Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

Flower/Plant : Caesalpinia lutea(Peacock flower)  Origin : West Indies and tropical America. Plant Type : Fabaceae Season : January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, Flowers in flushes throughout the year About :  Native to America and the West Indies. - Evergreen shrub. - Profuse and free flowering. Few shrubs put up such a vibrant display of color. - Have plenty of color on them during late monsoon - when most other plants are green and growing. - Tall shrub up to 2-3 m. Can be pruned and kept to 1 to 1.5 mts. - Recommended as a single specimen plant in small gardens or as a group in large gardens. - Flowers on long slender stems Growing tips: - Very quick growing. - Grows best in full sunshine. - Well drained and light soils are perfect. - Should be heavily pruned in winter after flowering is finished. - Application of manure and fertilizer at the beginning of summer and monsoon will make the plants lush and bloom even more. Source : https://www....

Flower/Plant : Leadworts Origin : South East Asia Plant Type : Perennial Season : Annual but mostly between June and August About :  Perennial leadwort (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides), also known as hardy plumbago, is a long-blooming, semi-woody perennial from western China that will grow throughout South Carolina. This relatively underused perennial blooms in late summer through fall with ½- to ¾- inch-diameter gentian-blue flowers that resemble those of woodland phlox. Flowers occur in a compact inflorescence or cluster at the ends of branches. Source : https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/perennial-leadwort/ Reference  Ashish Kumar Singh 

Flower/Plant : Oleaceae Origin: Southeast Asia and Australia Plant Type : Olive Season: Mostly on May and June About : . Members of the family Oleaceae are woody plants, mostly trees and shrubs; a few are lianas. Some of the shrubs are scandent, climbing by scrambling into other vegetation. Leaves without stipules; simple or pinnately or ternately compound. The family is characterized by opposite leaves. Alternate or whorled arrangements are rarely observed, with some Jasminum species presenting a spiral configuration. The laminas are pinnately veined and can be serrate, dentate or entire at the margin. Domatia are observed in certain taxa. The leaves may be either deciduous or evergreen, with evergreen species predominating in warm temperate and tropical regions, and deciduous species predominating in colder regions. The flowers are most often bisexual and actinomorphic, occurring in racemes or panicles, and often fragrant. The calyx and corolla, when present, are gamosepa...

Flower/Plant : Cooktown Orchid(Dendrobium bigibbum)  Origin: Queensland, Australia, and the Maluku province of Indonesia Plant Type : Orchidaceae Season: Spring (Early,Mid,Late) Summer (Early,Mid) About : . Dendrobium bigibbum is one of a group of Dendrobium species that are collectively known as the Cooktown orchid. It forms small to medium sized slender clumps on trees and rocks. Clumps consist of a number of erect, cylindrical stems which are slightly swollen in the middle with rounded bases. The stems are green or purplish and can reach a height of 1.2m and a width of 15mm. When the stems are young they are covered in papery bracts (very small scale-like leaves). There are 3-12 leaves on the upper part of the stem. Leaves are narrowly ovate, 5-15cm long by 0.5-3.5cm wide and dark green but often with purplish margins or heavily suffused with purple. The arching flower stems can reach 40cm and bear 2-20 flowers. The flowers are pansy-like and usually l...

Flower/Plant : Caesalpinia lutea(Peacock flower)   Origin : West Indies and tropical America. Plant Type : Fabaceae Season : January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, Flowers in flushes throughout the year About :  Native to America and the West Indies. - Evergreen shrub. - Profuse and free flowering. Few shrubs put up such a vibrant display of color. - Have plenty of color on them during late monsoon - when most other plants are green and growing. - Tall shrub up to 2-3 m. Can be pruned and kept to 1 to 1.5 mts. - Recommended as a single specimen plant in small gardens or as a group in large gardens. - Flowers on long slender stems Growing tips: - Very quick growing. - Grows best in full sunshine. - Well drained and light soils are perfect. - Should be heavily pruned in winter after flowering is finished. - Application of manure and fertilizer at the beginning of summer and monsoon will make the plants lush and bloom even more. Source : https://www...

