WORLDKdham

KAIVALYADHAMAYoga for the World

Winter 2011

Independence day Celebration - 4

Kaivalyadhama Police Chowky Inauguration - 8

French Yog Retreat with Shri O P Tiwari - 10

Vidya Niketan School Report - 11

EditorialI was invited to attend the meeting of the boardof studies formulated to design the syllabus ofBachelors in Yoga Therapy by Maha-rasthraUniversity of Health Sciences, Nasik, 8September 2011. There is a long way to go butthe process has started and has paved the wayfor a recognized course in Yoga Therapy. TheHonourable Vice Chancellor, Dr Arun Jamkar,was also present during the deliberations and heemphasized the need to standardize theprogramme since it deals with the health of allcitizens, and that we should ensure that thehighest quality is maintained. If this goes through,it will be a great step forward in the qualitativestandardization of Yoga therapy.

Nowadays, the credibility of an NGO hasbecome a big issue. There have been ampleinstances wherein the NGO exists only on paperand only to obtain grants for a project; then thereare those which are in existent only to promotethe interest of the trustees, and so on and so forth.However, I visited Jabalpur as part of my dutiesas the Nodal Officer for the District WellnessCentre and was pleasantly surprised by the effortsof this NGO.

The conference was on Yoga and Immunologyand among the speakers were some prominentmedical practitioners and some learned Yogascholars. Among the participants there wereprominent citizens of Jabalpur who were notmerely spectators but were a participativeaudience. The reason I narrate this is toemphasize the fact that one of the means tomeasure the credibility of any NGO is to assessthe level of participation by general members ofsociety in it and its programmes. Ultimately, theaim of the schemes being run through the NGOis to reach to a larger number of people via themode of public-private partnership and this ismade possible when there is large publicparticipation. I think this scheme of SwamiVivekananda District Wellness Centre is verywell thought of and has been very well planned.No doubt there will be some hick-ups but, whenwe review its progress in six months, I am sure

Dr Ishwar Basavaraddi, whose mind is behindthis scheme, will be a happy man.

The monsoon is now over in Lonavla.Greenery is all around and we have amplecourses and workshops coming up. Dr NaliniGeete, an MD in Ayurveda, was introduced tome through a common friend. She has taken upthe work of making a herbal garden at theInstitute and also a project “wanrai’ plantationof indigenous species of plants in the surroundinghills. She has been dedicatedly doing her job,which means we are sure to see that this yearlarge amounts of land will be used in this projectthus enhancing the green cover and movingtowards a greater harmony with nature. I amlooking forward towards progress in this respect.

The school has picked up well and isconducting many activities. The academicperformance of the students has also been good.We have made a conscious decision to make it agreen school. Some important values have to beinstilled in the young minds at an early age, andthat is our effort. Yoga has already become anintegral part of the school schedule. It is morepractice oriented. It’s a pleasure to see all thestudents practising asanas and sitting quietly yetattentively after morning assembly. We hope thatwith this school we can contribute towards anintegrated nation through creating integratedpersonalities.

Namaste!

Subodh TiwariAdministrator

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The Newsletter of Kaivalyadhama Institute and SADT Gupta Yogic Hospital & Healthcare Centre

Volume 8, Issue 2 Winter 2011

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Inquisitive Students Start WorkThe new 9-month Yoga Diploma Course wasinaugurated on 16 July 2011 by Dr SanjeevSonawane, Dean, Faculty of Education,University of Pune. Sri Subodh Tiwari, whilefelicitating all present, referred to the discussionof the Constituent Assembly and the speech givenearlier by the learned parliamentarian, Dr H. V.Kamath.

During his speech, Dr Kamath praised thework of the Institute in the field of research andemphasized the need go deeper into the field ofspiritual research. He also emphasized the needfor the students to be inquisitive, research-basedand focused on experimentation.

In the keynote speech, Dr Sanjeev Sonawanereminded the prospective students to make themost of the DYED Course as there would beevery opportunity to develop their personalitythrough a continual self-evaluation and self-introspection. He went on to assure the studentsthat they had come to the right place in their questfor furthering their experience through Yoga.

In his benediction, Swami Maheshanandaencouraged students to remain in the right frameof mind through the whole year ahead. PrincipalR. S. Bhogal then introduced the faculty membersto students, and Prof. G. S. Sahay gave a vote ofthanks to all.

Guests during the Inaugural Function Swami Maheshananda felicitating Dr. Sanjeev Sonawane

Kaivalyadhama’s focus is toprovide quality and consistentservices to everyone. Toenhance the presentation of ourstaff and the premises,housekeeping training wasarranged for July and August2011 by the Human ResourceDepartment. All staff enjoyedthe training programme as ithelped them to polish their self-presentation, cleaning skills andmethodical approach towardstheir work. The importance of

Polishing Uppersonal hygiene was alsostressed during the trainingprogramme. Proper usage ofhousekeeping gadgets, equip-ment and ingredients was also

explained. The training wasconducted by Ms Smrutika andcoordinated by Mrs MaltiShanbag.

