Promoting Ayurveda:
The knowledge of life
Auroville Today Headline Article, June 2024 Double Issue
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Auroville Today Editorial
Supported by its rich biodiversity, India has since ancient times developed its own indigenous systems of medicine. Medicinal plants are found in all of its 15 ecosystems, giving rise to its unique alternative medical systems: Ayurveda, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Unani, each of which depends primarily on plant based formulations for its medicines. Out of India’s 17,000-18,000 species of flowering plants, more than 7,000 are estimated to have medicinal usage and about 1,178 species are estimated to be in trade with 242 species having annual consumption levels in excess of 100 metric tons.
In 2014, the Indian Government established the Ministry of AYUSH, an acronym for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homeopathy (a system originally developed by the German physician Dr. Hahnemann in 1805). The name Ayush is also a Hindu name that means “long life,” “good health,” or “well-being.” The Ministry is responsible for developing education, research and propagation of the traditional and alternative medicine systems in India, and for facilitating the international promotion, development and recognition of the AYUSH systems of medicine.
The Ministry has set up Central Councils for Research in each system of medicine and has also created National AYUSH Institutes of Eminence: the All India Institute of Ayurveda in Goa, the National Institute of Unani Medicine in Ghaziabad, and the National Institute of Homoeopathy at Delhi. It has also set up the National Medicinal Plants Board to coordinate all matters relating to medicinal plants.
The popularity of the various medicinal systems differs from state to state. Ayurveda and Siddha respectively have greater popularity in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Unani is better received in the Hyderabad region and among Muslims whilst homeopathy is highly popular in Bengal and Odisha. Sowa Rigpa is the traditional medicine of many parts of the Himalayan region, including Tibet.
Aurovilians have access to practitioners of four alternative systems. There are two Ayurvedic doctors (called Vaidya), one from India, the other from France; there are three resident homeopaths; a Tibetan doctor (called Amchi ) and his team visit Auroville once a month; a visiting Siddha doctor gives twice weekly consults at the Auroville’s Health Centre in Aspiration; and one can learn from an experienced herbalist how to use local plants in everyday cooking to treat common health issues.
In this double issue of Auroville Today we carry interviews with these health providers. We also portray Auroville’s lone practitioner in Jyotisha Shastra, Vedic astrology, which is a recognized course of study in many Indian universities. Lastly, we publish interviews with a few not so well known Aurovilians, who are as dedicated to the manifestation of Auroville as those whose names are more in the public awareness.
Interview with Auroville’s Ayurvedic Physician, Dr. Be
Dr. Bérengère, or Dr. Be as she is known in Auroville, holds a French MBA in International Business. She then studied Ayurveda at the Gujarat Ayurved University in Jamnagar, India. After six years of clinical and scholarly tuition at the University’s Ayurvedic hospitals, she obtained a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) degree. Be joined Auroville in 2013, gives consultations at Santé (Auroville Institute for Integral Health), does plant research and teaches the basic principles of Ayurveda to apply on a daily basis.
Auroville Today. Be, can you tell us about your path?
In the course of my professional reconversion, I had started to learn massage therapy and I had first come to Auroville in 2004, to attend a workshop on traditional Thai massage and went to Kerala to learn Ayurvedic massage. At that time, I hadn’t heard anything of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. Reading to understand the purpose of Auroville, I didn’t really understand what it was about. I also realised that if I were to stay here, I didn’t have much to offer as there were quite a few massage therapists in Auroville, many much more experienced than I was, so I went back to Europe to work in well-being institutes. After a while of practising as a therapist, I observed that clients didn’t only use massage to relax but also because they had health issues (insomnia, gastric problems, joint pain etc). As I didn’t have any medical back-ground, I then decided to come back to India to thoroughly study Ayurveda, as I could perceive that it was a great ancient medicine system that could help solve many health issues.
How was your Ayurvedic study at the Gujarat Ayurved University?
