ॐ श्री शिवानन्दाय नमः ॐ श्री चिदानन्दाय नमः ॐ श्री दुर्गायै नमः ॐ भ्रामर्यै नम:
Let me start the whole interesting story, the fiction, but at the same time the extremely scientific non-fiction of Honey-therapy, practised by the age-old Indian Ayurvedic system of medicine since millennia, and by several-several other ancient traditional systems of medicines once practised faithfully around the globe by multifarious ancient cultures and civilizations, with the following juicy narrative of my life that started a few months before the Covid-19 was declared worldwide as the outbreak of a global pandemic, the ‘Vaishwik Mahamari’ of the ancient Hindu scriptures. First the story, next the science :
I am not a Schizophrenic, nor am I some kind of a mentally deranged lunatic having lost all sanity. Or at least I don’t believe I am any of these, and I am fully convinced about my pristine sanity, whether I look sane or insane to the masses. But some of my Hindu religious experiences that I am going to narrate here in this blog-post might give the feeling to some of the non-believers that I am hallucinating like a mentally deranged person, and that I am disconnected from reality. I may even be placed in the category of unscientific superstitious lot.
Well, my stories here might give the impression of blind superstition to some of the readers. But as for my background, I am a person well-trained in modern Western Sciences. And hence scientific explanation of anything and everything captivates my attention any day. But my upbringing in childhood and growing years was in an orthodox Indian Hindu Brahmin family, where I had ample exposures to Hindu scriptures, Hindu spirituality, Hindu festivals, Indian Vedic rituals, and listening to Hindu religious mythologies as my favourite bed-time stories.
To be true to my background and upbringing, even though I specialized in modern Western Sciences, and subsequently chose scientific pursuits as my career choice as well, I had deep interest in all things religious and spiritual of Hinduism, right from my early childhood in the Indian states of West Bengal and Tamilnadu, where I joyously grew up enjoying every single moment of my life.
I am an ardent devotee of Hindu Divine Mother Goddess Shri Durga Parameshwari. Her most sacred scripture is Shri Durga Saptashati, also known as Shri Devi Mahatmyam. Many of the devout Hindus chant this Sanskrit scripture on sacred auspicious days, even if not daily. Though there are indeed some ardent Devi worshippers in India who chant this scripture daily with utmost devotion with a fully focussed, unwavering mind. The complete chant of the scripture usually lasts for full 2-3 hours. This chant or Paaraayanam as it is known in Sanskrit, is believed to be an intense spiritual Sadhana by itself by the sect of devout Devi worshippers of India.
I want to quote here a few lines by my Spiritual Guru ‘Gurudev Swami Sivananda Saraswathi’ of ‘The Divine Life Society Rishikesh’. These lines are from the introductory portion of his book on the commentary of Shri Durga Saptashati / Shri Devi Mahatmyam. I am sharing these passages with the readers here to show how divinely sacred and immensely powerful is this unique scripture of ancient Hindus. Says Gurudev :
“The Devi Mahatmya or the Durga Saptasati is a unique book in this world. It is the base and the root of the religion of the Saktas. It is a Kamadhenu for one and all; it gives whatever man wants. It gives Bhakti in this world and Mukti afterwards. It is a powerful reservoir of Mantras from the beginning to the end. Every verse of this text is a dynamic force which acts powerfully in overhauling the nature of man.
The Saptasati may be read with any motive in the mind, and that shall be fulfilled. Read it for any purpose in life, and that you shall have. Read it for the sake of Spiritual Knowledge, and you will be blessed with it. Since Sakti is the basis for all Ichcha (Desire), Jnana (Knowledge) and Kriya (Action), man cannot fall outside the realm or the kingdom of Sakti. The whole man is but Sakti, and hence he shall have everything through worship of Sakti.
May the blessings of Devi Durga be upon you all! May She bless you all with spiritual illumination and Self-realisation!”
Somewhere in the middle of the year 2019, when my advanced stage cancer treatment was going on in full swing in Bangalore, I took a vow to chant Saptashati for 108 times, a number believed to be extremely sacred in Hinduism. Everytime I started the chant (Paaraayanam ), I used to pray for something sacred before starting the chant, like the removal of all burried impurities from my subconscious mind, or for my spiritual evolution and enlightenment, or something for the well-being of the world and the likes of it. A few times before commencing the chant I prayed to the Divine Mother to show the world a way to put an end to the current deadly Corona-Covid-19 Global Pandemic.
