They that pierce the sides, bore along the ribs, without doing injury, without causing disease, they shall run off outside the opening (of the bladder)! 16. They that pierce crosswise, burrow in thy abdomen, without doing injury, without causing disease, they shall run off outside the opening (of the bladder)! 17. They that creep along the rectum, twist the bowels, without doing injury, without causing disease, they shall run off outside the opening (of the bladder)! 18. They that suck the marrow, and split the joints, without doing injury, without causing disease, they shall run off outside the opening (of the bladder)! 19. The diseases and the injuries that paralyse thy limbs, the poison of all diseases I have charmed forth from thee. 20. Of neuralgia, of abscesses, of inflation, or of inflammation of the eyes, the poison of all diseases I have driven forth from thee. 21. From thy feet, knees, thighs, and bottom; from thy spine, and thy neck the piercing pains, from thy head the ache I have removed. 22. Firm are the bones of thy skull, and the beat of thy heart. At thy rising, O sun, thou didst remove the pains of the head, quiet the pangs in the limbs.AV 2.29b · Atharva Veda · 2
AV 2.29b
Atharva Veda · translated by Maurice Bloomfield
Themes in this passage
Healing in other traditions
The same theme, as Christianity, Islam, Hellenism and Taoism address it.
And thou shalt have great sickness by disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day.2 Chronicles 21:15 · Bible · 2 Chronicles
In their hearts is a disease, and Allah increaseth their disease. A painful doom is theirs because they lie.Quran 2:10 · Quran · The Cow
But Hector, from this scene of slaughter far, Raged on the left, and ruled the tide of war: Loud groans proclaim his progress through the plain, And deep Scamander swells with heaps of slain. There Nestor and Idomeneus oppose The warrior’s fury; there the battle glows; There fierce on foot, or from the chariot’s height, His sword deforms the beauteous ranks of fight. The spouse of Helen, dealing darts around, Had pierced Machaon with a distant wound: In his right shoulder the broad shaft appear’d, And trembling Greece for her physician fear’d. To Nestor then Idomeneus begun: “Glory of Greece, old Neleus’ valiant son! Ascend thy chariot, haste with speed away, And great Machaon to the ships convey; A wise physician skill’d our wounds to heal, Is more than armies to the public weal.” Old Nestor mounts the seat; beside him rode The wounded offspring of the healing god. He lends the lash; the steeds with sounding feet Shake the dry field, and thunder toward the fleet.Iliad 11.44 · Iliad · 11
It is simply by being pained at (the thought of) having this disease that we are preserved from it. The sage has not the disease. He knows the pain that would be inseparable from it, and therefore he does not have it.Tao Te Ching 71.2 · Tao Te Ching
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