Dr P I Tarkas: Doyen of Homoeopathy His life and living
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 2000 July / Aug VOL II NO 4.
Dr.Ajit Kulkarni
One senior homoeopath criticized MM even without reading the contents. He nicely presented himself as 'prejudiced' and hence as an anti-Hahnemannian. Dr.Tarkas answered back "Detractors to any good work will always be there. One should not be irritated by unjust criticism. As Dr Johnson said, "My critics are my best well-wishers". At any rate one will evaluate a work in accordance to one's own accomplishments and bias. So let them alone. Our work should aim at providing material to those who may be willing to use it in practice and thereby heal people and restore health."
Dr Tarkas made me to offer one page of MM for his quotation, "Homoeopathy is a mission, not a career. It calls for a commitment, not a mere acquaintance. It lends a finger to the forlorn, forsaken, frustrated." Dr. Tarkas was at my residence for a month in April 2000 and many students would visit him. He told every student, "Homoeopathy is going to be the first line of treatment during 21st century. But no doctor should take money from his patients." One student asked, "Sir, how then we will survive? "Dr.Tarkas, "That's the govt's job." His idea may appear impractical, but if viewed in perspective, it may reform the entire system of Medicine.
Dr Tarkas practised homoeopathy for over fifty years. He had an extensive practice with a good rapport with patients. His extensive clinical records left behind need editing and publication. He was very polite and honest pure and simple. He once wrote to me, "I closed down the windows of name, fame and money for the sake of homoeopathy. Had I paid attention to mundane materialism, I couldn't have done something for homoeopathy. And, whatever I have done is but a hundredth part of the task before us." It speaks volumes of Dr.Tarkas' wisdom that he shut out all the entry points of name, fame and money and quietly went ahead about his mission.
For the book-release function of 'A Select MM Part I', I called him to Satara. He wrote, "As for my presence at publication-function I must say: God willing; health permitting. My condition will be: no praise or felicitations to this humble self. I should be received as other spectators". I requested him to take some money from books. He wrote, "As for your offer for accepting a share from the profits, let me humbly say that I have yet to pay for the debt of homoeopathy in keeping this body and soul together for all these years to this frail born-sick person. This I am doing to repay not in terms of money, but by taking our science one step ahead."
This most strikingly brings to the fore, his selflessness. He was a superb combination of hard work, perseverance, dedication and high talent. His feet firmly planted on the ground, he was deadly against personal glorification. He portraited 'Anhalonium-lewinii' so nicely that I sent him a letter of appreciation. He commented, "Your each word of praise has a shrinking effect on me." Here are some excerpts from his writings: "Am neither any high or superb personality : of this I am certain, very certain. I have no delusion of grandeur. I am just an average human person with a feeling that I have been charged with the service/mission of pushing homoeopathy one step forward. This is to explain my labours thereon. My role is simply like a honey-bee : just a collector, analyser, abridger and digester- well, call me, if you please, a dictionary-maker."
Once he sent me his philosophy of life through a child's poem
Good, better, best
Never let if rest,
Until the good is better
And the better best.
Views On Various Aspects Of Homoeopathy
On Homoeopathy:
On 10th April, 2000 I went Vadodara to request him to comment on Hahnemann. He sat silently for a while, got absorbed and started writing, "This is a day of rejoicing and double thankfulness to the Almighty Creator of the Universe, first for His Benevolence and Magnificence in providing us countless organic, inorganic and maldigenic substances, in addition to the vast colourful nature for our joy and entertainment, but esp. the nectar in the guise of deadly snake-poisons; and secondly for deputing the great superman, our revered Master, Hahnemann to reveal the secret of these very substances and to harness them to successfully combat the various ills we humans are exposed to, in our endeavours to create a society free from diseases, strife and biases : a human and humanitarian brotherhood of free and healthy people, healthy in body and mind-virtually a healing of nations, of human race. Such an ideal society seems to be the ultimate target of the Creator. Amen."
Speculations
"As a practical homoeopathic therapeutician I do feel that we should not exhaust ourselves over pedantic formulations. Our revered Hahnemann has emphatically warned us against "empty speculations." Hence he could not have approved the present-day "hair-splitting" bombasts of our homoeopaths. Let that not be an obstacle against popularization of our beneficial science."
On Miasms
He had a different view about coining new miasms on the basis of diseases. He wrote to me, "I agree that there are three fundamental miasms just as there is a play of triads in this universe set off by the Almighty. To give some examples of these three's: Gunas (Satvam, Rajas, Tamas), Dosh (Vat, Pitta, kapah), Colours (red, yellow, blue ), Season (hot, cold, wet ), activities (Hyper, Hypo, Neutral), Attitudes (Love, Hate, Neutral ), Chemical (Acid, Alkali, Neutral ) and so on. Yet there is no end to the permutations and combinations of these several triads. Similarly there can be as many combinations as persons and as remedies. Every person or medicine is thus a unique miasm (say a cocktail of two or more of these three miasms peculiar to oneself.) Our effort as a therapeutician is to honestly endeavour to match the miasms (group) of the patient with the miasms (group) of the remedy. This is how I understand the law of similars. I have yet to come across a patient or a remedy with a single (solo) miasm. In this light I consider the symptoms of miasms given to us by Hahnemann and other stalwarts as more or less 'speculations'.