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The 65th Independence Day was celebrated, 15August 2011, at the Kaivalya Vidya NiketanSchool. Justice Dr S. Radhakrishnan, Chairmanof Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal andformer Judge of the High Court, was Chief Guestfor the occasion. The programme started at 8.30am with parents, staff and all students of theInstitute present and the flag was hoisted by thechief guest, followed by the National Anthem,pledge and dhwajageet, with felicitations givenby School Principal, Mrs Anita Bhosale.

I n d e p e n d e n c eIn her address, Mrs Bhosale emphasized that

everyone should promise to strive to promotelove, kindness, sharing and unity among one andall. She said that Kaivalya Vidya Niketan wasthe dream of Swami Kuvalyananda and thisdream was practically made real by Sri O. P.Tiwari and his student Mr Nigol. She gave a briefidea of all activities to date and introduced theSchool as a green school.

This was followed by performances of songssuch as Sare Jahaa by the primary students, while

Flag hoisting on Independence Day Justice Dr S. Radhakrishna

Teacher’s Day was celebrated 5 September 2011by students of Gordhandas Seksaria College ofYoga & Cultural Sythesis in a solemn anddevotional fervour. Sushri Ruchi Yadav and SriMahendra Joshi anchored the stage programme,attended by teachers and other staff ofKaivalyadhama.

Sri Anand Madhavpandey enthralled theaudience with vocal recitals, while Ms PrabhaBajpai performed a choreographed depiction ofthe grace and grandeur of the Gayatri Mantra.Mr Michal Mach, a young Czech national,

T e a c h e r

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c e C e l e b r a t e dsenior kindergarten students gave a danceperformance on the Nanna Munna Rahi. Anaction song was performed by 1st and 2nd standardstudents, while a pyramid presentation was givenby the students of 3rd and 4th standard. After thisperformance, our Chief Guest JusticeRadhakrishnan, Mr R. S. Bhogal and Smt AbhaTiwari presented appreciation certificates towinners. To add a greater essence of patriotism,our students gave short speeches in differentlanguages, i.e. Hindi, English and Marathi.

Motivational speeches were given by JusticeRadhakrishnan and Mr R. S. Bhogal and theygave more emphasis on planting trees, sayingthat each person should at least plant one treeand nurture it. Dr Vartika Dubey expressed herhappiness over the establishment of the Schooland its progress. Vande Matram, together with avote of thanks by Mrs Seema Naidu, PRO,concluded the programme.

krishnan giving the address Singing performance

e r s ’ D a ypresented a poetic “Teruna Jaya”, a Balineseclassical dance performance with a perfectionand beatitude of the great art. There were manypresentations that made the audience feel arespectful homage to Dr Sarvapalli Radha-krishnan and Swami Kuvalyananda.

Principal Bhogal thanked the students onbehalf of all teachers for the affirmation of faithand respect. He exhorted the students to remainperennial speakers of the essence of Yoga throughtheir experientially based self-practice.

� Michal Mach’s Balinese Classical Dance

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The programme, Training inWellness through Yoga, wasconducted 5–10 September2011 for officials of NavodayaVidyalaya Samiti, New Delhi.The workshops are part ofNVS’s effort for admini-strativestaff to experience Yoga,Naturopathy and Ayurveda as ameans for stress managementand health promotion. Thesetherapies are planned to not onlymake them feel better but to alsoenhance their output andoutlook. Feedback from theprogramme reflected totalsatisfaction from participantsabout what they received.

A meeting of India’s FinancialCommission for LegislativeReforms, a commission underthe Ministry of Finance, hasbeen hosted at the Institute. TheCommission is chaired byJustice (retd) B. N. Srikrishnaand he motivated its membersto meet at Kaivalyadhama inorder to have peaceful in-depth

In our continued effort to make more informationavailable about the Institute, 10 new videos havebeen uploaded to the website. These short videosare now available on the net to view and show

Coming SoonCertificate Course in the Basic Understanding of Traditional Yogic Texts starts 1 December 2011.Certificate Course for Yoga Teachers in Spa Management, starts 1 December for 21 days.Pranayama Workshop by Sri O. P. Tiwari, 15 November to 14 December 2011.

many of Kaivalyadhama’s activities. Anyone canview the videos at http://kdham.com/videos/.They have been directed and created by Mr TuhinChowdhary.

See Kaivalyadhama

Yoga Workshop for Officials

Top Body Meets at Kaivalyadhamadeliberations on financialreforms.

Delegates came from acrossIndia to attend the meeting andenjoyed some rejuvenatingtherapies and longs walks.Although the Institute has norelations whatsoever withIndia’s financial reforms,providing a conducive venue

and the right atmosphere fordeliberation is. No doubt thiswas an unusual place to conductsuch meetings and much effortwent into its smoothorganization. Mr Nair, SecretaryFCLR, coordinated the eventwith Ms Malti of Kaivalya-dhama ensuring that everythingwent according to plan.

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Kaivalyadhama is a nodal institute for somewestern states in the implementation of DistrictWellness Centres (DWC) which are promotedby the Department of AYUSH.

Our duty is to see thatthe centres follow theguidelines laid down under the scheme andoptimise their efforts to promote Yoga.

