“Vedic Wisdom” and the ‘Ayurveda”

Q: Please tell us more about “Vedic Wisdom” and the ‘Ayurveda”.

Guruji: See, nobody knows when the Vedas were written, but the historians of the world say that the oldest scripture that is written is the Rig Veda, there is nothing older than this. So what are the Vedas? It is called 'shruti' which means 'we heard'. Many ancient Rishis in the past when they went into deep meditation heard something and then recited it. People who heard them repeated it and started recording it. So that which 'was heard' in deep meditation is called 'shruti'. In computer terms we can say they downloaded it. So those who downloaded the mantras are called Rishis. So the Rishis downloaded many of these mantras including Ayurveda.

The birth of Ayurveda is an interesting one. In the central part of India, in the forest, some thousands of sages or scientists of those days gathered together and said, 'We need to go into deep meditation and find out what is good for human beings; how can they be healthy and how to treat sick people'. There was no Materia-Medica or any material before that. Then they thought that if everyone goes into meditation, who will record? So one Rishi Bhardwaja said, 'I will not meditate, you all go into samadhi and you keep saying what you hear and I will record it'. So in a state of deep meditation they said which herb is for which part of the body, what is the shape of the herb and everything was described; the entire herbology and how to prepare different medicines and how to treat different parts of the body.

If you find one Materia Medica in the world which is in the form of a poem, it is Ayurveda. Ayurveda is not in prose, it is all in poetry. The whole medical science (of Ayurveda) was downloaded and even today it stands good. It has stood the test of time and stands good in today’s scientific age, and it has proven to be very useful. Now even Allopathy is turning towards herbal and Ayurvedic medicines. They have started recognizing it one by one.

One of the best examples of this is turmeric. In 1980, we had a conference in New Delhi and we had invited Allopathic as well as Ayurvedic doctors and they had a debate.

Ayurvedic doctors said that turmeric is very essential. It is good for anti-ageing and stops decay of the cells in the body. The Allopathic doctors just smiled at each other and said it is only a pigment and has no food value. They completely dismissed it. Today, the same Allopathic doctors say that turmeric has 19 important functions and does the work of 19 life-saving drugs. It also arrests Alzheimer, is an anti-oxidant, a blood thinner and does the job of aspirin. Aspirin affects your stomach; turmeric does not affect your body in any adverse way. It is anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-cancer. All these benefits of turmeric have now been discovered.

Om Namah Shivay