Flower/Plant : Strawflower Origin: Australia Plant Type : Herbaceous, perennial, annual Season: Spring, summer, fall About : The name strawflower (Xerochrysum bracteatum) doesn’t do much to excite the flower gardener—it might elicit images of a plant that's withered and tan—but the real strawflower blossom will bring vivid colors to your landscape and craft projects alike. Strawflowers resemble daisies in form with a ray of petals around a central disk, but unlike daisies, the petals are stiff and papery. In fact, they aren’t true petals at all, but modified leaves called bracts. The narrow green leaves and sturdy stems are covered in fine hairs. Strawflowers were previously classified as a member of the genus Bracteantha but now are in the Xerochrysum genus. This fast-growing Australian native is a part of the Asteraceae family, a group that includes many daisy-type flowers. Plant strawflower after the last frost date in your region. Regular deadheading the plant ...

Flower/Plant :  Strawflower(Mohave)  Origin: Australia Plant Type : Bracteantha bracteata Season: Spring, Late Spring, Summer, Autumn, Late Summer About : Bracteantha bracteatum Mohave Yellow is a compact and upright growing small shrub with lush green lanceolate foliage and pale yellow papery liguate flowers that have a straw-like texture and a golden yellow centre that develops over time. Flowers bloom from spring through to autumn. The Mohave series produce an abundance of intense, colourful double flowers which are 5cm wide. An excellent choice for borders, pots and container plantings. Suitable as cut flower for indoor decoration or for dried flower arrangements. Mohaves require a position with full sunlight and regular watering, for best results plant in well-drained organic soils. Heat tolerant. Apply a controlled slow release fertiliser to promote healthy new growth. Prune plants when necessary to maintain shape and encourage fresh new flowers. Bracteantha...

Weekly Knowledge 87 Your Home Town 07 Feb 1997  Your Country   UNKNOWN KNOWLEDGE Do you recall this from last week's Knowledge sheet? "P.S. Next week everyone write a knowledge sheet with your news flash and send it with your name on it. Fax or mail it to your national center." It seems that Guruji was serious. He was asked last night about the missing Knowledge and He said that He was looking forward to reading other people's Knowledge sheets rather than sending out one. He said that people read the Knowledge and forget it so He wants people to write their own this time. 🌸Jai Guru Dev🌸   साप्ताहिक ज्ञानपत्र ०८७ ३० जनवरी, १९९७ लॉस एंजेलेस, कैलिफ़ोर्निया  अज्ञात ज्ञान  पिछले सप्ताह गुरूजी का आदेश था कि सभी अपने अपने ज्ञान-पत्र बनायें। और गुरुदेव अटल रहे। इस सप्ताह उन्होंने ज्ञान-पत्र नहीं भेजा। इनका कहना है कि ज्ञानपत्रों को लोग पढ़ते है और भूल जाते है। इसलिए इस बार सब अपना ज्ञानपत्र लिखें। वे दूसरों के ज्ञान-पत्र पढ़ना चाहते है। भक्तों को ज्ञान-पत्रों...

Weekly Knowledge 86 City of Angels -- Los Angeles, California 30 Jan 1997  USA INDIGESTION OF KNOWLEDGE Indigestion of knowledge leads to development of a false ego which has no cure. Knowledge must be digested properly. Indigestion of knowledge leads to: 1. False ego 2. Disinterestedness; taking for granted; lack of awareness 3. Familiarity without understanding, without depth -- flakiness 4. Tendency to preach 5. "Heart" burn 6. Using knowledge for their own small ends 7. Adamancy Your inability to do something (break a habit) can cause a pinch; when you are deeply pained by something, then that will rid you of that habit. If you are pained by your shortcomings, then you are sadhak. Pain takes you out of addiction. If you are in love with the divine, then you can digest the knowledge. Love is the appetizer -- seva is the exercise -- without love and seva, knowledge becomes indigestible. So everyone list the loving seva you have done for the world. Marielle: If love...

