I am on my annual retreat to a heritage Ayurveda centre in Kerala, India. I attended a session by the lead Doctor of this centre yesterday. She gave us new insights of how “Ayurveda” works on the human body.

According to Ayurveda, human beings have an in built immunity mechanism and it can tackle and manage all diseases and injuries to the body. However, over a period of time due to wrong intake of food, our habits of not having quality, quantity, time and type of food healthy for us, our immune system gets impacted.

According to the experts in Ayurveda, the head in the human body is like the root of a tree. Just like we water the root of a tree, when it grows up, we need to first treat the head with medicated oil and other methods before we move to the other parts. All issues in the human body spreads from the head to the other parts through the nervous system and the physiological systems.

They say that we assimilate toxins all through the day and month and do not have a way to eliminate them from the body. When we fall ill, we take medicines and they help us tackle the disease or illness ,without getting into the root cause of the disease.

According to Ayurveda, the root cause of most diseases ,is the health of our gut. What we eat, when we eat, how we eat and in what quality and quantity ,determines the health of our gut. This supplemented with good sleep at the right time and not going against nature is important. Physical exercise of our choice and cordial sexual relations with your partner ,will help us keep up physical and mental health.

If we maintain our intake and ensure that we excrete ,what is not good for the body ,on a regular basis, the chances of our falling ill is very minimal. The immune system of our body will be able to manage most of the diseases, prevalent in society.

The process they follow in a typical elevenday programme is that they use oil massage therapy with a combination of oral herbal medicines to help us excrete all the toxins accumulated in the body ,during the first eight days. Then they clear the remaining unwanted things in the body through enema ,in the last three days. This way they systematically cleanse our body and help us regain our health.

I would like to share some examples of how this could work. Firstly, it is about preventive health maintenance. It is like ,we maintain our cars and bikes ,through periodic preventive service in an authorised service station. Similarly, we need to maintain our health with proper intake of food and regular exercise supplemented by an annual preventive health maintenance ,at a centre of our choice – ayurvedic or anything else we like.

Secondly like we use the right fuel and oil in our automobiles, in the right quality, quantity and time, similarly, we need to intake food at the right time in the right quantity and quality, which will help us keep healthy.

Thirdly, like an automobile is maintained well, when it is kept running and not kept idle. Similarly, our body and mind has to have regular physical and mental exercise to keep it running.

Let our journey to good health begin today by syncing ourselves with nature – i.e. the Ayurveda way as documented in 3rd century BC in India.

S Ramesh Shankar

3rd Feb 2025

I was on the banks of Cauvery at Gali Bore, near Bangalore. A poster on the wall of the resort triggered my thoughts. It read – “ Observe the patterns, Create sound maps and feel the senses .

I realised that in this materialistic world, we have forgotten all the above. Our eyes are the most powerful pair of lenses, in the world and the best camera we can ever have. But, we do not put it to its best use. There is so much to observe ,all around us.

Today ,sitting on the banks of Cauvery, I can see the wave patterns on the flowing river. It can give us unlimited ideas for designing any pattern in our lives. The swaying leaves on the trees and the playful malabar squirrel can keep us engaged all day.

It may be worthwhile for us to pause for a day and take a break from the madness of our every day life. We can hear the vibrations of nature. You feel as if the birds are speaking to one another. The squeak of one bird is responded by the melody of another. Such is the beauty of nature, we are missing every day.

Can we smell the air ? In our busy urban life, we only can smell the emissions of other vehicles and the polluting industries around us. In a forest, nature bestows us the fragrance of trees, flowers and even the wet mud, which makes us realise how much we have lost our senses.

As humans, we have five senses – see, hear, touch, smell and taste. But with urbanisation and leading a materialistic world, we seem to have lost all of them. We cannot see the obvious, listen to one another, touch and care for one another as humans, smell the fresh air ,as we have polluted it and taste organic natural food ,as we have injected all possible chemicals into our food.

It may be time to sit back and reflect. We may benefit by setting the clock back and rewinding our life. We may surprise ourselves ,if we activate all our senses to see, touch, taste, hear and smell. It may not be a difficult task ,but definitely needs introspection and efforts to get back to nature.

The first step could be to take a break ,once in a while ,from our rugged routine and be with nature. Nature can teach us in simple ways ,to reactivate our senses. The sights of nature ,will invigorate our senses. We will get mesmerised by the nature’s scenes and the smell of the flowers and trees. The care and touch of animals will kindle our senses. The taste of fruits from the forest ,will revitalise our senses and the sounds of nature will make us more sensitive and possibly make us better listeners in life.

Let nature awaken us. If we are willing to learn from nature, we may be able to activate our five senses and evolve as better human beings.

It is time to wake up and re unite with nature.

S Ramesh Shankar

11th May 2024

I am at an ayurveda centre ,in Kerala and come here once a year, to rejuvenate my body ,mind and soul. I am not recommending that everyone needs to go to an Ayurveda centre ,to do the same. You could choose your own place, where you think ,it may help you ,to do the same.

My body is getting rejuvenated by massages through herbal oils and pastes and all the toxins in the body ,are getting released through Kashayam ( herbal medicines in liquid form). I am sleeping more peacefully and relax my body, mind and soul.

My mind is in a state of stillness. It is almost like I have hit the Contol+alt+del button ,on my computer. All the stresses and strains of urban life, seem to have been erased from my mind. It appears that my mind is fitted with a brand new hard disc ,with all worries of the past deleted.

My soul appears to be only listening to the song of the birds around me. I am in sync with nature and there is no scope of polluting my body, mind or soul. Everything seems so serene, that I can feel my soul floating around me.

Today many of us work ,in high pressure jobs ( or at least we make ourselves believe so ). The first myth one needs to remove from our minds is that we are indispensable ,wherever we are working and whatever role we play ,in the organisation. There is nobody in the organisation starting from the CEO, who is indispensable.

The second myth we need to break in our minds is that ,we are young and health need not be a concern, at this stage. It may appear like the inbox in a new email set up ,by us. We may think that we can delete unwanted emails in the future ,as there are not many ,as of now. But before we realise ,our email is flooded with junk. Similarly our body assimilates toxins right from our young age and unless we have a systematic mechanism to eliminate them, they accumulate and end up in diseases for us.

One way of detoxifying ourselves periodically ,is to go away from our routine ,to a place where we can rejuvenate our physical, mental, social and emotional health. It is up to us to decide, if it has to be an ayurveda centre, a trek to the mountains, running a marathon and preparing for it or something else.

The third and the most important myth we need to shatter is that ,we can do it in the future. Tomorrow never comes for some of us. We need to realise that ,today will also not last forever ,and will sooner than later, become yesterday. If we do not care for our health, we may become extinct ,even before we realise it.

We can explore what works for us. But, it may be a good idea ,to find a way to synchronise body, mind and soul at least once a year, so that we lead a healthier life.

Let the journey of health discovery ,begin today.

S Ramesh Shankar

9th Jan 2024