Labour of Love Takes Shape

(Himachal Tribune, India, June 20, 1999) – OPD becomes functional at Bhota Hospital. Rs. 30 crore Radha Soami Charitable Hospital to become fully operational by 2000. With the soft opening of OPD service in hundred bedded Bhota Charitable Hospital in Hamirpur district – the region gets connected to free medical services. The relentless toil of thousands of people, who worked day and night, braving the adversities in scorching heat and torrential rains in leveling the rocky mountainous area which supports a five storeyed majestic structure of the hospital, has borne fruit. It is a hospital conceived out of love, built out of love, and which functions with love as its guiding force.

The OPD dedicated to the people of the state will eventually have an intake capacity of 500 patients per day and several doctors from Himachal and other states including pathology experts from Tamil Nadu using it. In OPD, free medicines in addition to diagnosis and treatment is being provided.

Foundation of love
Spread over a sprawling area of 450 kanal, the Hospital Project which will become completely functional in the later part of the next year, is third in the series with first two being at Beas in Amritsar and Sikandarpur in Sirsa (Haryana). The Bhota hospital is being built on doctor-patient relationship of love, faith and commitment for ailing humanity by Radha Soami Satsang, Beas epitomizing love in action.

The opportunity to perform service for the Master is one of the greatest gifts a disciple can receive. The love and compassion of Babaji and humility and dedication of the sevadars were the foundation upon which Bhota hospital was built. The love and faith at Bhota in the followers of Radha Soami path helped them in moving colossal rocks from the uneven and rugged area transforming the place into beautifully leveled landscapes. Thousands of sewadars mainly from Una, Hamirpur, Hoshiarpur and other districts of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan have been working day and night unmindful of personal inconvenience and difficulties for the last three years under Babaji's blessings with labour of love taking shape.

Imbued in the love for the Master, sangat came in large numbers in trucks, trolleys and by other means of transportation under fait accompli divine design and rendered their services in diversified sewas right from mowing the land with tractors, excavators, bulldozers, to constructing hollow concrete cement blocks, and carrying mud, stones and other building material on their heads in tokris. Every sewadar was a living spectacle of exemplary service.

The soil of Bhota, at Charitable hospital, truly bears imprint of devotion and unparalleled sewa of the followers of the Radha Soami path.

Specialities
The five storeyed hospital will provide all facilities to the patients and will have faculties of medicines, surgery, gynae-obstetrics, ophthalmology, ENT, ortho, pathology, radiology, micro-biology, ICU, CCU, casualty and others. With each storey having lift system for the convenience of the patients and the staff, every room of the Hospital will be equipped with electronic information system for bringing waiting patients, in urgent need of help, within timely reach of the doctors.

Doctor-patient relationship of love, service
The most astounding and outstanding feature of this Hospital built on the foundation of love and sewa will be the doctor-patient relationship and dedicated service to the poor and the ailing humanity which is generally missing in the government hospitals. This age old relationship is hardly visible in the hospitals in the present era of commercialization of medical services eroding its very concept and base.

Free medicines
The Charitable hospital, where the medicines will be provided free of cost to the indoor and outdoor patients, will have a highly specialized team of qualified doctors possessing practical experience and excelling in the professional skills. Dedication and service will be the motto of doctors serving there.

Hygiene – a predominant feature
The Hospital complex will have incinerators and treatment plants for converting hospital and human waste into 95 percent clean water, manure and other bye-products conforming to the concept of hygiene and cleanliness.

Modern cooking, washing unit
The Hospital will have ultra modern cooking facilities and steam-baked food will be prepared in cooking machines, untouched by human hands, for serving to the patients at their beds through trolleys. A modern washing system at the Hospital will wash, disinfect and iron 250 bed sheets at a time.

Self sufficient complex
The Hospital will have over 220 apartments for doctors, paramedical and supervisory staff within the complex including a shopping arcade for items of daily need – ration, milk, fresh vegetables, sweets, tailoring and hairdresser shops, canteens, library and indoor games stadium. The complex will have a systematic parking zone, defined metalled roads, over 2000 ornamental trees and a wide variety of flower plants aiding aesthetics and ambiance to the scenic setting.