Here are some inspiring anecdotes about Sri Swami Sivananda’s career as a doctor in Malaya during his pre-Sannyasa days. Swamiji was known as Kuppuswami back then.

In those days doctors were many in Malaya but few were sympathetic to the patients. They ran after rich clients. Dr. Kuppuswami, on the other hand, sought out the poor who needed his medical services most. Other doctors charged fees for a mere consultation but Dr. Kuppuswami gave pocket money to his patients to cover the immediate expenses on discharge from hospital.

He always prayed while attending on his patients. Every Friday he held a prayer service at the hospital where he was working. At the end of the service he distributed the Lord’s Prasad to the patients. He put a little Prasad into the mouths of those patients who lay too ill to attend the service.

At his home he had a Tulsi altar where he offered daily worship. To patients who came to him he gave leaves of the holy Tulsi plant and a few drops of consecrated water, besides medicine.
Once a person suffering from a severe throat disease came to him. The doctor wrote a personal letter to a friend in a Singapore hospital. He bought the patient a ticket, gave him some pocket money and sent him wishing him a speedy recovery.

He was a doctor with a difference!

He extended not merely medical service but service of every kind. The extent to which he went to the aid of people can be gauged from the fact that he once pawned his own valuables to buy something for a friend.

Once he engaged a cook. The very first night the kindly doctor sprang a surprise on him. Spreading his own bedding on the floor he pointed a bed to the cook.
“It is very unhealthy to lie on the floor in these parts. I have got accustomed to it. You should not take risks,” he said.

Whenever the doctor went out, he carried small change in his pocket. He distributed them to the poor on the roadside. It gave him joy and peace. No beggar would cross his house without receiving money or meals. The doctor would often take a beggar inside, feed him nicely and when he had finished eating, lovingly stand by his side and pour water for him to wash his hands. Or if no food was readily available at home, he would give him money to buy not one meal, but three or four.

Once a certain Seetharama Iyer went to the doctor and told him that he was seeking a job. He stayed with the doctor for some days. As no job was available at that time, the disappointed man left the place, leaving no address.

After a couple of months a post fell vacant and the doctor now remembered Iyer. But where to contact him? He sent out telegrams to three or four likely addresses. One telegram caught Iyer. He came and met the doctor. The doctor not only fixed him up in a job but also accommodated him in his own home.

An unemployed young man Subramanian by name turned up one evening at the doctor’s residence and told him that he wanted a job. Until the doctor got him appointed in the railways, he stayed with him (the doctor). When Subramanian shifted to a rented house, the doctor asked his cook to give him utensils and a month’s provisions. The doctor also requested a shopkeeper to allow the young man any credit he wanted.

Whenever the doctor went to the help of anyone, he asked himself, “Have I done all that I could do? Have I done all that I should do?” He helped others with thoroughness that compelled admiration.

These instances illustrate the great ideal which he sought to realise in daily life—to find his own happiness in the happiness of others.

—Adapted from S. Ananthanarayanan’s book ‘Man to Godman’