Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

Rose Gulkand Did you know that Roses believed to be more than 30 million years old with scores of species and innumerable cultivars and hybrids, are made into a preserve from its sweet scented petals with sugar, known popularly as Rose Gulkand? Rose Gulkand, a sweet preserve, is a bye-product of the Rose industry. It is a preparation, medicinal in property, made from petals of fresh rose flowers and sugar. Gulab is a Hindi name for rose. Gulkand is jam. Rose flowers of the autumnal crop are preferably converted into Gulkand. Roses, coined the “King of Flowers,” is believed to be more than 30 million years old. However, historically, it is believed to be from ancient Indo-Persia territory and originated around 900 BC. The word Gulkand is derived from the words; 'Gul' meaning "flower" in Persian and 'Kand' or 'Qand' meaning "flower"in Arabic. So, Gulkand simply means “sweet flower.”   Scores of species and ...

*Chapter 9 - Living In Truth*  *Day 43* The most gross is the material world. The subtlest world we saw is the divine world, the world of the devas and devis. I want to show you a phenomenon that happened on, was it the 15 th January?  This sort of phenomenon keeps happening but this one was taken in a photograph. A Cobra climbed a particular tree, the Bilva tree and plucked a Bilva leaf. Then it went into the temple and offered it on top of the Shiva Linga.  You can see this thing happening in the photo. And it did it four or five times. The people were amazed because they have only heard in the scriptures that an elephant offered flowers to a Shiva Linga or a serpent offered from a Bilva tree.  But a Cobra, nobody can train a Cobra, it is impossible. They don't even have ears to listen to your commands. But the Cobra climbed the particular tree and then it goes into the temple with the leaf in its mouth and scares everybody away. Do you see that? How it...

🌺 *Day 5* 🌺 *The Password to Divinity* Isavasyamidam Everything here. Then the question immediately comes how can God be in Osama bin Laden? How can God be in Hitler? How can God be in something that is bad?  You as a physicist, a quantum scientist - Does Osama  have atoms in his body or not?  Does he have atomsp or molecules in his body or not? Was there energy in him or not? We are caught up in this concept - good or bad, right or wrong. As long as you are in this duality, you can never know God, forget about it. If you are caught up in the movie between the hero and the villain, you can never know the director. A director honours the hero as much as he hours the villain. Wake up, wake up and see. Then you rise to another dimension, a dimension, which is beyond good and bad, right and wrong, which purely places before you the Existence as it is and there is no escape from it. -  Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji Ishavasya Upanishad 

🌺 *Day 4* 🌺 *The Password to Divinity* The concept of God is something that has baffled this planet from time immemorial. People who say there is God have a concept and people who say there is no God also have a concept. Otherwise they can't say there is no God. The atheist also has a concept of God to be able to say that God does not exist. You pity them sometimes because they don't know the existence of Upanishad. They don't see the wisdom here.  Om isavasyamidam Yatkinca jagatyam jagat  Taanant tyaktena bhunhitha Ma gardhah kasyasviddhanam (All this, whatsoever moves or is stationary in this universe, is indwelled by Isha. Through renunciation enjoy, do not covert any body's earth) This entire universe is permeated by the Divinity. It is not a God who is sitting somewhere whose finger you are trying to catch and he runs away. God is not a person, someone who created this world and is hiding somewhere from it. God is here, now, in everything. There is ...

🌺 *Day 3* 🌺 *The Password to Divinity* The Rishi says Shanti, Shanti, Shanti - three times. At the first level, when your environment is disturbed you cannot think about or contemplate on knowledge. The environment needs to be congenial. Then your body - mind complex needs to be fit. And then, peace at the third level, the level of the self or being. Chanting balances our left and right brain. Left brain is logic, right brain is music. People who are emotional love to repeat things. When you are in love with somebody you like to say " I love you " several times, not just once. But a left brain person finds it funny and unpleasant. What is the point in repeating? Repetition appears to be boring when you are in the left brain. The same repetition is so palatable when the right brain is active. Repetition has been a part of all learning from ancient times. Logically understand the knowledge yu receive and then to turn it into wisdom, the knowledge you receive and ...