Weekly Knowledge 85 Dallas, Texas 22 Jan 1997  USA ACCEPT THE WORLD AT ITS WORST Suppose the worst of the world is given to you; what would you do with it now? You cannot complain if you get the worst. You can only complain if you don't get the worst. If the world is at its worst, then it can only get better and you are here to make it better. Jim: When things are at their very worst, then there is only time and space. (Laughter) Patty: When you see that life is suffering then you go within. Paula: It is like running out of breath and you have to inhale. What happens when you have to do it all by yourself -- no one comes to help? You do everything by yourself? There are three options: 1. Frustration and complaining. 2. Take credit that you did it by yourself -- thank others for not helping so that you could take all the credit. (Laughter) 3. Be grateful, pray deeply, and know that you get all the energy needed to do it all alone. There is only one doer. 🌸Jai Guru Dev🌸 ...

Weekly Knowledge 84 Trinidad 15 Jan 1997  Caribbean BHAKTI In Bhakti there are four letters. It's made up of "bha", "ka", "ta", and "i" (ee). "Bha" stands for fulfillment and nourishment. "Ka" stands for knowing - a means of knowing. "Ta" stands for redeeming, for saving, for salvation. "I" (ee) stands for shakti. So in Bhakti four things are there: fulfillment and nourishment; means of knowing; "tarana" or salvation; and energy. Bhakti saves you. Bhakti nourishes you. Bhakti is the means of knowing, the right knowledge. When Bhakti is there the doubts don't come. It gives the most energy. So Bhakti contains as the seed all the four qualities. All the emotional upheavals one undergoes is because one doesn't know Bhakti. When all intense feelings flow in one direction that is Bhakti, it becomes Bhakti. What is the difference between a canal and a flooded field? In a flood what happens i...

Question - Gurudev, I’m in a situation in life in which I am neither able to forgive nor forget. Please guide me on what to do? Gurudev Sri Sri - Then just think about your death, that you are going to die. Even if you hold on (to the situation), still you will be finished, you will go away from this world. Now, do you want to carry that impression? Come on, wake up. Life is so short and everybody is like a rag doll. They don't have a mind of their own. Everyone is like a rag doll, and there is a particular force and energy that is working through everybody. That one Paramakaranakarana is the cause of all causes. The Shiva Tattva is playing, putting different things in different people's minds. Understand this Advaita knowledge, feel it. We are all made up of the same substance. All these little minds are there, but the mind is also influenced by a big mind, and according to karma. So, different people act in different ways. Have you noticed that sometimes, you haven't done...

Question - Gurudev, is it necessary to have a goal in life, or should we go with whatever comes to us? Gurudev Sri Sri - You should have one individual goal about what you want to do in life. When there is a goal, life runs like a river. When there is no goal, the water is all over the field. A goal is for commitment. That is why you should have a goal, a Lakshya. What is the best goal? The goal to achieve the highest, to become a Yogi, a Dhyani and to serve the world. Serving the world is the real pooja (prayer).

This happened at the Vasad Ashram in Gujrat in 2012 during the Diwali Advance course. First of all, the course was not supposed to happen that year. I prayed a lot to Gurudev and so did many other devotees and it was finally fixed from the 10th– 13 th of November, 2012, 13th November being the auspicious day of Diwali. During the course, Gurudev came to visit us.  Everyone was made to sit in lines so that we could all get Darshan. I was sitting in the 3rd row. As He was meeting people, one by one, He entered the 2nd row from behind and then entered the 3rd row where I was sitting. He looked at me while passing, but unfortunately for me, there was another lady in between me and Gurudev. He then went ahead, leaving me dissatisfied. I was crying and just thinking to myself that God knows when I would get such an opportunity to meet him so closely again. By then, He had reached the end of the 3rd row. Now He could go directly to the 1st row from behind. But to my utter surp...