Continuously for 6-7 months, during my Durga Saptashathi Paaraayanam hours, Divine Mother Durga was perhaps giving me hints in multifarious ways, which I was unable to understand and interpret clearly. I was perhaps being given hints by Her to use honey-bee products to help the world put an end to the pandemic, who know? Continuously for a period of few months during the morning Paaraayanam hours, one or two honey bees used to enter the Pooja place from somewhere from the blue all of a sudden, and used to go on flying around me buzzing and buzzing and buzzing, perhaps trying to convey something to me. This suddenly reminded me of one of the many-many Avataras (Divine Incarnations) of Durga Parameshwari mentioned in the sacred Durga Saptashati and also in Shrimad Devi Bhagavatham of ancient India. Bhramari Devi, the Hindu Goddess of Bees, Wasps and Hornets, was also one such Avatara of Devi Durga.
Since the honey-bee incident had become a regular affair, it suddenly struck me that perhaps honey-bee products like bee-venom, pollens, honey, bee-hive, honey-comb – either one of these or all these items in some way – are perhaps the Aushadhi, (Medicine) to put an end to the Corona-Covid-19 Pandemic.
I wanted to share this intuitive knowledge with the world starting first with bee-venom-therapy/ bee-sting-therapy. And in perhaps December 2019, posted my first tweet on this on Twitter, and kept on tweeting about it continuously for a few months trying out all kinds of keywords and all kinds of Hashtags. But there was no noticeable response from anyone anywhere, other than my own enthusiastic response, my own exitement and my own inner voice.
Seeing absolutely no response either from the public, or from the academic community or from the medical fraternity, I stopped tweeting about bee- venom-therapy. But it didn’t stop there, and I kept on wondering what Devi Durga Parameshwari in the form of Bhramari Devi, the Goddess of Bees, was trying exactly to convey to the world through her musical buzz during my Poojaas. What exactly was her hint to the world with a non-entity like me as an instrument, I couldn’t clearly make out then. But since the last one month something within me has been buzzing inside me and asking me, why just bee-venom my dear, why not bee-honey and the multifarious other bee products could be the preventive and curative remedy for the Covid-19 pandemic?
Who know? Remedy to this pandemic could be varieties of bee-honey from varieties of floral sources, bee-venom, bee-sting, pollen, propolis, beeswax, royal jelly, bee-hive, honey comb, wasps, hornets their hives, their products – it could be just one, many, or all of these things, who knows!!! Only our in-depth systematic scientific research in this direction can tell us exactly which of these bee products are effective, preventive and curative remedy to this life-threatening global pandemic, that has made the whole world shudder in fear and panic right from the moment of its appearance on the planet in 2019.
Who knows? In the process, in the course of our scientific research activities in this field, in the field of bee-honey and its medicinal uses, we may even discover several other medicinal uses for the multifarious honey-bee products, and for the products of other insects like wasps, hornets etc, for countless other medical conditions, that are yet unknown today, or may be known to our ancients in multifarious ancient traditional systems of medicines like the age-old Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Chinese medicine etc, but unknown to us scientific-beings of the present generation. These research activities may even generate and kindle a deep intellectual curiosity in us to dive deep into all ancient systems of medicines that have almost gone into oblivion today due to our deep involvement into modern scientific pursuits.
What I am quite certain about, as a person trained in modern Western Sciences, is the fact that we’ve found a guided direction now to our scientific research and drug & vaccine discovery activities, pointing us to proceed confidently in a certain direction to find a cure for Covid 19. I honestly feel we should focus most of our precious energy and research efforts in this direction now, without much dissipating our energies in multifarious uncertain directions, where the research outcomes are very uncertain right at the moment.
And as all of us would unanimously agree here that a quick solution to the problem of finding an effective cure for Covid 19, is the dire need of the hour at this crucial, historically significant moment.
As far as my intuitive goes, I feel with certainty that this is the direction we have to adopt towards our research for our life-saving vaccines and drug discovery activities, and perhaps this is the direction for putting an end to Covid-19 that has created havoc everywhere.
It’ll give me immense joy to see the scientific and medical fraternity around the globe giving a serious thought to this suggestion which may sound slightly superstitious to some at this primary stage but the suggestions shared here are just not baseless. But is it not equally true that many of the scientific breakthroughs in human-history around the world were the outcome of hints and guidance received through intuitions, dreams and many of such unexplicable sources? Falling of apple on Sir Isaac Newton’s head & the subsequent discovery of gravitational theory, Kekule’s hexagonal Benzene ring structure and the subsequent phenomenal advances in aromatic organic chemistry, the discovery of Insulin for diabetes etc are a few examples that come to mind immediately.