🌺 *Day 2* 🌺 *The Password to Divinity* Shanti mantra says Poornamadaha. This is one of the greatest gifts to humanity. The concept of zero comes from this very shanti mantra. In linear mathematics you will always find that when something is taken out lacks.  If you take out furniture from this room, this room minus that furniture will not be the same as before. This is linear thinking. But the Rishis give you a completely different outlook to life, spherical thinking - That is full and this is also full. This fullness has come from that, that still remains full. A mother gives birth to a baby. The baby is complete and the mother is also complete. Just because the baby is born, the mother is not lacking in something. In fact it has added to her glory. This is the concept of zero without which nothing could have happened on this planet -Science could not have progressed. The origin of the concept of zero is in this very shanti mantra. From the fullness comes fullness ...

🌺 *Day 1* 🌺 *The Password to Divinity* Om Purnamadah Purnamadah Purnat purnamudacyate Purnasya purnamadaya  Purnamevavasisyate Om Shanti Shanti Santihi. Upanishad means sitting close, sitting near the master-the student and the teacher sit close. It is not just physical proximity. It is mental or emotional proximity. Only when there is connectivity can knowledge flow. When there is no connectivity -the student is at one level and the teacher at another, then they are speaking in different languages and knowledge cannot blossom. You can get information but for knowledge to get into you, there needs to be mental closeness, spiritual closeness, a sense of belongingness and that is Upanishad - sitting close. Today the issue in the world is that students in the the colleges or children in classroom are on a different rhythm than the teacher. So, they only pass on information, there is no transfer of knowledge. For knowledge to get transferred we have to be on the same rhy...

*Introduction*  The manifest world that we perceive, or our experience, is the tip of the iceberg. All that we experience through the senses is a small part of the universe. Most is unmanifest. That is full. To understand, we must have an experience of what That is. That is what Ishavasya Upanishad is about. *What is Upanishad?* In Sanskrit, Upanishad means sitting close – sitting close to the Master, not just physically, but also mentally. It signifies the finite getting close to the infinite, the known reaching out to the unknown. The Upanishads are dialogues between the Master and student from ages ago. There are nearly 100 Upanishads available today out of which Ishavasya Upanishad is very important. The Master is the embodiment of wisdom and the student represents a spiritual seeker eager to come closer to wisdom. There are so many levels of conflict in the universe. Despite these conflicts how does one get mentally close? First, we invoke peace. One can only come ...

Is there a link between what Quantum Mechanics has discovered about reality and the nature of your existence? Are you just the body or something more? Who are you? Where is your soul? What are you made of?  What is your ego? These are questions human beings have pondered on since time immemorial. In this video Gurudev gives us an eye opening answer to all these questions and more. This is must watch video 

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Halmaddi (Ailanthus malabarica) Did you know that Halmaddi is exudation of Ailanthus malabaricum, a large tree of Malabar (Kerala), Konkan and Sri Lanka, yields an aromatic gum resinous substance used in incense or agarbatthis for its agreeable smoke when it burns? Halmaddi, in the non official Pharmacopoeia of India, with scientific name, the Ailanthus Malabarica, is a tall ornamental deciduous tree of Indian origin in its Western Ghats, cultivated in Malabar (Kerala), Konkan (Karnataka) and Sri Lanka, yields an aromatic gum resinous substance. Apart from the name Halamddi or Guggul Dhup which is used in Kannada, its other vernacular names are Perumaram or Pongallyam in Malayalam, and Mattipal in Tamil. When a moderately deep incision is made on the bark of standing trees, a fragrant resin, a sticky resin, called Halmaddi oozes out which is used. The resin is dried until it takes a brittle shape. It is hygroscopic in nature, which means that the material at...

Arjun Tree (Terminalia arjuna) Did you know that Arjun Tree, botanically Terminalia arjuna, has been cited in Lord Krishna's childhood stories and alluded to in religious offerings as early as 800 BC, apart from its unique herbal virtues? Arjun Tree or simply Arjuna with botanical name Terminalia arjuna belongs to the genus Terminalia, a herbal plant, is a deciduous riparian tree, which has incidents narrated to it in the Bhagavata Purana on childhood mystical and divine displays of Lord Krishna in the Dwapara Yuga, but is also cited for its uses in religious practices around 800 BC. It is also conjectured that the hero of the Mahabharata epic, the third Pandava Prince, was named after this tree as Arjuna for its protective effects and its relation to the early life of Lord Krishna. Arjuna tree is found across the Indian Subcontinent, and usually found growing on river banks or near dry river beds. It is known as Matthimara ( ಮತಿಮರ) or Hole Matthi in Ka...