Tough, and not always satisfactory. The syllabus was built in the same way as when you study allopathic medicine. In addition, we were taught how to treat diseases in an Ayurvedic way, using preparations from plants that have medicinal properties, and we were taught how to make such preparations. But for me, these were just the basics. I don’t want to only treat the symptoms of the disease, but also the reason why the disease happened. Where did the imbalance start? Was the disease psychosomatic with the vital or mental affecting the physical, or was the cause somatic-psychological, starting from the body and then affecting the emotions, the vital, and then the mental and intellectual capacities? Here in Auroville, which is based on Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga, I felt there is the possibility to look at root causes. That, for me, brings Ayurveda to a more holistic level.
While finishing the internship for the BAMS degree in Gujarat and wondering where to go to practice, I dreamed of Auroville. I took it as a sign to visit the place again. The day I arrived in Auroville I met Dr. Ruslan at the Solar Kitchen, who told me that Kailash clinic [as Santé was known at that time, eds.] was looking for an Ayurvedic doctor.
The study of Ayurveda made me understand better the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo; it’s the same essence. This time, yes, I felt I could offer Ayurveda as a health tool to the community, a knowledge that can help to promote health through prevention, to heal through understanding the cause of a disease and to be aware of who we are and where we are at in our mission of life.
Actually, I had wanted to go to South America, to Colombia. I had heard that there is a village in the Sierra Nevada of Colombia where a people live who have the same kind of knowledge as what is taught in the Vedas. These are the Arhuacos. The chance came when my Ayurvedic professor was invited to teach a workshop in Bogota. As I am fluent in Spanish, I offered to come along and translate. He went for only one week; I decided to stay on and contact these people.
But when I finally managed to locate the village, I was refused entry. They wanted to check my energies and know the purpose of my visit. I waited at the gate. But they didn’t allow me in. Mind you, this was not because of some government regulation. This was a decision of the people themselves, who did not want their atmosphere to be spoiled by the atmosphere brought by ‘little brothers’, those who are disconnected from nature. According to their philosophy, there are big and little brothers. The big brothers are connected to the divine and to nature. The little brothers are disconnected from the divine and will damage themselves and nature through deceitful acts. They don’t want the influence of the little brother spoiling their environment with shoulds: “you should do…, you should make…” imposing practices that may not apply to their evolution. It’s already challenging to keep the tradition and stay connected with the divine with the constant pressure of modernity and consumerism from the outside society.
I tried again in 2016 when I finally managed to receive an invitation from them to stay one night and one day. At the village entrance I had to write the purpose of my visit, my background, my date, time and place of birth. Then I was allowed in. But they first ‘cleaned’ me from the energies I had brought from India and Europe. They wanted me to be open, have no prejudices, just observe and listen.
By coincidence I stayed with a family of healers. As this village is also in the tropic of Cancer, I could recognize many similar plants that we use in Ayurveda. So we had a really nice sharing on how to use them. And when the day had passed, my host said that, next time, I could stay as long as I wanted. Now, if possible, I go back every year. But it was only last year that the spiritual leaders welcomed me as a person. Before, I was just a visitor, even though I was helping with their health issues and had talked with the spiritual leaders. Last year only they welcomed me as doing the same as they do, and they helped me to be clearer in certain issues. These leaders had undergone a special initiation. They are able to directly contact the akashic records and have a remarkable level of intuition and vision.
Can you explain how you diagnose a patient?
So a patient explains to me the symptoms of the physical discomfort or of a disease. I probe for the reasons: is the discomfort caused by a disturbance in the person’s vital? Is there an irritation, an anxiety or a frustration? Is there sadness or emotional depression? Is there a mental acquiescence or suppression? Depending on which dosha is imbalanced, Ayurveda suggests how to realign. Because the definition of health is when the mind, the vital, the senses and the body are all aligned with the divine and earth. For when all these are aligned, then the person is in a state of well-being.
