At The Speaking Tree the other day, we all received an offbeat email — an announcement of the Association of Ayurvedic Professionals of North America (AAPNA), Pennsylvania, USA, for the AAPNA Awards for Excellence in Ayurveda and Vedic Sciences. Ancient wisdom and medicine knowledge is making a definite comeback globally — and it's time we wake up to this fact and embrace it wholeheartedly.
The vision of India as not just a land of exotica, but of very real knowledge of a system of medicine based on herbs and ancient wisdom is now gaining ground.
The West has already woken up to this fact — judging by the popularity of Indian yoga and ayurveda systems the world over, and globally from Australia to Hawaii, there are experts advocating the use of cow's ghee, hing, and curative spices such as turmeric and fennel to cook simple vegetarian satvik fare for everyday living. Ayurveda and other sadhanas or practices work even better if you live your life as nature intended — in a state where the doshas you were born with — vatta, pitta, kapha — are in balance, together with yoga, meditation, and pranayama. Says US-based Indian scientist Bal Ram Singh, "Ayurvedacharyas look at you holistically. They first try and change your behaviour and your lifestyle, and if that doesn't set the problem right, finally prescribe medicines or herbs to get you back to your natural self."
At a conference earlier this year in Rishikesh, organised by the Coimbatore-based Punarnava Ayurveda Trust, I decided to throw one of the ayurveda experts I met there, a quick question. I pointed to my forehead where I had a growing bump the size of a small cherry for the past 18 months and asked if this would go away with an ayurveda remedy.
V.Vasudevan, director at the famed Arsha Yoga Vidya Peetam Trust in Coimbatore and an ayurveda guru had one quick look at my forehead from a distance of six feet. A paste with water of yashti madhu and vacha churna was prescribed. "Put it three times a day for a month; it will go away," he said casually. I followed his advice — and over the next month, my colleagues and I watched in disbelief as the bump disappeared, little by little — without antibiotics, painkillers, knife, scalpel, stitches and bandages — and no days off from work either (all of which the surgeon I had consulted had prescribed).
Since then, I have educated myself on a host of cures in ayurveda and naturopathy. I had the good fortune of meeting US-based spiritual guru, Mother Maya, who outlined her amazing fight with cancer and of turning to ayurveda and 'inner medicine' for a cure; I heard of cures for almost every ailment — and of mental and psychological problems, and pains of all types, including arthritis being cured by ayurvedas and naturopaths.
"We have ayurveda specialists in every medicine discipline, but a treatment is prescribed for the entire body even when we are dealing with a disease that has affected a particular part of the body — a separation is not possible," says Vasudevan. "The approach in ayurveda is totally different. Disease is a result of an imbalance in the body's systems, but it may manifest in only one part of the body," he says. "Vatta, pitta, kapha dosha imbalance is the basic cause of all imbalance in the body," he adds. That's really the simple essence of ayurveda.
Source:TNN
The vision of India as not just a land of exotica, but of very real knowledge of a system of medicine based on herbs and ancient wisdom is now gaining ground.
The West has already woken up to this fact — judging by the popularity of Indian yoga and ayurveda systems the world over, and globally from Australia to Hawaii, there are experts advocating the use of cow's ghee, hing, and curative spices such as turmeric and fennel to cook simple vegetarian satvik fare for everyday living. Ayurveda and other sadhanas or practices work even better if you live your life as nature intended — in a state where the doshas you were born with — vatta, pitta, kapha — are in balance, together with yoga, meditation, and pranayama. Says US-based Indian scientist Bal Ram Singh, "Ayurvedacharyas look at you holistically. They first try and change your behaviour and your lifestyle, and if that doesn't set the problem right, finally prescribe medicines or herbs to get you back to your natural self."
At a conference earlier this year in Rishikesh, organised by the Coimbatore-based Punarnava Ayurveda Trust, I decided to throw one of the ayurveda experts I met there, a quick question. I pointed to my forehead where I had a growing bump the size of a small cherry for the past 18 months and asked if this would go away with an ayurveda remedy.
V.Vasudevan, director at the famed Arsha Yoga Vidya Peetam Trust in Coimbatore and an ayurveda guru had one quick look at my forehead from a distance of six feet. A paste with water of yashti madhu and vacha churna was prescribed. "Put it three times a day for a month; it will go away," he said casually. I followed his advice — and over the next month, my colleagues and I watched in disbelief as the bump disappeared, little by little — without antibiotics, painkillers, knife, scalpel, stitches and bandages — and no days off from work either (all of which the surgeon I had consulted had prescribed).
Since then, I have educated myself on a host of cures in ayurveda and naturopathy. I had the good fortune of meeting US-based spiritual guru, Mother Maya, who outlined her amazing fight with cancer and of turning to ayurveda and 'inner medicine' for a cure; I heard of cures for almost every ailment — and of mental and psychological problems, and pains of all types, including arthritis being cured by ayurvedas and naturopaths.
"We have ayurveda specialists in every medicine discipline, but a treatment is prescribed for the entire body even when we are dealing with a disease that has affected a particular part of the body — a separation is not possible," says Vasudevan. "The approach in ayurveda is totally different. Disease is a result of an imbalance in the body's systems, but it may manifest in only one part of the body," he says. "Vatta, pitta, kapha dosha imbalance is the basic cause of all imbalance in the body," he adds. That's really the simple essence of ayurveda.
Source:TNN
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