Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

On his trip to India, a German once visited a temple that was under construction.  He witnessed a sculptor, making an idol of a Goddess that was to be later installed in the temple. While looking around, he suddenly noticed a similar idol lying nearby. Surprised, he asked the sculptor, "Do you need two statues of the same Goddess?" "No," replied the sculptor, without even looking up at him. "We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage," he reasoned as he worked on his new masterpiece.  Curiously, the gentleman went near the previous idol and examined it. To his surprise, he found no apparent damage in the previous one.  "Where is the damage?" he asked confused. "There is a scratch on the nose of the idol," replied the sculptor, very casually, as he remained busy with his work.  "May I ask where this idol is going to be installed?" the gentleman inquired. The sculptor answered, "Sure. It will be insta...

This story is about a woman named Sindhutai, who lived in a poverty stricken village in Maharashtra, India. She never really had any education. When she was a little girl and wanted to go to school, her family made her take care of the buffaloes. When she was 9 years old, she was married to a man who was about 30. By the time she was 19, she had three sons and was again pregnant.   A Mafia type of person, who was exploiting the people of the village was especially forcing the women of the village to work really hard, and was paying them practically nothing. Everyone was afraid but Sindhutai complained to the local collector who was overseeing the police, and that person was stopped from what he was doing.  This made him so angry that he went and told Sindhutai's husband a lie : "You are such a fool! Your wife is having affairs with so many men! In fact, the child in her womb is my child, not yours. You have to kill that child! If you don't, I will kill it and you too....

Once in a physics class, the teacher asked the students, “Why do we have brakes in a car?” A student got up and answered, "Sir, to help stop the car." Another student replied, "To reduce and control the speed".  Yet another said, "To avoid a collision".  Soon, the answers started repeating. Hence, the teacher decided to answer the question himself.  With a smile on his face, he said, "I appreciate all of you trying to answer the question. However, I believe it's all a matter of perception! The way I see it, *we have brakes in a car to enable us to drive faster!*".  There was deep silence in the classroom. No one could have imagined this answer. The teacher continued, "For a moment, let's assume that we have no brakes in our car. How fast are we willing to drive our car now?"  He further said, "It is because of the brakes that we can dare to accelerate, dare to go fast and reach the destinations we desire!"  All the stu...

In a mother’s womb were two babies.  One asked the other:  “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied,  “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.” “Nonsense,” said the first.  “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?” The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.” The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.” The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.” The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover, if there ...

When legendary musician Warren Zevon was dying of terminal Lung cancer at the age of 52, he appeared on the David Letterman’s talk show and Letterman asked him, what he had learned about life. You know, what were Zevon’s parting words? Looking straight through the camera lens into every soul watching, he just said, *“Enjoy every sandwich.”* Oh, how we neglect the simple magic of each day in hot pursuit of the trinkets and fascinations that our culture sells us, as the gateways into happiness and inner peace. But, They are not. FFA (Fame, Fortune and Applause) will never bring you the sustained riches that JPF (Joy, Peace and Freedom) will allow. Real satisfaction and true tranquillity arise from savouring the basic blessings that hide in plain sight. “Enjoy every sandwich.” Please don’t wait until your deathbed to appreciate all the gifts that surround you. They are there in greater abundance than you know, just pleading for your attention. We sometimes get so wrapped up in our busines...

Once, the public jury in a village (panchayat) gathered to resolve a problem. At some distance, a saint had set up his abode. When the public jury could not reach any decision, someone suggested that they should consult the saint for the solution of their problem. They all went to the saint. Seeing so many of them, the saint asked them what was the matter. The villagers replied, "Mahatma ji, there is only one well in the village and we cannot drink water from that well." The saint asked, "why, what happened? Why can't you drink water from it?" The villagers replied, "three dogs were fighting with each other and fell into the well. Then they could not come out, and drowned in the well and died. Now the water stinks badly, how can we drink that water?"  The saint said, "do one thing, pour holy Ganga river water in the well." So, eight to ten buckets of Ganges water were poured into the well, yet the problem remained as it is. People again reach...

