experiencing the world from body to ĀTMAN 149
College Hospital, explained the primary characteristics of her illness using
ōrmma:
Like this I was unconsciously [ōrmmayillāte] saying things. I called my mother
bad names. I was unconscious [ōrmmayilla]. I could not eat anything.In this passage, it is diffi cult to ascertain whether it is better to render ōrmma
as “memory” or “consciousness,” two of its English glosses. Th e following inci-
dent involving an elderly patient, Kuttappan, at the Government Ayurveda
Mental Hospital helps clarify some of the meanings of this idiom:
Wife of Kuttappan: We can’t sleep here. Yesterday, his son was here with him.
He beat him [the son] with a fl ashlight.Benny: His son?Wife of Kuttapan: Yes. Th ere was a cut here, and a tooth was hit and loosened.Kuttappan: I don’t remember [ōrmmayilla] that.Benny: He did it unconsciously [ōrmmayillāte].Wife of Kuttapan: Unconsciously [ōrmmayillāte], he did it. So they chained him.
I told him to bring tea in the morning. His son had not had tea. It was to soothe
him. So ask your son. Father did that unconsciously. So let him call his son and
ask him whether he had tea. Th en he started crying. At that time he was not in his
conscious mind [more literally, he was of little intellect—buddhikku lēsham].Kuttappan’s wife referred to her husband as lacking buddhi, which is a term
used in Nyāya, Vaiśesika and other philosophies to refer to the intellect, a
capacity that is not the same as manas (mind) or the body. Buddhi is less tan-
gible, more subtle and more highly valued than mind and body. In this excerpt,
ōrmma appears to be a type of consciousness or awareness that can be linked
to past events, but the following exchange with a Christian woman who was at
Vettucaud church appealing for relief for her daughter, Teresa—a fi sh vendor
who had started swearing, acting violently and causing trouble for her family—
shows that the association between ōrmma and memory is not automatic:
Kavitha: When she is having this problem, are there any memory [ōrmma]
problems?Mother of Teresa: Sometimes she will be unconscious [ōrmmayillāte kitakkum].
Th en we will warm her up by giving her something hot to drink and all.