The questions are always, “What does the patient need? What will allow the patient to continue being connected to the divine and to the earth?” The answer depends on the level of consciousness of the individual, where the person is on the path. So it can be a medication or bringing an understanding, “Oh yes, it’s because I do or think this that I have this problem!” which is then followed up by suggesting different healing techniques, such as hatha yoga, tai chi, meditation, sometimes in combination with other medicines (allopathy, homeopathy, Chinese, Tibetan etc). Astrology can also bring insights.
There are limits to what Ayurveda can do. For example, it cannot deal with emergencies. If a person has a stroke, first of all allopathic treatment is the best solution. Ayurveda can get involved with the after-treatment, with rehabilitation or when the allopathic medications have unwanted side effects. In these cases, allopathy and Ayurveda are complementary systems.
So you try to bring integral wellness?
Ayurveda translates to ‘knowledge of life’. Joining Auroville and reading the Synthesis of Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Science of Living of The Mother brought the holistic dimension that wasn’t taught during our Ayurvedic studies. I’m talking about beauty and harmony in the physical; courage, bravery and enthusiasm in the vital; and a certain silence in the mental to be able to listen to the psychic, which so brings love and kindness. That, for me, is the best way to help, to focus on each of these three points: what to do to keep your body beautiful and harmonious, how to balance your body with the emotions of the vital, how to prevent negative repetitive patterns, and how to bring to the mind the knowledge that allows the patient to listen and receive the inner guidance.
A large part of the science of living is in knowing how to deal with psychological stress. Has Ayurveda an answer for this?
I meet many people who express their anxiety, frustration or sadness about what is happening in Auroville and their uncertainty about their future, whether or not they should stay in Auroville. My job is to check which of the doshas is disturbed, in which level of consciousness, that affects body and mind and to recommend a course of treatment or realignment accordingly. It is always an individualised treatment according to where the person is at present and what the person needs to do to become more balanced. It all depends on how the person touches its healing power.
How do you evaluate the current situation where there are so many difficulties in Auroville?
Photo by Kripa Borg-Pion
I see a lot of Pitta imbalance. Pitta is the flame, the aspiration, the inspiration, what allows you to see clearly, which gives joy, which gives the intelligence to grasp knowledge and to share it with the community.
A person with a balanced Pitta would wonder if he or she is in the right. Such a person would be at the service of the community, have clear ideas, but would be open to consider other opinions. The balanced Pitta results in a vibration that is optimistic and constructive and at the service of the community, and there is brightness. It shines in the sweetness and softness of the voice and the kindness of the eyes. The posture feels strong. When you are in the presence of someone like that, you can trust and go forward.
But if the Pitta is imbalanced, the result is imposition of opinions and decisions based on the belief that the person knows better and is better than others. A person who is not capable of reflecting on their own views and views of others is likely to be misled or do something wrong. In Ayurveda, we feel the pulse and observe the person. The pulse never lies. We also observe the person’s posture, if there are marks under the eyes, wrinkles in the face, if there is light in the eyes and if they shine happiness and joy. All of this can give the sense if a person is rightly aligned.
How do you deal with traumas of someone’s past that suddenly surface?
Old traumas are energies that are blocked in a certain organ of the body as a consequence of a psychological or physical trauma. Take, for example, a trauma caused by child sexual abuse. You can’t erase from the past the fact that there was abuse. The behaviour of the person will show an aggravation of any of the three doshas.
When the person seeks my help, I find which dosha has been affected and I advise how best to do realign the doshas so as to free the person from that trauma. There are different methods to do so: hypnosis, psychiatric help, astrology, acupuncture, to name a few. This may result in re-activating the energy that was blocked in that organ. But in essence, a new neurological path will so be created to provide safety and protection which allows the person to let the trauma dissolve.
This sounds like a yoga of the body?
