I am very honoured to express my views for a deeper understanding of all the great traditions of Bharat. Such a movement is necessary and crucial for India and the world today, in which people have lost their connection with enduring values I've been working in this field of Avurveda medicine and yogic healing for more than thirty years, and wish to examine them in more detail. I have been involved with the starting of schools, the teaching of Ayurveda and yoga and writing textbooks on these subjects. I have been teaching yoga in America, South America, Europe and Russia. I would like to share what I have learned in the process. Let's put this topic into perspective
Scholars and Stateman talk about the colonisation of the Indian mind and the undermining of dharmic traditions, and we should not forget the colonisation of Indian medicine as a major part of this process The British closed the Ayurvedic schools of medicine in the country as part of their attempt to undermine traditional education. My main Ayurvedic teacher Dr. Bala Vashta, who was also an RSS leader, graduated from the first Ayurvedic school in Maharashtra, in Satara in 1941. The British only allowed the schools to be opened shortly before the independence of the country. One way to control a country is to control its medicine and healing traditions, and many such ancient healing traditions throughout the world have been limited and subverted in the process of colonial rule, notably in India While Ayurveda has been growing in India since independence, there is still much of traditional Ayurveda that is yet to be reclaimed and made relevant today. Now the Government of India celebrates international Yoga day, and also Ayurveda day on Dhanvantari Jayanti. This is a good beginning but much more is required. I would like to make the point that globally we are experiencing a tremendous health crisis which is likely get worse in the years to come. The modern medical system has major limitations, particularly for dealing with chronic diseases, lifestyle conditions and behavioural imbalances. For example, in India, there is an epidemic of diabetes throughout the country that modern medicine is not able to cure, which is largely behavioural in nature. There is a new protocol for treating diabetes with yoga and Ayurveda that will likely prove very effective.
Usere are also new health problems arising from our modern information tech society and its artificial way of life that disturbs both body and mind. And modern medicine has become extraordinarily expensive for the individual and for the society. Today medicine is dominated by a drug based paradigm. Ayurveda is not necessarily against the use of pharmaceutical drugs. But we hold that drugs should be given last, not first among treatment options. Today in the Western world over 50% of the people over 50 years old are or will be taking anti-depressant medicines. There is a proliferation of all these psychological problems that may come to India as well. And drugs may not be effective in countering them as these are primarily behavioural problems.
In India today, traditional Ayurveda unfortunately is not much practiced. What is official is a new modem Ayurveda, as in BAMS training, a hybrid between modern medicine and Ayurveda. One of the sad factors of this training is that many people who graduate as Ayurvedic doctors do not practice Ayurveda but go in for modern medicine instead and ignore traditional Ayurveda. Recently, I did a program with Ayurveda Rajasthan and talked to the young students directly to see what was going on and found this still to be the case. There was a lack of confidence in the young Ayurvedic students.
The good news is that India's healing systems, Ayurveda and yoga, have been spreading worldwide as well as gaining greater recognition in India. I remember twenty years ago giving a program on yoga and medicine in Mumbai. There were nine Indian medicine doctors, while I was the only representative of Ayurveda at that particular event, but now Ayurveda is much more visible in India. In the western world there is a growing understanding and opening to natural healing particularly in the United States. Modern medicine is developing a new science of epigenetics, an understanding of how our behaviour is the basis of health, much as Ayurveda has always taught. Epigenetics teaches that the condition or biome of the digestive tract actually determines which DNA factors will likely manifest, so that the right diet can prevent genetic disorders and predispositions from occurring and causing diseases. In this way leading aspects of modern medicine may support Ayurveda in the long run. In India today Ayurvedic products are becoming widely available, as is the case with Patanjali Ayurved of Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna. Acharya Balkrishna also completing a huge study of the Ayurvedic herbs and medicine So an Ayurvedic renaissance is going on, including a movement away from imported drugs to India grown herbs. If you import your medicine according to a drug-based medical paradigm, you lose control of your own health and your own medical system While drugs may have some benefits, a lot of our problems today require change of lifestyle, change of behaviour, and change of diet, mere pharmaceutical drugs may not be effective. Ayurveda and yoga can be more effective as well as less expensive.