In March 2013, Sri Sri was scheduled to visit Mumbai for 5 days. I was very eager to have him in my city and wanted everyone to be in his presence. I was traveling in the train and I realized I have 200 calendars of 2013 with Guruji’s picture with me, which I was given to distribute. I used to travel by train everyday and thought of distributing the calendars to fellow commuters. However, I felt a bit uncomfortable talking to strangers in a crowded train. I had done seva many times before but it was always with fellow volunteers and never alone.  Nonetheless, a few people did take the calendars from me. After distributing it in my compartment, I was standing near the door to get off at my station, Andheri, a suburb in Mumbai. Just then, a gentleman came up to me and asked me if I was from the Art of Living. I excitedly said yes. He then told me, “you’re doing an awesome job.” I was shocked. I didn’t expect to hear that. I asked him if he had done the course. He told me ...

Today, my heart is filled with tears of gratitude and my life filled with abundance of grace. My family and I were struggling financially for over 2 decades. My father was in a 50 Lakh rupee debt. My sister was not finding a soul mate.  My immigration status in the US was unstable. My bosses and supervisors had suppressed me and depressed me. I had anxiety all the time. My father’s debt kept on accumulating, 1 percent per month. These problems seemed like they were never ending. But since 2006, something in me got pulled towards Guruji, and I began my devotion in Him. My faith began to build day by day. My sadhana(spiritual practice) was religiously regular. I started taking more courses. Started reading and listening to Guruji’s knowledge. Started thinking of Him every moment and started surrendering to him. Lot of changes came in me. I became stronger on my good virtues and the bad ones literally disappeared. My devotion, prayers, sadhana, satsang was always with me. ...

Emilia sonchifolia, also known as lilac tasselflower or cupid's shaving brush, is tropical flowering species of tasselflower in the sunflower family. It is classified as a weed that grows in the fields of many agriculture crops or on roadsides and gardens. It is an annual herb up to 40 cm tall. Leaves are up to 10 cm (4 in) long, sometimes becoming purplish as they get old. One plant can produce several pink or purplish flower heads. The plant is erect and sparingly hairy, soft-stemmed. The inflorescence is often dichotomous, with 3 to 6 stalked flower heads. The urn-shaped flower head has 30-60 florets per head, the outer ray florets are female, and the inner disc florets are bisexual. The flower is any of a range of colors: purple, scarlet, red, pink, orange, white, or lilac. The fruit produced is oval shaped, reddish brown or off-white, has white hairs. The seed carries a pappus of hairs, indicating the use of wind as a dispersal agent It is a medicinal herb in Chine...

Small bright wild flowers. Tridax daisy (Tridax procumbens) also known as coat-buttons is an annual herbaceous flowering plant that has been classified as a noxious weed due to its invasiveness. The plant bears daisylike yellow-centered, white flowers with numerous small yellow disc florets and 5 white, three-toothed, ray florets that look like petals. The leaves are lobed with wavy margins and generally arrowhead-shaped. Its fruit is a hard achene covered with stiff hairs and having a feathery, plumelike white pappus at one end. The plant is invasive in part because it produces so many of these achenes, up to 1500 per plant, and each achene can catch the wind in its pappus and be carried some distance. This plant can be found in fields, meadows, croplands, disturbed areas, lawns, and roadsides in areas with tropical or semi-tropical climates. Tridax procumbens has been in use in traditional medicine for wound healing and as an anticoag...