Sarsaparilla Did you know that Sarsaparilla, a plant whose root is said to be used to make medicines to slow down cancer growth or even cure, is also used as a flavoring agent in foods and beverages? Sarsaparilla (SAR), botanically under the ambit of Smilax genus, a member of lily family, the plant is known to have 350 species spread throughout the world, including India where it is known as Hemidesmus indicus with common name: Indian Sarsaparilla. The words Sarsaparilla and Smilax are interchangeable, and very similar in appearance, uses, and even chemical structure. Sarsaparilla (a.k.a. zarzaparilla), a derivative from the Spanish word zarza (bramble or bush), parra (vine), and illa (small) is “a small, brambled vine”. It is native to tropical and temperate parts of the world, such as South America, Jamaica, the Caribbean, Mexico, Honduras, the West Indies, indigenous to China and Japan, and India and Burma. Sarsaparilla grows as a prickly, woody...

Vanjula tree or Indian Willow (salix tetrasperma) Did you know that the Vanjula Tree or Indian Willow with botanical name salix tetrasperma is Sthala Vriskha (a monumental tree) in many South Indian temples, and is also a herbal species cultivated in many countries?  Vanjula is a Sanskrit name for the tree or plant, with Vetasa as its synonym, and with the botanical name salix tetrasperma of the Genus Salix (Family Salicaceae). It is the Sthala Vriskha (a monumental tree that is indigenous to every historical Hindu temple) in many South Indian temples, and is also a herbal species cultivated in many countries, apart from India. The 13th century Rajanighaṇṭu (an Ayurvedic encyclopedia), an Ayurvedic medicinal thesaurus, identifies this plant as Vetasa, which is eaten as a vegetable (shaka), and it is therefore part of the Shakavarga group of medicinal plants, referring to the “group of vegetables/pot-herbs”.  Vanjula is a pious tree as it is associ...

*Chapter 9 - Living In Truth* *Day 42* We saw how there are many layers in the subtle world as well. Just as this material existence is diverse in nature, so is the subtle world of consciousness also.  How, after we die they become the ancestors, the pitrs, then ghandarvas, kinnaras, yakshas, devas, and then siddhas. Like the material medica of the world, the book in which it is all prescribed which medicine is for what.  For example - Iodine for thyroid, milk thistle for liver, basil for your respiratory system. The entire medical science rests on the laws of materia medica, that a particular substance connects to a particular part of the body.  Otherwise medical science will fail. Every substance has got a definite effect on a definite part of the body. A lot of research in this direction on the levels of consciousness has also been done. A particular animal brings down a particular cosmic ethereal vibration on the planet. If one particular animal becomes extinct from t...

*Chapter 8 - Beyond Miracles*  *Day 41* Question - If the infinite self wants to see itself in its true nature without form, what's the purpose of attaching itself to this body and all forms that we sense? Why not remain at all times without attachment? Also if the universe is expanding, what is it expanding into? Gurudev - Do you know what pulsation means? It is what the heart beat is. It expands and contracts and only then it pulsates. Life is pulsation. It's an expansion, contraction, expansion and the universe is pulsating like this.  So when it is going like this you feel it is expanding, but you don't see it coming down like this. There is a pulsation because the universe is alive and anything that is alive has pulsation and pulse. Nadi means the pulse and pulse is the dual action, the manifest to the unmanifest and unmanifest to the manifest, the form to formless and formless to form. This swing that's what the universe is. -  Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Sha...

*Chapter 8 - Beyond Miracles* *Day 40* Question - Gurudev, can you say something about the people in the picture of the Holy tradition and their connection to you and the experience of enlightenment? Gurudev - This is an artists depiction of millennia of great masters, and from ages, they've selected just a few of them who came from time to time and portrayed them in the picture.  Not everybody is there from the millennia. The few of the Rishis who are depicted in that are Narayana, Padmabhava, Vasishtha, Shakti, Parashara, then Vyasa. That side of the stream has a little gap between them.Vyasa, Shuka, they're all different.  They are great Rishis of the holy tradition. Some other time we will describe all the different works they have done. Parashara is an exponent of astronomy and astrology, the movement of planets.  7000 years ago, it was written how many moons are there for Saturn, how far away they are and precisely when exactly they are going to transit ...

