Shruti Ayurveda for Well-Being

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Shruti: Ayurveda for Well-Being places Ayurveda at the heart and wisdom of natural healing. It recognizes healthy living as our intrinsic nature d provides comprehensive recommendations in diet, daily, seasonal and ethical care as presented in Avurveda. It is a manual for maintaining good health that recognizes Ayurveda as universal wisdom and in harmony with nature. The book is gentle in style and enables the reader to embrace Ayurveda from all walks of life.

Vaidya Aasiya Rizvi is a young practitioner in Ayurvedic Medicine, born in a family of medical professionals. Her grandfather, Hakim Shamsuddin Qazi, was a well-known Unani doctor. Aasiya Rizvi devoted several years traveling and researching the heart and soul of Ayurveda. In that she discovered other forms of natural and indigenous medicines throughout the world. In her journey with Ayurveda, it being an ancient and vast wisdom in healing, she felt it needs to be rekindled in the world taking it beyond any traditional claims. In this book, Aasiya Rizvi presents the reader with a practical guide to Ayurveda.

Namaste!

My name is Dr Sibi George and I am a traditional Ayurvedic healer. I come from the South Indian State of Kerala. I have over 25 years of experience in the Ancient Indian Ayurvedic Science and Therapies and Massages after having learned from the traditional professional knowledge from my father (Ayurvedic Doctor). I started my career in 1986 as a teacher and a Therapy Practitioner. Now I bring this knowledge to everyone with my treatments.

Aasiya Rizvi and I met several years ago when she was inquiring about some courses and treatments with me. At the time she was also interested in Tibetan Medicine and visiting the Tibetan doctors and the Men Tse Khang Institute for Tibetan Medicine. She was very interested as her family was also connected to Ayurveda. We met in Bhagsunag, Himachal Pradesh, where I am mainly in my clinic during the summer time. During the winter months I am in Kerala as I offer treatments and courses in the clinics.

Ayurveda is one of the great gifts of the sages of ancient India to mankind. It is one of the oldest scientific medical systems in the world with a long record of clinical experience to validate it. However, it is not only a system of medicine in the conventional sense of curing disease. It is also a way of life that teaches us how to maintain and protect health. It shows us how to both cure disease and promote longetivity. Ayurveda treats man as a 'whole' - though at the same time viewing him a combination of body, mind, and soul therefore it is a truly holistic and integral medical system. I am very happy that Aasiya has written this book to share the Ayurvedic way of life with others. She has made a sincere and genuine effort to share her points of view and give light to Ayurveda. This can be very beneficial for everyone in a profound way.

I believe that everyone is looking for peace and health but it will not come to you, you have to bring it to yourself. This is why Ayurveda teaches you that 'Self-Realization' or determining your 'individuality' and constitution in humours is important. It is so essential to recognize yourself. Your bad and good, your positive and your negative egos etcetera. Then accordingly, you can design your life by diet and lifestyle. I really hope that this handbook "Shruti" helps you and guides you to the good bridge.

The word Ayu means all aspects of life from birth to death. The word Veda means knowledge of learning. Thus Ayurveda denotes the science by which life, in its totality, is understood. It is a science of life that delineates the diet, medicines, and behavior that are beneficial or harmful for life. Aasiya has included the main chapters in her book that inform us of what is healthy for us according to Ayurveda. Her book may be used as a handbook of recommendations that can be useful to anyone who is interested in Ayurveda. By reading this book you can get a wonderful idea of what Ayurveda is and also get the important guidelines in a compact form. These guidelines are for preventive medicine and lifestyle and also for general Ayurvedic medicine and treatments.

Ayurveda teaches you more than 68 varieties of Ayurvedic treatment procedures or therapies and has a vast number of Ayurvedic medicinal cures. Some of these main treatments are Pancha Karma, (A comprehensive system of knowledge and practice to purify the body from toxins and restore it to balance with natural law). Usually, a 28-day or more programme is recommended for this. Other therapies are Kizhy, Pizhichill, Dhara, Marma Therapy, Stone Therapy, Ennathoni, and many different types of massages and even more. It can take more than one lifetime to fully embrace all of Ayurveda because there is so much knowledge in it. Experience has always shown that whenever people have come from within India and the West to get treatments from me or to learn about Ayurveda they have always felt the benefits in their lives. Aasiya's book Shruti will also bring people to a deeper understanding of Ayurveda and to experience it as wisdom that is not far away but very close to our hearts. I am sure that the reader will enjoy this book and also learn many good things.

