Hands of Destiny A brief biography of Dr. Ram Bhosle

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Hands of Destiny
A brief biography of Dr. Ram Bhosle

Wealth, respect and status greeted Ram at birth, but fate would keep it from him for decades. Ramchandra Krishna Bhosle was born in 1918, son to a noble family or warriors. His father, General Krishna Bhosle, wore the esteemed Victoria Cross for his efforts in France during World War I. The Bhosles were direct descendants of Chatrapati Shivaji Majaraj, the visionary leader who founded the independent state of Maharashtra. Yet his fortunate lineage did not bring Ram Bhosle a gentle childhood.

Born in Satara, the capital of Maharashtra at that time, Ram lost his mother within minutes of his first breath. During the next five years his life was rocked by one devastating blow after the next. His only brother died suddenly, and in cruel succession his father and sister also passed away.

As an orphan Ram was taken to Nasik by an uncle who took control of the Bhosle estate. Ram was forbidden from attending school, and was treated as a servant. Five year-old Ram fled his demeaning situation, and found himself wandering desperately on the crowded streets of Nasik. He learned to beg for his food and slept in doorways or temples. Overwhelmed by his poverty and the chaos of life on the streets, Ram left the city in search of a safe home.

Following the ox carts that wound their way south through the broad valleys and jungled mountains Ram plodded alone step by step. Eighty-five miles of dirt and rock passed beneath Ram’s feet in his fifth year, a marathon journey that would have killed most children. At last he stumbled into the village of Bhiwandi, to the north of Bombay.

The mantels of poverty did not smother Ram’s spirit, nor did it stifle his natural abilities. He demonstrated a keen intellect in school, and excelled in language and sciences. Ram was also gifted with a sense of humour and lighthearted charm that drew children to him and made them laugh. His innate sense of rhythm made him a talented musician and dancer.

Ram worked hard in school and at his job, and his efforts did not go unnoticed. The director of the local medical clinic offered him a job as serving boy in the clinic. Ram loved working with patients, and poured himself into learning all he could about medical care. His mind nurtured the dream of becoming a surgeon, and he planned to take up formal school education.

As Ram prepared for his Matriculation Exam he was heartbroken to discover that he could not sit for the exam without pay a 15-rupee fee. He had no money for expenses. The Matriculation and his dreams of becoming a surgeon were beyond his reach.

Depression swallowed Ram. In utter distress he wandered into the surrounding jungles. Unable to bear the disappointment and frustration at this innocent age he decided to end his life.

He climbed Mount Tungareshwar to find a suitable spot in which to die. Before he could complete his gruesome task, he encountered a young Swami who had been meditating on the mountain. The Swami fed and calmed Ram, then persuaded him not to commit suicide. Instead, the Swami, whose name was Nityananda, gave Ram a blessing, saying, "A great future awaits you. You will become a famous doctor and travel 160 times to the West."

Inspired by Swami Nityananda’s words, Ram left the jungle for Bombay. He worked his way to the gates of J.J. Hospital, and enquired repeatedly for a job. He was eventually employed as a gardener’s assistant.

As fate would have it, Ram was spotted one day in the garden by a British officer and physician. The officer engaged Ram in conversation and discovered that Ram’s father had saved the Englishman’s life during the war in France. Out of gratitude the officer recommended that Ram be moved to the surgical ward.

Ram’s new position as ward boy took him straight into the heart of the hospital. He seized this rare opportunity to learn with zeal and passion. As he watched the medical procedures and patient care, he began saving money to study medicine. He was obsessed with becoming a doctor, and determined to study in Europe at the best schools.

By the age of 17, Ram had saved enough money for passage to Vienna, Austria. The courageous teenager approached the dean at the famous Vienna Institute of Physical Medicine, hoping to be admitted. The dean flatly refused.

While searching for ideas on how to gain admission to medical school, Ram encountered two of India’s leaders in exile : Netaji Subash Chandra Bose and Shri Vithalbhai Patel. After learning Ram’s tale of travel, longing and disappointment, these two gentlemen went directly to the reluctant dean at the Institute of Physical Medicine to plead his case. The dean was at last persuaded and admitted Ram into the massage college.

Ram accepted the challenges of study gratefully. He became fluent in German and performed well in both practical and theoretical exams. Craving still more training, Ram moved from Vienna to Berlin, where he received his diplomas Doctor of Manipulative surgery.