Ayurveda and the yoga system does not view the human being simply as a physical being but as a Panchakosha or having five layers, and contained in us is the body, the prana, the senses, the mind and Aatma, and the ability to use and harness the forces of prana and consciousness. In Ayurveda, yoga such as taught in the Yoga Sutras, form some of the main therapies, particularly for psychological disorders, which we call the sattavajaya therapy, promoting sattva or clarity and balance of body and mind. Ayurveda recommends yogaasana for it's important lifestyle and exercise value.
Meditation is a very important factor of deep healing for body and mind. As part of their psychological dimension, yoga and meditation along with Ayurvedic rasayanans or rejuvenative herbs for the mind, can help us deal with conditions like depression, attention problems such as the side effects of spending our days in front of the computer, being overly stimulated by their electrical energy. These are part of very important health challenges coming up in our future world.
Ayurveda itself also has detailed dietary recommendations according to the individual constitution as defined according to the three doshas or biological humors of Vata, Pitta and Kapha, very powerful herbs, and specific clinical methods that effectively cover most diseases, like Pancha Karma treatments that are now becoming available throughout India. In this regard, there are many simple things that we do that damage our health, such as having soft drinks or cold ice liquids with our meals that Ayurveda teaches us to avoid as these suppress the digestive fire. Another very bad habit in India is eating heavy foods late at night. Ayurveda teaches us that this can cause obesity, heart disease and trouble sleeping. Ayurveda has a great deal of this type of right living wisdom that we can all easily benefit from.
To put this into perspective, modern medicine tends to treat diseases and we could say that the diseases may be treated very well, but the people are not always treated well, as the drugs to treat diseases have many side effects. In Ayurveda we aim at looking at the whole person and how we feel and think. Our goal is not simply treating disease; our goal is complete wellness, and a implementing complete lifestyle for optimum well-being. Sometimes we say in modern medicine we aim at basically like firemen putting afire out in a house. In Ayurveda we help you build a better house to begin with that is fire-proof. Ayurveda does not simply treat diseases but prevents them from arising in the first place.
Ayurveda is one of the greatest cultural spiritual and healing heritages not only of India but of the entire world. It has not been given its due the way yoga has. Even yoga has not been completely understood, particularly its science of consciousness. Both yoga and Ayurveda need to be brought out and made relevant according to culture, diet and the individual that are constantly changing
The major health issues in India and in the world that can be dealt with by the natural healing methods of Ayurveda and yoga that show us right living as well as the treatment of disease for body and mind. More work and research needs to be done on both systems, more of this heritage needs to be reclaimed and shared. Today we must look back to these traditional healing methods of yoga, herbs and Ayurveda. You can master your own health and wellbeing, but you have to work on it every day. You have to make your entire lifestyle in harmony with nature, in harmony with your individual type, and with this wisdom of the ancient rishis called Ayurveda, which pervades all the other Vedic systems. Ayurveda is the foundation of all yoga therapy and yoga healing and helps us apply it in a complete and comprehensive manner. This Yoga-Ayurveda connection should not be forgotten or underestimated. It is my sincere wish that more people get involved with this integration of yoga and Ayurveda for the benefit of all.
In conclusion let us remember that India has so much of this wonderful heritage of Yoga and Ayurveda that is simple and practical as well as profound. Ayurveda is also your gateway into fine Vedic world for understanding Agni, Vayu and all the cosmic forces responsible for health harmony, peace and wellbeing on all levels of existence. May that universal peace that is lauded in the Vedas be with you.
(Pandit Vamadeva Shastri (David Frawley) is often referred to as a living encyclopedia on Sanskrit, the Vedas, Indian philosophy, and Hindu traditions and heritage. This brief article written by him was published in the commemorative booklet for the "Lokmanthan" event, jointly organized by "Prajna Pravah" and the Department of Culture, Government of Madhya Pradesh.)