*Chapter 8 - Beyond Miracles* *Day 39* Question - Gurudev, how is it possible to give 100% and yet, some how keep the attention connected inwards on the seer? When I give my 100% doing the task my attention is powered on the task and at this point the seer is lost in the scenery. Gurudev - Do them at different times. Don't try to do it simultaneously. Do them at different times and when you are proficient in both, you will find the border simply diminishes.  It fades away spontaneously and naturally. For now don't try to make a mood that you are working on being a witness - “I am getting lost in the job, no, I want to be a witness”. Don't make such mood just be 100% in whatever you are doing and before doing the work and after finishing the work for a few minutes, shift to the seer from the scenery.  Don't leave this and don't leave that, grow simultaneously in both of them. The Ishavasya Upanisad says, "One who goes in this alone will go in to a da...

There was a time in my life when the only thing that used to go on in my mind, how to commit suicide. I was tired and frustrated and I just wanted life to end. I used to keep thinking of several ways by which I could commit suicide. One day I was told about the Art of Living Part 1 course. I went for it and believe me, after doing the Kriya only once; I fell in love with it. When I came back home after the course my mother was very surprised to see me. She said that I am looking cheerful and energetic. I told her that I am going to make Guruji my spiritual Guru. Since then I became a dedicated devotee. The Sudarshan Kriya has all by itself changed my life. Earlier, I used to feel very tired, lazy and lethargic. I used to get irritated very soon and even the smallest things would irritate me. I would not talk much; just remain silent all the time. My mother would also wonder why I always looked tired and pale. She would always tell me to talk and get some liveliness in me. But at that t...

When Sri Sri had visited Punjab (India) in November 2010, I went from to Ludhiana from Jalandhar, where I study, to meet Him. I was new to the city and Art of Living as well. My brother and me wanted to attend the Satsang with Guruji. I really enjoyed myself and got to take His blessings as well. After the Satsang ended, Guruji left the venue. We saw that all the cars were fully crowded and everyone we knew had left in their vehicle. The main town was far from the ashram which is on the National Highway. We decided to take a lift when out of nowhere a man came in his car and offered to give us a ride. We sat in the car and traveled for another kilometer. He dropped us on the highway as he had to take the other route. Always Taken Care Of It was dark and there were no buses or auto rickshaw’s in sight. Luckily, another car came and two brothers who were in the car offered to give us a lift. Turns out, they had also attended the satsang with Guruji. Their father was also in another car b...

Question - Gurudev, why do you think attaining spirituality is necessary? Gurudev Sri Sri - It is because you want to be happy unconditionally, you want peace which does not get disturbed by small things. And this is quite natural. Wanting spirituality is as natural as wanting deep rest, as wanting to be loved, as wanting comfort and happiness. The definition of spirituality in Sanskrit is attaining greatest happiness, attaining greatest freedom (Nirvana) . It is natural. Like water flows down, and fire goes up, human beings want enlightenment.

Question - Gurudev, a lot of people want to sit in front of you during satsang, and often it leads to some battles. Does it matter how close we sit to you if you are everywhere? Gurudev Sri Sri - I tell you a secret, they simply don't know that more blessings go to the people who are the back (laughter). They should drop this 'Me' and allow everyone a chance to come to the front. ‘Yesterday I sat, today let someone else sit’. This should be the attitude. Unless you have a role to play, you are singing or you are a translator. Otherwise, give space for others. That shows that you have digested something of what you heard, else all the knowledge that you have heard is gone.

Question - Gurudev, how to love someone who I do not understand? Gurudev Sri Sri - As a baby is born, it looks into its mother's eyes, and starts loving the mother. The baby does not know anything about the mother. It does not know the name of the mother, or the school she went to, what subjects she studied, or how old she is. The baby does not even care, it does not even know. In the same way, the puppy or the dog in your house does not know you. If the dog knew you, perhaps it would not love you.

Question - Gurudev, can we donate our organs after death? What is your opinion on this? Gurudev Sri Sri - Yes, after death we can donate the organs of our body. There is nothing wrong in it. People say, 'Oh, if you give your eye, you soul won't go to heaven', all this is not true. Didn’t Bedara Kannappa (a hunter who proves his extreme devotion to Lord Shiva by plucking out both of his eyes and donating them to Lord Shiva) donate his eyes? He donated them to Shiva when he was still alive. Dadhichi gave his spine to Indra. Similarly there is nothing wrong in donating the organs of our body for good cause. You don’t need to be concerned about it.