Ram hoped to serve a medical internship in London to further his training. Upon arriving there he contacted the gentleman whom had helped him a J.J. Hospital in Bombay. The officer was delighted to hear Ram’s story and arranged for Ram to meet the famous English healer, Sir Herbert Barker. Ram’s wit and intellect charmed Sir Barker into accepting him as an intern.

The great healer and his young Indian assistance began working together from morning to night. A sublime psychological bond was formed between them. Their relationship evolved into a partnership more like father and son than teacher and student. Sir Barker’s remarkable healing wisdom poured into Ram’s mind. The brilliant doctor that lay dormant in Ram Bhosle was awakened and given life.

The two years that Ram spent with Sir Herbert Barker were the most significant in his education so far. During this time, Ram met and had the opportunity to treat the crown heads of Europe, as well as numerous politicians, aristocrats and celebrities. Ram’s skills matured, and he learned to harness his intuition for healing. Eventually, with the call of India burning in Ram’s heart, he said goodbye to his English guru and set sail for Bombay.

Ram soon found a job working for a doctor in South Bombay. When he was not in the doctor’s surgery, Ram was studying again. After this extensive European training, Ram was longing to learn the Indian science of massage. He found that the Vedas were rich with descriptions of the power of massage by vibration. The Vedic texts explained to Ram that the whole universe is only one sound reverberating at different vibrations and frequencies. Vibrations course through all things, and vibrations can change all things.

Ram began evolving his own style of massage, based on vibration and drawing on all the wisdom he had gained in Europe. He also relied on the years of practice as a musician to guide him. His background in classical music and rhythm gave him a tactile understanding of the effect of vibrations. He "listened" with his hands and intuition to his patients’ bodies reverberating and sounding under his hands like sitars, veenas, and tablas.

Rather than using the deep pressured favoured in Europe, Ram used increasingly light pressure. This light massage is referred to in Sanskrit as "Samvahan". One interpretation of Samvahan is "even dead tissue can be awakened". The technique which ram also called "Vibro-massage", was light and soothing, yet reached deeply into the body, causing profound healing.

With the insight that the body is nothing but rhythm, Ram began creating vibrations deep in his body that cause responses in the bodies of the patients that he massaged. Using the knowledge of anatomy. physiology, and neurology, as well as disease, pain and recovery that he had mastered in Europe, Ram allowed his intuition to lead his hands and mind in giving the appropriate vibration for helping patients.

Hour upon hour of careful scriptural reading and practice with patients led Ram to discover the healing vibration that resides in the floor of the pelvis, the home of the Muladhara Chakra. The vibration that arises from this Chakra, Ram found, had a profound effect on creating health in suffering patients. He learned to allow the vibration that began the First Chakra to pass through his body and out of his hands, into the bodies of his patients. It created the cellular beginning of healing wherever Ram directed it.

He used his "Vibro-massage" to clam tired muscles, set joints, and fixed long-term back problems. He paid particular attention to the spine and spinal nerves, as well as the liver and digestive system. He also began experimenting with treating the energy channels called "nadis," and the nerves that correspond to them.

By incorporating the crucial elements of Indian culture – music, nadis, vibration and a universal philosophy – with his European training, Dr. Ram Bhosle’s Samvahan became a uniquely powerful technique. He delighted in fixing problems that other doctors had been completed unable to cure.

Shortly after arriving back in India, Dr Bhosle received a letter from Bhulahbai Desai, the Advocate General of India in the British Government. Mr. Desai requested at his residence. Ram happily obliged him, and came repeatedly to his home for treatments. On one occasion, Mr. Desai asked Dr Bhosle to take a look at a friend, who happened to be none other than Mahatma Gandhi.

Dr Bhosle massaged the Mahatma, and was delighted to be photographed with him by the visiting media. Gandhi made a polite comment about Dr Bhosle’s work, which appeared in the newspaper the next morning along with the photo. Within days Dr Bhosle was besieged by politicians, the British aristocracy, and Indians far and wide, all asking for massage appointments.

Ram’s practice flourished as word about his successful treatments spread through Bombay, and to the influential circles throughout India. He opened two new clinics, hired a staff of nurses, and learned what it was to be a wealthy young man.

At the age of 26 he was married to his head nurse, Ratna Kamat, who bore him two children, Anil and Lata. Ram adored his family, yet fate carried him away from them too soon and for too long.

Dr Bhosle was increasingly consumed by the plans his patients were making for the formation of a Free India. Many leading personalities whom Dr Bhosle was treating were already on the forefront of the Freedom Struggle. He continued to treat Mahatma Gandhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru became a patient, as did Attorney Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the Father of Pakistan.

