A common question raised about our book involves the phenomenon of the "ripple effect" of greatness. A scientist and a yogi explain this phenomenon in different ways. A scientist, such as Dr. Jonathan Haidt, from the University of Virginia, who we quote on this subject, gives his research subjects an experience of witnessing moral acts of beauty or generosity (Jon had some of his subjects watch films of Mother Teresa serving the poor in Calcutta) and then interviews them at length about how they felt watching the film, how they felt after the film, physically, mentally, emotionally, etc. They do this hundreds of times. The emerging field of positive psychology is filled with this kind of research. What it says, in essence, is that witnessing elevated action, elevates and inspires us.

Though we don’t describe Dadi Janki’s perspective on the ripple effect of greatness in the book, she would likely say that when we witness virtuous action, it resonates with the qualities of the soul. An inner state creates a certain field of vibrations. So an inner state of generosity and love produces a wave of love and ripples out into the atmosphere affecting all it touches.

This was during my first few months of work in the ER. The hospital does not have a labor and delivery department and rarely do we get high risk pregnancies and deliveries. One morning in June 2007, a mentally challenged, obese 44year old female accompanied by her mentally challenged husband came in to the ER complaining of intermittent abdominal pain. The patient refused to lay down in bed due to the abdominal pain, she said it was more comfortable for her to stand. As I was attending to the other patients, the nurse called me in panic and started screaming “there’s a foot”. I rushed to the patient’s room, I see her laying down and a baby’s foot was hanging in between her legs. Another physician was in the room standing next to the patient’s head and was asking me if this is a bowel or a foot? Without thinking, I donned on gloves and started delivering the baby, right foot first, then left foot and then the body and finally the head. Everything happened within a second and then the baby’s cry was heard in the ER, and I heard a crowd clapping and with a sigh of relief. I then realized that there was an anesthesiologist on my left side, a surgeon on my right side, a paramedic cutting the baby’s cord, and several other hospital staff witnessing an incredible moment. A first ever footling breech delivery in the emergency room!

The next moment, a nurse was giving me a cold drink, a housekeeper handing me a pair of clean scrub suit, several others giving me a hug and congratulating me. A few days later the hospital director and administrators were visiting me in the ER and telling me what a great thing I have done. I was overwhelmed, not with the act of delivering a baby, but with the positive feelings and comments of everyone else in the hospital.

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