Bhramari Devi is one of the many divine incarnations of Devi Durga in Hinduism. And she is the Goddess of bees, wasps, hornets etc. in ancient Hindu mythologies. The ageless, timeless spiritual wisdom of Hinduism believes that whenever there’s total decline of righteousness & utter decline of sanctity and Dharma in the world, the Divine manifests itself in the visible physical world in some form to put an end to the Adharma, to put an end to the utter unrighteous way of living of the humans, and finally re-establish the flag, the Dhwaja, of righteousness in the world. There are stories of Bhramari Devi’s incarnation in both Durga Saptashati and Devi Bhagavatham – in brief in Saptashati, & in full detail in Devi Bhagavatham.
These sacred Hindu scriptures have even predicted the massive destructions of the very recent & the terrible Uttarakhand Floods, and not so old utterly destructive Uttarakhand earthquake of the Holy Himalayas, brought about by the Divine Mother in Her Earthly Incarnation as Bheema Devi ( the Mighty Huge and the Incredibly Terrible ), when the spirituality and the utmost sanctity of the Holy Himalayas is finally brought down to utter pathetic ruins by the devil-like humans of the planet, making the Holiest Himalayas absolutely unsuitable for spiritual living and divine life, and absolutely unsuitable for the contemplation, meditation and spiritual practises of the sages living there.
The Holy Himalayas were always meant only for living a divine life and for practising spiritual Sadhana by the ancient Hindus of the planet, and never ever for crass materialism and earthly commercial pursuits. And we saw only these things happening on the sacred Himalayas in the last few decades.
These scriptures even give a clear hint to the devotees that in her Incarnation as Bhramari Devi, the Goddess of Black Bees, she will appear on the planet like a mighty tornado of bees, like a mighty psunami of bees, to put a total end to the Adharma, the unrighteous evil way of living of the humans, on the planet. In Hindu scriptures, she’s been shown as a Goddess who uproots all kinds of diseases, and all kinds of vicious negativities.
Reading these scriptures one is made to firmly believe that after this global Covid 19 pandemic is finally brought to an end by the Divine Grace of the Divine Mother, Tibetan monks, Tibetan spiritual practisioners, staying as refugees everywhere in other countries, having been thrown out of their own motherland, will go happily back to their own country Tibet, once the whole pandemic on the planet finally settles down.
There is no doubt that the sudden explosion and appearance of this life-threatening, panic-generating pandemic on the planet is just not an innocent, unintentional mistake or a sudden unexpected accident. It’s evident to the entire planet now that the deadly Corona virus has deliberately been created by someone, somewhere with certainly not good intentions. There has definitely been undivine, evil intentions somewhere in some unscrupulous, corrupt brain that has been the root cause for this global tragedy with so many innocent people dying everyday, everywhere, and so much of panic and fear pervaded all over the planet today. And it’s perhaps this unscrupulous corrupt brain that has been referred to as the demon ‘Arunasura’ in Saptashati & Devi Bhagavatham.
And the result of this unprecedented discovery ?, this extraordinary scientific breakthrough of the century?, this invention of the mighty, all-destructive Corona virus, that has brought down the whole life everywhere to a deadly standstill – not just on our planet-earth but perhaps also in all invisible celestial planes – the invisible celestial planes mentioned in the scriptures of ancient Hinduism? All the sacred life-giving Vedic Yagyas have been stopped, all the sacred places of worship have been closed, all the pilgrim spots that used to be jam-packed with devoted pilgrims once look absolutely barren and deserted today. All the life-saving hospitals and rejuvenating centres of health and healing have been locked down, all the academic institutions and centres of knowledge and learning have been closed, all the spiritual organisations that were working day and night for the well-being of the world and for the spiritual evolution of the suffering mankind shut, and all the selfless charitable activities been stopped.
The list of tragedies, the list of total Adharma and unrighteousness pervaded today around the globe is simply endless. The one thing that is most certain today is uncertainty – uncertainty about anything and everything. No one really knows when exactly the normal life on the planet would start once again, and when will the whole of mankind breathe life-giving fresh air once again. Even simple air that is the most essential thing required for existence is unavailable today. What can be more tragic? Leave aside food, shelter and source of livelihood.
Is this not the appropriate time right now then for the Invisible Divine to manifest itself in the world as an Incarnation, and put a permanent end to this global trauma and tragedy, that is beyond all human efforts to solve? Most certainly YES, YES & YES. There can be no two opinions on this, whatever the race, whatever the religion, whatever the geographical location of people on this earth-plane.
Goddess Bhramari Devi, the Divine Mother Goddess of Bees is perhaps that Incarnation of Hindu scriptures who only can help us and save us now during this unprecedented global calamity. But this Goddess of bees is not just unique to Hinduism. There have been Gods & Goddesses of Bees, Wasps, Hornets and multifarious other insects in many of the cultures and many of the ancient civilisations around the globe. Here are some of them from the Wikipedia page of Goddess Bhramari Devi :
- Ah-Muzen-Cab — Mayan god of bees.