Rather a yoga of the cells. We need to clean and clear all those traumas that have been put in our body during our lives. For these traumas leave their imprint on the cells. The cells need to get rid of that fear, anger or depression or whatever was imprinted on them. Mentally speaking, you can understand where it was coming from and that one has to move on, that it happened in the past. But mental knowledge does not eradicate the trauma from the body. You often see that in the posture of a person: the shoulders hang down, the way a person sits, the person protecting the solar plexus, doesn’t look you in the eyes because there is something under the carpet that doesn’t allow to share trust with the other. So we need to get rid of that thing through the yoga of cells so that the body can realign and have the posture in the way it should be.
But the body doesn’t process things in the way the mind does. The body responds and heals through the discipline of repetition, repeating that it is now safe and protected and happy and enjoying. It has to repeat, repeat and repeat until finally it’s accepted. That’s why, I think, The Mother so much stressed the need for physical discipline. Because the physical only accepts something by repeating it.
That’s something I understood from reading Mother’s Agenda. It helped me to have a more holistic picture. At the university, this was not taught. What I know is from my own experience.
And that’s why Auroville is such a wonderful place in terms of healing, because it has all the possibilities for someone to find the healing power required.
The Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation recently approved the setting up of an Institute of Integral Medical Education in Auroville, synthesising allopathic medicine with Indian systems of medicine. What is your take on this?
Photo by Kripa Borg-Pion
I would of course welcome such a health center, but I wish that it integrates a dedicated space for elaboration of juices and decoctions with the local plants according to the season, with a kitchen that has adapted menus according to various health conditions, a study room where we learn how to look after oneself and understand the mechanics of the body and mind and a big garden where people can come to reconnect with their surroundings and their nature. My ideal community would be one where the people are capable of observing themselves and, as soon as they feel the threat or symptoms of an imbalance, know what to do or seek help, before the symptoms become a disease. Going to a doctor implies that the person has missed many signs that the body or the mind have been giving. Ideally, we should be able to read the signs and realise what we are doing wrong, make the corrections so then we don’t fall sick. Education and making people responsible for their health are basic principles of Ayurveda.
Are you expecting Aurovilians to be amenable to this?
Again, it all depends on the person’s wish and self-observation. Those who are engrossed in their outward lives may not take the time to look after their health, to observe when the body gets into an imbalance. They will require quick-fix treatments, prefer to take a medicine instead of taking the time to change their diet or do some sports, because their timetable doesn’t allow it. But there are many people here who joined Auroville to participate in the Mother’s great adventure. That choice puts them on a certain level, not the ‘ordinary’ level where people go to a hospital or seek medicines to overcome their illness.
During my studies in Jamnagar, I saw many patients crowding the hospital to get medicines to get cured. Some had first tried their luck with allopathic medicines, and when that didn’t work, went to Ayurveda. Like allopathic doctors, many Ayurvedic doctors nowadays give a whole bunch of medicines – sometimes in the hope that one of them will work. But that’s not the aim of Ayurveda. The essence of Ayurveda is going back to the cause of the illness and making sure that the patient stops feeding this cause. But there are not so many Ayurvedic doctors who have the patience or even the capacity to properly educate or to train the patient – assuming that the patient is open to this.This results in a lot of medicinal waste; people buy the prescribed medicines, try them for some time, and if they don’t work, put them on a shelf and dump them after a few years. It is a terrible waste of nature because ayurvedic medicines come all from the plants and minerals.
You teach also?
Yes, it’s my favourite spreading of Ayurveda. I have been giving classes to adults and teenagers, teaching the basic principles of Ayurveda. I focus on the different doshas: Vata, Pitta and Kapha and how they manifest in the physical, vital and mental, and how to rebalance them when they create symptoms at any of these three levels of consciousness through making changes in the food intake, lifestyle and relating to oneself or others. I try to raise awareness about tuning into oneself through practical, theoretical and spiritual knowledge, and to tune in with the plants, to understand their qualities, and how their energy can be transmitted for healing – even without sacrificing their life. Serena from Auroras Eye Films has recorded 15 of these classes and put them on YouTube where you can find them by typing Ayurveda Auroville.
In conversation with Carel