Scaevola taccada commonly known as Sea lettuce tree or Beach cabbage. Local names include Ambung-ambung, Merambung and Pelampung. It is a perennial woody shrub growing from 1 - 5 m high. It is native to coastal forests, and rocky shoreline of Madagascar, Southeast Asia (including Singapore), to tropical Australia, Micronesia, Melanesia, and Hawaii. Leaves are large, ovate, fleshy and alternately arranged. Its pale yellow or white flowers are 2–2.5 cm long, and arranged in 8 cm-wide clusters. Fruits are round, fleshy and ripen from green to white and have 1-2 seeds inside them. Flowers are pollinated by bees, and fruits are eaten by birds. It can be propagated by seed or stem cutting.  It has wide range of medicinal uses, including treatment for asthma, beri-beri, cancer, dysentery, ear ache, eye infections, indigestion, malaria, skin abcesses, ailments or sores, syphilis, or tuberculosis for poulticing for headaches, an antidote for p...

Premna serratifolia / Premna obtusifolia commonly known as the Asian Headache Plant. A medium-sized bush/ tree from the family Lamiaceae. The plant is naturally occurring in coastal regions of South and Southeast Asia, Australia and tropical regions of America and Africa. It has opposite, broadly ovate, smooth leaves, rounded or obtuse at the base. The flowers are small and pale greenish to white, occuring in many branched, crowded corymbs. The fruits are small and green berries becoming purple when mature. Each berry has a single seed. The branched reticulate peduncles are exposed as a striking net like pattern after the shedding of the flowers and berries. The plant has many medicinal uses. Its extract is known to have anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic effects. Extract of the leaves is having analgesic and antipyretic properties and is used for treatment of headaches and fevers.The leaves are also cooked and eaten as vegetable. The extract of the root bark is u...

TYPHACEAE  is a family of aquatic or semi-aquatic flowering plants commonly known as Cattails because of its inflorescence. These plants are found in wetlands, marshes, and along the banks of streams and ponds worldwide. Some of the characteristics of Typhaceae plants include: Leaves: The leaves are long, narrow, and blade-like, with no distinct petiole and have sheathing bases that clasp the stem. Arranged alternately and distichously Flowers: The flowers are small and inconspicuous, and they are arranged in a dense, cylindrical brownish spike at the top of a tall, leafless stem. Individual flowers are unisexual, with the female flowers occurring at the base of the spike and the male flowers above. Fruit: The fruit may be a spongy drupe (as in Sparganium) or a dry, one-seeded achene or follicle that is often surrounded by a tuft of hairs.(as in Typha) Growth habit: Typhaceae plants are rhizomatous...

ULMACEAE let's take you to meet the ELM family - ULMACEAE Ulmaceae is a large family of flowering plants including 40 genera and 200 species, and it is distributed worldwide, with most species found in temperate regions. Several members of the family are cultivated as ornamental plants, and some are important for their wood. 🌲Members of Ulmaceae are evergreen or deciduous trees and shrubs with mucilaginous substances in leaf and bark tissue. 🌲 The leaves are usually alternate and simple, with toothed margins. They are often asymmetric and 3-veined from the base. 🌲The flowers are small, inconspicuous, and usually arranged in clusters or spikes. Individual flowers are generally unisexual with 4-8 free perianth lobes and a superior ovary. Flowers may be bisexual in some species. 🌲The fruit is an indehiscent samara, nut, or drupe, that contains a single seed. 🌲 Ulmaceae plants may be trees or shrubs, and they can reach he...

Jai Gurudev  Keep Focus on yourself and Invest in yourself every day- Our focus keeps us on  Right direction and investing Oneself keep stronger mentally  And physical and The only way to do this is to respect yourself. You’re a living creation, which is a marvel with innumerable systems and microsystems within you. Just as you love your car and your phone and both need service, charging, and some tender love and care - so do you. Exercise every day and spend some time with yourself. Meditate daily. You might wonder how meditation will make you successful but you will be left surprised to know its benefits. Meditation increases cortical thickness, especially in areas related to introspection and attention. It also increases brain volume, specifically in areas related to emotion regulation, positive emotion, and self-control. Meditation also boosts social connection and improves empathy and compassion. "Health is not a mere absence of disease. It is a dynamic ...