John D Rockfeller was once the richest man in the world. The first billionaire in the world. By age 25, he controlled one of the largest oil refineries in the US.  By age 31, he had become the world’s largest oil refiner.   By age 38. he commanded 90% of the oil refined in the US.                                            By 50, he was the richest man in the country. By the time he died, he had become the richest man in the world.  As a young man, every decision, attitude and relationship was tailored to create his personal power and wealth.  But at the age of 53, he became ill.  His entire body became racked with pain and he lost all of his hair. In complete agony, the world’s only billionaire could buy anything he wanted, but he could only digest soup and crackers.  An associate wrote, "He could not sleep, would not smile and nothing in life...

In a meeting, Guru ji asked a 30-year-old youth to stand up during his discourse.  - You are walking on Juhu Chowpatty in Mumbai and a beautiful girl is coming from the front, so what will you do?  The young man said - She will be seen, and he will start seeing her personality.  Guru ji asked - After that girl has moved forward, so will you look back too?  The boy said - yes, if my wife is not with me . (everyone laughs in the meeting)  Guru ji again asked - Tell me how long will you remember that beautiful face?  The young man said May be for 5 - 10 minutes, until another beautiful face appears.  Guru ji said to the young man - now just imagine.. you are going from Jaipur to Mumbai and I gave you a packet of books and said that this packet should be delivered to such a great person in Mumbai...  You went to his house in Mumbai to deliver the packets.   When you saw his house, you came to know that he is a billionaire.   1...

A gentleman was walking through an elephant camp, and he spotted that the elephants weren’t being kept in cages or held by the use of chains. All that was holding them back from escaping the camp, was a small piece of rope tied to one of their legs. As the man gazed upon the elephants, he was completely confused as to why the elephants didn’t just use their strength to break the rope and escape the camp. They could easily have done so, but instead, they didn’t try to at all Curious and wanting to know the answer, he asked a trainer nearby why the elephants were just standing there and never tried to escape. The trainer replied; “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.” The only reason that the elephants weren’t breaking free and escaping from the camp was t...

In the Indian Epic Mahabharata, there is an incident mentioned. Let me tell you that. A race was organised between Kauravas and Pandavas. The strongest kaurava of all was “Duryodhan” and the strongest pandava of all was “Bheem”. Now, when the race started, both Duryodhan and Bheem started running at an equal pace but after a few seconds, Bheem got ahead of Duryodhan. Seeing Bheem getting ahead, Duryodhana increased his pace but was unable to match the Bheem’s pace. Suddenly, this evil though crossed Duryodhana’s mind, “If I will trip him, he will fall and I will win the race!” And he did that same! Bheem fell down and Duryodhana took the lead. But after a few seconds, Bheem matched up to him, then took the lead and finally won the race! After the race was over, Duryodhana went to Bheeshm Pitamaah and this conversation happened between them, Duryodhana: Sir, why did I lost to Bheem in the race today? Bheeshma: I will answer it comprehensively now. See, both of you are equally powerful a...

A man was travelling in a boat with his monkey. There was also a philosopher with other passengers in that boat. The monkey had never travelled in a boat before, so it was not feeling comfortable. It was going up and down, not letting anyone sit in peace. The boatman was troubled by this and was concerned that the boat would sink due to the panic of the passengers. If the monkey doesn't calm down it will drown the boat. The man was upset about the situation, but could not find any way to calm the monkey. The philosopher watched all this and decided to help. He said: " If you allow, I can make this monkey as quiet as a house cat." The man immediately agreed.  The philosopher, with the help of two passengers, picked up the monkey and threw it into the river. The monkey started to swim desperately to stay afloat. It was now dying and struggled for its life. After some time, the philosopher dragged the monkey back into the boat. The monkey was quiet and went and sat in a corn...