Ram was with Mahatma Gandhi on August 8, 1942, when Gandhiji declared the "Quit India" program, and gave him a three hour massage after the speech. Ram felt it was his clear duty to participate in this battle for freedom. He plunged into his guerrilla assignments, risking his reputation, his newly amassed wealth, and his life.

Dr Bhosle’s participation in the underground activities sent shock waves through the British in Bombay. He was their trusted doctor and social companion on one day, and the warrior plotting their demise the next. To stop Ram’s activities, eighteen warrants were issued for his arrest, plus a reward of 50,000 rupees.

Dr. Bhosle had to flee Bombay in disguise. His family and patients were horrified. The British confiscated the Bhosle clinics, his massive property holding near Shivaji Park, and all of his assets. Mrs. Bhosle and the children were left penniless. Again fate had led Ram Bhosle t be homeless beneath the stars, a destitute and hunted man.

Dr Bhosle cautiously made his way north to the empty expanses of the Himalayas. Hiding from the British in caves and remote cliffs, he encountered the mystical sadhus who lived there practicing yoga. Ram shared their fires and spoke with them, glad for the company. They questioned him about his beliefs, and divulged the wisdom that their lifestyle brought to them. Debates arose every night, and Ram was continually inundated with spiritual advice.

The verbal duels often resulted in bizarre and mystical experiences that Ram could not understand or explain. The sadhus challenged Ram’s materialistic lifestyle. They demonstrated through their mastery of yoga that a disciplined spiritual life was a higher path. Overwhelmed by what he saw, Ram’s pride and ego finally broke down. He felt that the grace that had given him so many encounters with holy men, and taught him so much, left him no choice but to surrender his whole being to the Almighty.

Abandoning his hedonistic lifestyle, Ram committed his life to serving God. He began to study the yogic sciences of meditation, breathing, austerities, astrology and healing with the sadhus throughout northern India and Tibet. Numerous holy men crossed his path during the next six years. One of the greatest was known as Maha Avatar Babaji, with whom Dr Boshole lived for three months, and from whom Dr Bhosle received innumerable blessings.

What began as an exile to escape from the clutches of the British Government ended as a pilgrimage for Ram. He was now ready to return to Bombay as a Karma Yogi, dedicated to serve humanity with newly enhanced understanding and skill.

It was late in 1947 when Dr Bhosle arrived in Bombay again, a thoroughly changed man. India, too, had changed and was now a free nation. Dr Bhosle resumed his massage practice in Bombay, and his old patients returned in droves to seem him. Many of Dr Bhosle’s patients were now the leaders of India. Jawaharlal Nehru personally telephoned Dr Ram to request his services in New Delhi, and Mahatma Gandhi continued to receive the Doctor’s Vibro-massage until the day of his death.

Pandit Nehru made use of Dr Bhosle’s treatments for 17 years. The great politician wrote to Dr Bhosle in 1960, saying:

"I am writing to thank you for the repeated trouble you have taken to come to Delhi and to give the benefit of your great knowledge in the art of massage. Indeed your method of doing this is something that is much more than a pure massage and is based on the whole knowledge you have gained in various countries. I know that I have benefited by it and I am grateful to you for it."

Dr Bhosle’s reputation spread around the globe as his success mounted. He was invited by politicians, celebrities, musicians and religious leaders to extend his unique services. Undaunted by his patient’s titles or wealth, or by their poverty, he treated patients by the thousands.

Patients included Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, Joseph Stalin, Lord and Lady Mountbatten of Burma, Nikolai Kruschev, and Sir Alexander Flemming. Musicians and artists flocked to Dr Bhosle. Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Allah Uddin Khan, Sambu Majaraj, Mohamedjan Thirakjva, Yehudi Menuhin, and Dame Margot Fonteyn all benefited from Ram’s creativity enhancing treatments.

Over the years, Dr Bhosle had truly developed his Samvahan massage into an art form. His touch was so developed that he was able to perceive the minute changes in vibration that marked the difference between health and illness. It was as if he had learned to speak a new language – the cellular language of the body. He could sense the unique vibrational "sound" of the liver, the "hum" of the spinal chord, and the "Throb" of the bones. The nadis spoke to him, the organs and muscles sang in code, and the glands called their tunes to his trained perception.

To crystalise his use of rhythms and master his sensitivity to finger pressure, Dr Bhosle studied classical Indian music and dance with some of the greatest maestros of the 20^th century. He poured the whole of his creative ability into massage, producing not only healing effects but also magically soothing sensations.

