Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

Chapter 8 - Ethics & Business  Day 17 Now in an NGO, this is even more difficult. Do you know why? Because you do not pay them but you expect them to do the work. When you are not paying and they have to work, they are their own bosses.  Nobody can tell them what they should be doing or how they should go about achieving their goals. You can only give broad guidelines. But what really makes a person work?  Whether it has been a flood or a tsunami situation, I only get the reports later. I do not even have to tell them that they have to go and work there.  People come with such a high level of motivation. They get together and say, "Hey there has been a disaster, we have to immediately rush to help out."  And so when there was a disaster in Surat, about 5 lakh people volunteered just like that. No governmental machinery could match the work that these volunteers did together.  And what makes all these good people come together and work so har...

Chapter 8 Ethics & Business Day 16 To follow ethics in business, we need to be free from stress. Let us now examine ethics and business. Think about why people generally pay attention to ethics. People follow ethics out of fear - fear of losing their job, or fear of starvation, or fear of prosecution. People also behave ethically out of a natural sense of commitment to their work.  Sometimes they may be tempted to resort to unethical means in the false belief that they will benefit more or gain favour with others.  But that is not the case really, when we see the broader picture. It is short term benefits and long term problems that we get every time we follow unethical means.  It is best to always act on the right side of ethics. Though it may feel tough initially or though you may find it difficult keeping up your efforts in the long run, rest assured that it keeps up your spirit, that it keeps you happy and healthy always.  When people realise the ...

Chapter 7 - Environmental Management  Day 15 All things that make up our environment, the plants and the animals are sacred. Everything that exists on the planet is valuable. It is not just the spirit, but also the instrument through which the spirit manifests itself, that is important.  Knowledge and money are sacred too. It is human beings alone who pollute this planet. In a forest, there is no pollution. No animal ever causes pollution.  No animal uses plastic. Birds know how to take care of the environment. Cats know how to keep their surroundings clean and pollution-free. We have forgotten how to be this way because we have moved away from nature.  We live in a mechanical, conceptual world rather than in the real world. When we are tense and agitated, we pollute the environment by emitting vibrations which are not harmonious.  Environmental damage is not caused by external objects alone, it is also a product of subtle factors within human natu...

Chapter 6 - Social Partnerships Make Business Sense Day 14 We need to give people a vision. Those who have a vision or a dream can go ahead and develop society. The health of a society today seems to be determined by the number of beds and cells available in hospitals and prisons.  The prisons are filled and overflowing in many of the developed countries prison occupancy today stands at 160%. They have to build new prisons in the so-called 'developed' countries.  This does not denote a healthy society. A society where a significant percentage of the student population is jailed at least once, where one in five children consults a psychiatrist, is not a developed society. So, the health of a society depends on the smooth functioning and availability of space in hospitals and prisons. We do not need to build more hospitals or prisons.  We need to teach people how to be healthy. Charity does not seem to be a part of the language of today. We have to build the sel...

Pergularia daemia (Forssk.) Chiov. Family - Apocynaceae Common name - Brushagandha(odia), dholi dudhi (hindi).   💉 Medicinal uses - 🌸 Dried leaf used as bronchitis, dysmenorrheal, asthma, healing cuts & wounds. 🌸 Fresh leaf is used as juice to cure catarrhal infections, infantile diarrhea. 🌸 Latex of this plant used for toothache, boils & sores. 🌸 Stem bark is used for cold, fever, malaria & twig used as an antipyretic. 🌸 Aerial part is used as hepatoprotective, antifertility, anti-diabetic, analgesic antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, snake bite. 🌸 Root is used as bronchitis, constipation & gonorrhea. 🌸 Whole plant is used as anthelmintic, emmenagogue(increase menstrual flow), parturition(childbirth), delayed childbirth, amenorrhea(the absence of monthly menstrual periods). Sugimani Marndi Biodiversity and Conservation Lab.  Ambika Prasad Research Foundation Cuttack, Odisha  www.aprf.co.in