And, if we regard TB-or pseudo-psora-as a fourth miasm, will not the claim of cancer be legitimate for 5th miasm ? Why should we then not add further ? So let us be "empirical" as Hahnemann desired for us and remain content with considering TB, cancer or AIDS etc. as (each) incorporating certain combinations of the original three."
On Heart of the Remedy:
Our remedies have several hearts, at least more than one; and our effort should be to discover these hearts and to add more 'hearts'. This view strikes a different note to the conception of our predecessors who sought to delineate on a single heart, image or soul. Our remedies are indeed multiphased and multifaceted, and consequently there are various make-ups for a single remedy. Thus we find (often) opposite modalities in the same remedy (cp Agar, Lyc ,Tub etc). So much so that our remedies may look even absurd."
On Symptoms in Materia Medica
"All symptoms carry equal marks, no bold or capital. Author's strict classification mars the efficacy of our medicines, their very e'lan or raison d'etre. All symptoms are important when required. To exemplify: if only < least motion is emphasized, we forget > motion in Bry ( Bry has > motion : shaking limbs, hanging limbs, descending, continued walking (unsteadiness, nervousness), fibrous tissue pains and walking in open air (toothache). As a matter of fact, we have to see what is important in a patient and we have to go from patient to the remedy."
On The Planes
"The treatment is 'a match played on an even ground.' It is an interplay of disease and drug. In intricate diseases-acute or chronic we have to behave as in a game of chess: our play is decided by the previous player, here disease (to break the metaphor). The concept of 'range' or 'plane' of the medicines is fictitious and do not exist in the medicines in essence, at least not in all medicines. At best it is a 'gocart' for the novice, for the adept there are no such restrictions. Witness : Acon has cured chronic gall-stone colic, Bell has cured renal calculi and inveterate eczema. Ars is much an acute of Lach as Lach. itself is of Ars. Acute and chronic are in many cases convenient symbols- crutches for our lame thought. But there should be no foisting them on medicines. Who are we to handicap the absolute sway of our medicines? Remember the power of disease to derange is limited, while that of drug to cure is unlimited."
On the Theory of a Single Dose
"Some people labour under the notion of 'a single dose with no repetition as far as possible'. They think that the curative process starts directly with the very first dose of the indicated remedy, the vital force so armed doing the rest of the work. Note that failure to repeat is also one of the reasons of failure in practice. Look at our 'proving' process. Symptoms usually start upon a series of doses. If however proving starts forthwith (upon the first dose), the symptoms yielded are superficial. For a substantial portrait of the drug, a series of doses are to be given to a prover. We will drift away from the central tenet of individualization, if we follow single dose therapy in all patients and in all disease conditions."
Sacrifice of self and time
"Great things are done when men and mountains meet :
This is not done by jostling in the street"
- William Blake
But for Dr Tarkas except for his wife 'Kantaben' to whom he dedicated the first volume of MM and whose early departure kept a lasting impression of being forlorn with nobody to support. The five D's for quality of work- Dedication, Devotion, Discipline, Discrimination and Determination-were his mountains which met with his inner man to explore the world of MM and Repertory. Dr Tarkas had to pay the price of his discipline and perfectionism. The last two decades indeed tested him. And strangely, the homoeopathic fraternity witnessed the blossoming of his creativity during this period.
Knowing that his life was to ebb away, he embraced death at a very ripe age of 93 years young through Prayopavasan (shutting out all food, water and medicines) displaying his determination and high rank.
A tribute from a disciple and an admirer:
Dr.Purushottam Ishwardas Tarkas used to call himself 'PIshwardas Tarkas', humbly holding that he is not 'Purushottam' and he is merely a 'das' of Ishwara. But he was a 'Purushottam' in the truest sense.
The man who strode like a colossus for five decades is no more. The man of an unparalleled performance, with an unending reservoir of love, respect, dedication towards homoeopathy and dynamism has made his exit, but the legend lives. We must understand that people like DrTarkas never die. They live on. And Dr.Tarkas shall live on forever in the hearts of innumerable serious minded homoeopaths who aspire to work for the cause of homoeopathy. When great men die, it is often said that the void will not be easily filled up. More often that not, the word sounds hollow. But in the case of Dr.Tarkas, the word fits. There can never be another Dr Tarkas again. If there is God, I will love to pray and beg: "Give us dedicated homoeopaths like Dr Tarkas at least every five decades" as our homoeopathic science is in dire necessity of such people !
I delimit myself with Henry Longfellow's stanza
"Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And ,departing, leave behind us,
Footprints on the sands of time."