Ayurveda has progressively gained in worldwide recognition as a holistic healing system of medicine and preventive medicine. It is approached as both an alternative and as a complementary medicine. It is often compared with Traditional Chinese Medicine or Tibetan Medicine. It offers a broad array of knowledge in the field of natural healing faculties.

My first meeting with Ayurveda was through my cultural and ancestral heritage. While many of my family members are doctors specialised in their particular fields of medicine, I regularly heard references made to my grandfather who was an Ayurvedic cum Unani doctor. He had studied in Tibbia Medical College in Delhi during the pre-partition time of India and Pakistan after which he founded a centre, the "Dawa Khana" in the province of Sind, Pakistan. He was much admired for his knowledge and healing abilities and authored many books that were dedicated to universities in the area.

Ayurveda is still actively used amongst most families even though many might not be entirely aware of this. The negative aspects of modern life have also affected families in Asia and altered people's lifestyle and manner of relating with life in its totality. In today's Ayurveda we can find a variety of Spas and Massage centres spread across the world. In India there are restaurants that present themselves to serve Ayurvedic meals but are instead serving popular Indian dishes, Ayurveda beauty products, herbal teas and many more products are more readily available to everyone. Several professional Ayurveda clinics and centres have also opened up, there are government hospitals in India, and as time is elapsing, we may find professional doctors and practitioners all over the world.

I began to embrace Ayurveda several years back as I progressively began to meet with the phenomena of holistic medicine. I grew up in pace with modern life, dutifully completing high school, followed by university studies unto office work. I enjoyed the corporate life for a while but recognised that something fundamental was lacking. It was as if the unnatural felt natural. The way of life seemed out of balance with little time left to feed the body in a healthy manner. I instinctively knew there was a gentler way to nourish oneself at a deeper level as well. The only way out of this tempo seemed to be the way inward. I began to contemplate unto a more spiritual path; one that is harmonious with the tunes of nature. This deep inner journey brought me very close to Ayurveda.

I spent many years embracing the sweetness of Ayurveda, researching it and I travelled through India and Pakistan to bring me to a closer understanding of it. I realised that the subject was vast, almost infinite yet very down-to-earth and its true essence lay in its divinity. Ayurveda inspires us to recognise the healthy state of being within ourselves and offers guidelines toward sustenance of good health. It recognises and respects that each living creature is unique and precious.

In feeling that each grain we devour is sacred, each fire we ignite is inextinguishable in essence, and that each shift in a mood we experience is no coincidence but can be a communion with the One, I only ascertained to move even closer to Ayurveda. It is common human folly to forget simple gentle gifts and truths that life is continuously revealing to us. In silence almost everything can be revealed to us. Our cosmic memories can be nurtured and awakened. Through Ayurveda one comes to experience the delicate interconnectedness of life, one realises compassion, love and can reach balance in life.

I received my diploma as an Ayurvedic practitioner from the Eisra College of Ayurveda in the Netherlands. I have lived in the Netherlands since my early teens. This college is affiliated with the Gujarat University in India. The founder of my college, my teacher, Dr Mehta, is a well-renowned doctor and a very loving man who I first met in 1998 prior to my journeys. He founded the first Ayurvedic centre and college in the Benelux and eventually extended his clinics back to India. He has also authored several books, taught hundreds of students and healed many people with diseases like cancer. During my internship in India I met with many local and international patients. I witnessed a change in pulse - during the daily pulse diagnosis check of patients - and a 'glow of life' gradually re-immersing in patients who were battling with leukaemia and tumours. Each morning, the gardener would collect those parts of plants that were needed to make medicines. The yoga therapist would open-heartedly support in healing people morning and evening and daily Ayurvedic treatments were given in the therapy rooms. Some patients turned to Vedic astrologers and the cook would wipe the sweat of his brow as he persevered to produce Ayurvedic meals each day in accordance to people's constitutions and diseases.

This book Shruti gives an overview of what Ayurveda is and offers people a handbook of guidelines and recommendations for better health care and understanding with Ayurveda. It is written in a way for both professionals in the field of Ayurveda as well as for the layman who knows little or nothing about Ayurveda. In addition to this, Shruti also places Ayurveda at the heart of Divine Wisdom. It reflects on how such wisdom is essentially universal and in a way does not belong to anyone tradition or culture. Divine wisdom exists in us all and always has across the globe. Perhaps the best gift of Ayurveda to humankind is the recognition and respect that we can all be self-healers. In sharing this book, I hope readers will become even more gentle and loving to themselves and towards their environment. Ayurveda is a gentle and loving way of healing and preventive medicine.