- Aristaeus — Ancient Greek god of bees.
- Austėja — Lithuanian goddess of bees.
- Bubilas — Lithuanian god of bees.
- Colel Cab — Mayan goddess of bees.
- Melissa — Ancient Greek/Minoan goddess of bees.
- Mellona — Roman goddess of bees.
- Bee (mythology)
For several days, one or two honey bees used to come and buzz around me almost throughout the duration of my Saptashati chants, and my husband Dr. Chandrashekhar, a medical doctor by profession, used to come to the Poojaa place and crush and kill them with his slippers, so that I don’t get badly stung by the venom, and generate more problems for everyone. And all this in spite of my telling him that these bees that I am encountering during my Poojaa are extremely sacred, and are not ordinary wild bees just wandering around in search of their share of honey. I told him that Mother Bhramari Devi has come to share some important message with me for the welfare of the world, as my prayers and Saptashati chants were meant for the culmination of the terrible, humanly unsolvable pandemic.
I sincerely thought, perhaps Durga Devi, in her Bhramari form, wants me to share the above mentioned medical knowledge with the current panic-stricken Corona infested world.
I shared this information several times in many places on social media sites, including the higher authorities of India’s ICMR. Some people on Twitter did find it interesting, but no further action was taken in the matter.
I left it at that, thinking that I will deeply ponder over the matter at leisure to make an interpretation of this honey-bee incident, and later share my interpretations with the whole wide world through multifarious social media sites, and through a blog-post in my personal blog on the cultural and spiritual heritage of India. And here’s the blogpost I am writing today.
Since the past several months, I see even an old honeycomb in my pomegranet orchard outside our apartment balcony, gradually growing in size everyday. It’s fairly big now, but perhaps without any of the honey-bees sleeplessly guarding it.
Mother is perhaps really serious now, and wants me to take some serious action on her medical hint.
My husband Shekhar and son Pappu find all this to be a good entertaining comedy show, which really makes their day. My interpretations are a good source entertainment for both of them. They just don’t discourage me and demotivate me in any way, but they do find the whole Bhramari & Devi Durga story extremely amusing.
I am seriously doing scientific literature survey these days through online research since the past one week or so, starting this time with the beneficial medicinal uses of bee-honey by different cultures and ancient civilizations down the ages, including India’s ageless, timeless Ayurvedic system of medicine, which is an important Anga, a part, of the sacred Vedas of India. The outcome of this online research is truly encouraging and very promising. Bee-honey has been been very successfully used as a medicine all around the globe since millenia to treat countless medical conditions.
There are loads of modern published scientific papers too from around the globe on the medicinal uses of varieties of honeys, from varieties of floral sources, for treating varieties of medical conditions. In the last 10-15 years of scientific research, the amount of research conducted in this field by scientists is simply mind-boggling. The one topic in this field that has received maximum coverage in modern scientific and medical journals, and that was clearly noticeable during my online literature survey, is the antimicrobial properties of honey, that includes antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-cancer, and a host of other similar uses.
Many of the published research findings in any scientific field today may be false, as the paper shared below by one of the senior professors of Stanford Medical School says. But then again he says, if several research findings from around the globe report the same results in published literature, we can’t deny the fact that there must definitely be some truth in it.
Therefore, the well-researched antimicrobial properties of honey in today’s scientific and medical literature must be a scientific truth. The research done in this field and the amount of published papers on these crucial topics are simply huge, and stunningly baffling. To begin with, I have shared some of these published papers here to bring a ray of hope to the Corona-infested world of today. In the days to come, I will share here in this blogpost several medicinal uses of honey, and several published papers from scientific literature on this subject.
To be doubly, triply or multiply sure about these soul-elevating results and the efficacy of honey as a medicine in modern healthcare, we may repeat and conduct the same old researches once again, but this time with accurate mathematical precision, so that our scientists and medical scientists around the globe may show us a way to exterminate the Corona virus and bring the deadly virus to a culmination, so that we humans may start living our normal lives once again. But this time not as ordinary mortals eating, drinking and being merry, but with a meaningful spiritual purpose in life, making the fullest use possible of the human birth.
Here are some of the published scientific papers on bee-honey and its beneficial medicinal uses, including its antimicrobial activities. Papers on other bee products like bee-venom, bee-sting, beeswax, bee-hives etc will gradually be shared one after the other in this post in the days and months to come.
Readers may please stay tuned, if this serious topic of scientific research on bee-honey as a unique and an effective medicine interests them :
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