In recognition of Dr Bhosle’s profound achievement in massage, the Geneva College of Massage and Manipulation offered him a honourary Doctorate Degree for his unsurpassed skill and knowledge. Only a master musician, scientist, healer, and yogi could have crated such a powerful healing system. For his fortunate patients, Dr. Ram’s treatments were, and still are, a blessing from God.

In the late 1950’s Dr Bhosle received a request from the Prime Minister of India to travel to the United States and treat a senior government official. Dr Bhosle gladly obliged. He traveled to Washington, D.C. and gave treatments to the grateful politician. In appreciation of the massage, Dr Bhosle was given US citizenship, a rate honour.

Ram worked two years in Hollywood, then homesick for his Mother India, he returned to Bombay. While maintaining his clinic there he continued treating his international clientele. Dr Bhosle’s healing gift and relentless sense of humour made him a welcome guest around the globe.

Over the next decades Dr Bhosle also traveled extensively to expand his understanding of the human body and how to heal it. He spent six months with the Masai tribe in Africa studying their medicine, and two years in Shanghai learning Chinese acupuncture. Visits to Japan, Philippines, Russia and Australia brought the Doctor a broad view of health equaled by few others.

Having studied astrology for many years in Tibet, Dr Bhosle was keen to conduct scientific research to determine if astrology played a role in his treatment of patients. Investing tens of thousands of rupees over a period of years, he was unable to establish concretely that astrology did indeed influence his patients’ recovery.

It became his practice to examine patients’ astrological charts in unusual cases. Some patients were told to delay or change their therapy, based on their chart readings. Dr Bhosle continues to study and practice astrology today.

On weekends when he was in Bombay, Dr Bhosle would travel to the Tansa Valley, where he lived as a child. Here he could visit the ashram of Swami Nityananda, whom he massaged frequently in Ganeshpuri. As a mark of respect and service to his dear Swamiji, Ram established a free clinic in nearby Vajreshwari. For a twenty years he treated the local people for whatever ailments troubled them. Thousands of poor peasants and farmers, shopkeepers and their families benefited from Dr Ram’s service.

Eventually Dr Bhosle settled on Malabar Hill in Bombay, now Mumbai. Year after year the doctor has brought comfort and health to patients who have come to workshop him as a guru. Today he humbly accepts their affection and showers them with love.

Dr Bhosle spent time with numerous siddhas, swamis, munis, and holy people of all faiths. He developed a close relationship with Parampujya Maharah Shri Gagangiri. The wise Majaraj once commented after a treatment, "The nadis (energy channels) in the body become naris (young girls) at Bhosle’s touch. He then flirts with them until they are well."

As Swami Nityananda predicted, Dr Bhosle traveled exactly 160 times to the West. Now he is happy to live a simple life in India. At 83 years of age, he still sees patients six days a week, and offers the wisdom of his life’s adventures to those who will listen. Dr Bhosle’s daily routine is one of the disciplined humility. He treats patients, offers occasional audience to seekers, eats sparingly, sleeps a few hours, and dedicates the remainder of his time to meditation and prayer.

Throughout his career he has given large sums of money, indeed the bulk of his income, to charities. He often gives donations to aspiring young doctors for starting new clinics or conducting experiments that Dr Bhosle values. The fees he receives from patients today he passes on to needy friends and patients.

Long past the age when most people give up their work for a life of relaxation, Dr Bhosle continues to serve. Modern medical doctors diagnose many of his cases as "incurable" yet Dr Ram invariably finds a way to produce undeniable results. He has successfully treated diseases such as polio, diabetes, paralysis, obesity, blindness, infertility, sciatica, spasticity, hemiplegia, hypertension, slipped discs, and complete nerve dysfunction.

Dr Bhosle’s primary technique is still the Samvahan he developed early in his career. He supplements this method when necessary with hydrotherapy, ayvurveda, chiropracty, electric vibration, urine therapy and aromatherapy. He combines the technologies he learned in the West, like ultraviolet or infrared radiation, with the ancient systems he studied in Asia, such as acupuncture. His sessions are punctuated by colourful stories of his past experience and by his humorous yet profound view of the world today.

Above all else, Dr Ram Bhosle remains a deeply spiritual man. He meditates for six hours every day, and his yogic devotion makes all of his actions a profound worship of God. Humble, patient, wise and generous, he is a yogi of gigantic attainments. Truly, the spiritual blessings in his life have led him to fulfil a remarkable destiny, in the service of God and for the betterment of all humanity.