Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

Withania somnifera - Ashwagandha Did you know that the Withania somnifera - Ashwagandha, a herb which is a versatile ayurvedic medicine, a tonic used to rejuvenate the body and increase longevity? The Withania plant commonly known as Ashwagandha, a herb in the Indian Ayurvedic medicine is a genus of the Solanaceae or nightshade family of flowering plants distributed in the subtropical regions from the Mediterranean to India an South East Asia. The plant is also known as Indian ginseng, poison gooseberry, or winter cherry. The plant 's various parts have been used to treat a variety of ailments that affect human health. It has antioxidant, abortifacient, diueretic, antibiotic, aphrodisiac, deobstruent, dioretic, sedative, antidiabetic, immunomodulatory, hemopoietic, and nureroprotective properties. The Latin species name 'somnifera' means "sleep-inducing". The Indian name name "ashwagandha" is a combination of the...

*God Loves Fun : Introduction* Someday if you look back everything will make perfect sense. It is being in the present that matters, for now, laugh at the confusion, smile through the tears, and keep reminding yourself that everything happens for a reason.  When things go alright everybody can laugh but when everything falls apart if even then you can laugh that is evolution and growth. This book has a collection of talks given by his Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ji.  Get ready to be spellbound with his narration as he clears many clouds and brings back the smile on many faces. Know the Divine laughter, God will dance in our life when the day dawns in laughter and love.  In nature, everything is just waiting for you to laugh and that is really the worth of life. Take life as it comes, many people are unaware of the nature of feelings, learn how happiest people live their lives approaching life practically and spirituality.  Explore more in this book. Wak...

🌷 Katho Upanishad 🌷                 Chapter 3           The grace of the divine       🌻 Day 27 🌻 When the Buddists meditated, they found Aum. Jains meditated and they found Aum. Sikhs found Aum. Zoroastrians found Aum. Aum is very similar to Ameen. In the Jewish tradition, it is Shalom. Aum is there in Shalom. Aum is the eternal sound, Aum is what one hears. So that which cannot be expressed by any name or form is represented by sound. That sound is Aum! Though it is beyond sound, it can be identified with the sound Aum. When I was in Connecticut, one lady came back to me and said that she did an experiment with the sound Aum. They recorded the sound and frequency of Aum, it is exactly the same as that of earth’s rotation around its axis. Aum also has the same cycles. This just testifies what we hear all the time, that this universal sound Aum is always there. We were part of that before birt...

🌷 Katho Upanishad 🌷               Chapter 3             The grace of the divine      🌻 Day 26 🌻 ॐ इति ऐतत् That is Aum. In all eastern traditions, all those who meditated experienced the sound Aum. All other sounds merge into this one sound Aum. Before birth you were in Aum and after death you will be in Aum. This is the sound of one hand clapping, one sound remaining.  So, at the moment of death, when someone says Aum and leaves the body, he will be immediately absorbed in Aum. When one dies, first he is able to see what is all around. His entire life comes before him like a film. All the sanskaras (impressions) open up. This is normally for people who are not deep meditators. If you are a deep meditator, all impressions are already gone! That is why you are dead while being alive. You usually hear, “Kill the mind”, “man maro” in Hindi. What does “Kill the mind” mean? It means to remove...

🌷 Katho Upanishad 🌷                 Chapter 3            The grace of the divine       🌻 Day 25 🌻 एतध्द्येवाक्षरं ब्रह्म एतध्द्येवाक्षरं परम् । एतध्द्येवाक्षरं ज्ञात्वा यो यदिच्छति तस्य तत् ॥ 'Aum' consolidates all that I am telling you. Death gives you the sound 'aum'. In Buddhist tradition it is called the sound of one hand clapping. Go deep in meditation, there is a sound that resonates in you–'Aum'. When you die the sound that remains with you is Aum.  I said two things will stay with you – sound and sight. Sound is Aum, sight is light. So, death is nothing but a light and sound show! This world is nothing but a light and sound show. Just remove all the images from your mind – images means light, and there is no world! Remove all the sounds, there is no sorrow. What is sorrow? When somebody blames you, someone says something wrong to you. What is that? It is sound. Remove ...

🌷 Katho Upanishad 🌷               Chapter 3                The grace of the divine       🌻 Day 24 🌻 सर्वे वेदा यत्पदमामनन्ति तपाँसि सर्वाणि च यद्वदन्ति । यदिच्छन्तो ब्रह्मचर्यँ चरन्ति  तत्ते पदँ सङ्गहेण ब्रवीम्योमित्येतत् ॥ Here, the Lord of Death gives the Word that all scripture glorify, which all spiritual disciplines express to attain, for which aspirants lead a life to self-restraint. Why do people practise charity? Why do people practise self-restrain, why do people take monkhood, stay in monastery? Why do people become nuns and fathers or swamis? Why do they all do this? What is the purpose? They want to attain something higher but they get lost in their way. They simply become recluses, become monks, but they don’t get it. The purpose of them doing all this is to see that which is beyond death.  The Lord of Death told Nachiketa, “This is why they all are doing it a...

🌷 Katho Upanishad 🌷                Chapter 3               The grace of the divine      🌻 Day 23 🌻 तं दुर्दर्शं गूढमनुप्रविष्ठं  गुहाहितं गह्वरेष्ठं पुराणम् । अध्यात्मयोगाधिगमेन देवं मत्वा धीरो हर्षशोकौ जहाति ॥ For those who go deep in meditation, there is no fear of death. For others there is only one fear, that of death. All fear is about death. Behind the fear of losing money, fear of losing reputation, fear of losing attention, fear of losing status – behind all that, there is only one fear that is of death! Meditation is confronting that. When you are in meditation, there is stillness, nothing exist. This is what takes you away from the fear of death.    When they say heart (cave of heart), it does not mean emotion and love. “I want to open my heart” – please don’t do that. “O! My heart is closed; I want to open my heart.” This is a big problem, especially in the...

Question - Gurudev, love is a divine quality. It is said that love can liberate us, but it is seen that love actually binds us. Marriage is also seen as a bondage. So how can this bond be beautiful? Gurudev Sri Sri - When there is no selfishness in the relationship then it is beautiful. If there is willingness to sacrifice in the relationship, then it becomes beautiful. Look at the relationship of Shri Ram with his brother Bharat. It was such a strong bond but both of them were willing to sacrifice anything for the other. Such a relationship where there is no selfishness, is a beautiful one. In such a relationship, there is lot of love and peace.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji told me: "Mere saath kya guilt? All I want from my teachers and volunteers is to be happy and be active". I have never had a job in my life, hence never faced any of the ordeals office-goers talk about. I’ve been a full-time teacher with the Art of Living for about 20 years now and there isn’t a thing I would want to change about my life. It's perfect! But there is one person who works overtime to make it this beautiful - My Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. He has taught me to recognize and celebrate the many miracles that life brings and there have been plenty of them. He has taught me to notice and be grateful for the unconditional love that nature and he constantly shower on me. Ever since I became a faculty with The Art of Living, he would ask me to share the stress-elimination techniques on different parts of the world to bring smiles on people's faces. Initially I travelled on my own and then with my husband. We travelled...