This book addresses Ayurveda, the wisdom of life received by the rishis or seers of the Indian subcontinent 5000 years ago up to modern times. As much as Ayurveda is an ancient wisdom, it is also timeless knowledge. While some areas in the ancient scriptures are not that relevant in our modern times such as using the hair from the tail of an animal for surgical purposes, other knowledge is of great benefit to us, sacred and indispensible such as daily, seasonal and ethical guidelines for a joyous, healthy and fulfilling life with ourselves and one another.

This book further re-examines the guidelines of Ayurveda for daily, seasonal and ethical routines not just for the region of the Indian subcontinent but also for the western world. In a way Ayurveda came down to Earth from Heaven - metaphorically speaking - to all peoples all over the planet and is the knowledge and science to meet with Heaven and Earth within ourselves. So, one might say there is Ayurveda of Africa, Americas, Europe and we need to remember Ayurveda as the wisdom of life wherever and how so ever we happen to be. Let us remember that wisdom has also been received by the Mayas, Aztecs, Toltecs and the Shamans around the planet and that we are at a very privileged time on Earth where we can manifest together now. When we put all this knowledge together we will notice certain things: The most important thing is that there is something universally common in all these different traditions. This is what we need to connect to in this period of time. We will also notice that there are differences due to local climatic and botanical differences in the foods, animals and plants species around - which is natural.

As a student and practitioner of Ayurveda, I have on one hand felt intrigued and privileged to meet with such sacred knowledge as is Ayurveda yet limited at how this wisdom cannot be easily applied at a holistic level in this modern era. I am in search of how best this wonderful wisdom can be applicable to assist the well-being of mankind. The questions that will be looked at in this book are:

1) Can the daily and seasonal routines described in the Charaka Samhita (i.e. one of the three oldest Ayurvedic scriptures written by Charaka on internal medicine) be applied anywhere in the world? 2) Can the ethical routines described in the Charaka Samhita be applied in our lives today? At first glance, the answer can be a simple "yes" or "no" yet it is worthwhile to make Ayurveda more pragmatic. This book serves as a guidebook to the wisdom of life for the layman who knows little or nothing about Ayurveda as well as for professionals in Ayurveda who are interested in how it can be adapted in our lives in the present century at a local and global level.

We need to update the principles of Ayurveda in terms of the new environment on the planet which is dominated by the technosphere. A rishi is someone who observes, who is clairvoyant. Today's "rishis" are people who are in sincere good research about what is healthy for us and what is not. The difficulty in this period of time is an overload of information, some of it is contradictory. How does one navigate with this overload of information? For this we can thank the rishis of today for their investigations.

Chapter one introduces Ayurveda as a loving science of how to take care of ourselves. Chapter two briefly introduces yoga and its benefits. Chapter three is about Ayurveda today, Chapters four and five are about daily and seasonal routines followed by Chapter six about diet. Finally, Chapter seven denotes the ethical routine and is followed by the conclusion. There are also appendices at the end of the book with some recipes and properties of gems, metals arid colours.

Ayurveda originated in the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent but it also includes essential points that are common to all spiritual traditions:

There has been conscious realization that life is a gift which needs our deepest respect and attention for all to go well. We are each the caretaker of our body. It is a temporary event and our bodies are like temples of 'God'.

There has also been an understanding of what it is to be a human. This is deep sacred knowledge of man as a micro and macrocosm.

There has also been an active worship of the sun, moon, earth, stars, wind, fire, water and plants.

An understanding of the music of the spheres and respecting the harmonic order of sound has been a common tradition. The chanting of mantras and sacred sounds and music have always been practices and a direct way to be in harmony with our health and well-being.

Another common spiritual tradition has been the teaching of cosmology (non manifest to manifest, sun, moon, angels, God; Kabbala - Tree of Life, Celtic, Inca, Maya and Aztec). Study of the four directions or 8 directions up down, left right, diagonal, bowing - prostration is common to all wisdom traditions - which is sacred geometry.

There has been the tradition of breath work (controlled breathing with the intent of purification) forceful exhalation, inhalation and taking in of "food that is clean". It is a common alchemical process. Exhaling what is alchemized.

It has been a tradition to connect all the subtle bodies and our physical bodies unto the study of death and knowledge of ourselves as channels. We are receptors of multi-dimensional forms, vibrations, colours, sounds, thought forms and feelings.

The teaching in plant and food knowledge; study of aloe vera (in warm, dry parts of Earth), mint, nettle (Milarepa, for instance almost entirely could only live on nettle), sage, usage of plant perfume, i.e. olfactory science, aromatherapy. Other common nectars from Earth are honey, milk, rain and river water.

In every period and every time there are recommendations of how to live and some of these are valid for all places and all times of Earth while others are subject to change and evaluation.