosophy and Astronomy.
He should be an Astronomer; and this means he should know the mental sphere wherein man lives, will all its stars and constellations; the influences of the seasons of heat and cold, of dryness and moisture, of light and darkness and so on, as also the organism of Man. A physician who knows nothing about Cosmology will know little about diseases. He should know what exists in Nature and upon earth, what lives in the five elements and how they act upon men.
He should be well versed in physical science, should know the action of medicines and learn by his own experience how to regulate the diet of the patient, the ordinary course of a disease and its premonitory symptoms.
A True Physician should be able to do his won thinking, and should not mechanically employ the thoughts of others. He should be the product of Nature and not of mere speculation or imagination.
A Physician who knows nothing else about his patient but what the latter has told him, knows very little indeed.
He should not depend too much on the accomplishments of the animal intellect in his brain; he should listen to the Divine Voice which emanates from his soul and learn to understand the same.
He should have a knowledge which cannot be acquired by reading books, being a gift of Divine Wisdom.
He should be wedded to his art as a man is to his wife and should love it with all his heart and soul for its own sake and not for the purpose of making money or realising his own ambition.
He must have the faculty of intuition, i.e., a knowledge of his own and not a knowledge borrowed or purchased from others.
He should try to relieve his patient from suffering, but on no account delay his treatment for extracting money.
He should not venture to treat a patient without arriving at a correct diagnosis, also he will be committing a great sin which will not only affect him but also visit his future generations.