KdhamWorld’s Editor is the Nodal Officerunder this scheme and he visited the centre atJabalpur also attending their conference ‘Yogaand Immunology’, 11 September 2011. This

DWC News

DWC has conducted two foundation courses, asper the requirement, and this conference was partof the Yoga promotion programme whereineminent scholars, medics and citizens of the Cityparticipated.

Thereafter, a visit was made to the DWC inIndore, which operates through the city’s hugeNehru Stadium. It has conducted a foundationcourse in Yoga and other programmes are inpipeline.

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Kaivalyadhama Police Chowkywas inaugurated on 29 July2011 by Hon. Union Minister ofState, Mr Milind Deora, at11a.m. Kaivalyadham PoliceChowky was

Kaivalyadhama Police Chowky

Inaugural of Kaivalyadhama Police Chowky, Mumbai

reconstructed from the funds ofMrs Annie Shekhar, MLA.Keys of the police Chowkywere handed over to the JointPolice Commissioner ofMumbai.

Mr Vinod Shekhar co-ordinated the event and trustee,Sri Darshan Aggarwal,honoured the Union Minister,Milind Deora and Mrs AnnieShekhar. Trustee Sri SuhasBhatt welcomed the Joint PoliceCommissioner by offeringflowers, coconut and a Gayatrishawl. Secretary Sri P. N.Agarwal did the same to thankSri Vinod Shekhar. The eventwas planned and organised bySri Ravi M. Dixit, DeputySecretary.

The part of land on whichthe Chowky was made has beenleased by the Trust to the policedepartment for the last threedecades. The opening of thisChowky provides extra securityto the citizens of Mumbai.

News from Kaivalyadhama MumbaiYoga Session for BMC SchoolOn behalf of Kaivalyadhama, aYoga session was conducted for theSchool of Municipal Corporation ofMumbai at Byculla, organized inconjunction with the Rotary Club,on 20 August 2011. 22 studentsfrom Marathi medium and 15students from Urdu mediumparticipated and thoroughlyenjoyed the session. Every effort ismade to promote yogic practices ina scientific and systematic mannerfor health and wellbeing. SmtShilpa Ghone was the YogaTeacher.

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Kaivalyadhama, Mumbai, or-ganized evening classes for ad-vanced traditional Yoga prac-tices, 1 August to 30 Septem-ber 2011, conducted by SriParmanand Agarwal, Secretary.

Advanced Traditional Yoga PracticesThe inaugural class was at-

tended by a large crowd and themain theme and objective wasexplained to them with manyenrolling after this class. MrBhusan Kumar Upadhyaya,

I.P.S. Maharashtra, delivereda speech on the said topic andemphasized the importance ofclassical practices in a system-atic form for students and prac-titioners.

Sri Parmanand Agarwal conducting Yoga classes Sri Bhusan Kumar Upadhyaya being thanked

Upcoming Events

Workshop on Detox as per Ayurved: 1– 9 October 2011 by Mr Ravi Dixit.

Workshop on ‘A HEALTHY BBM’ (BODY BREATH & MIND), 3– 7 October 2011 by Mr Ravi DixitCertificate Course on Yoga Therapy.

Yoga-Ayurveda Camp, Beijing, ChinaOn behalf of Kaivalyadhama, Dr JagdishBhutada, Ayurveda Consultant, visited Beijing,China, 22–30 June. Ms Zhuyan, a senior Yogastudent of Kaivalyadhama, organized the Yoga-Ayurveda camp in collaboration with the Institutein Lonavala. The main focus of the camp wasthe role of Ayurveda in day-to-day life in realizingone’s life force. Ms Zhuyan taught Pranayamaand Asana classes, while Dr Jagdish gave aninteractive talk on Ayurveda plus one-to-oneconsultation for participants.

Kaivalyadhama Overseas

Dr Jagdish Bhutada gives a talk on Ayurveda

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French Yoga Retreat with Sri O. P. TIWARIAs in the previous 20 years, a summer workshop,given by Sri O. P. Tiwari, was organized (from11–17 July 2011) in the mediaeval village ofSaint-Antoine-Abbaye in France, a place of highspiritual life and pilgrimages for hundreds ofyears. An ashram was founded by LanzadelVasto, a European follower of Gandhi andVinobha to lead a simple life based on the

principles of non-violence. Participants werewelcomed to the beautiful old abbey and itsorganic and flowered garden. Sri Tiwari taughta group of 34 students yogic practices and heldregular lectures on Yoga and its aims, Asanas,Pranayama and Kundalini, the important textsof Yoga, namely Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and theHatha Pradipika. The typical day would beginwith a fire ceremony (Havan).

Sri O.P. Tiwari and participants Sri O.P. Tiwari performing Havan with participants

Bliss of Breathing – Part-IIDidier Mangou, head ofKaivalyadhama in France,organized a nine-day intensivePranayama Training (Part-II)programme for Yoga teachersfrom 30 July to 9 August 2011.It was taught by Sri O. P. Tiwariand led to a Kaivalyadhamadiploma in teaching Pranayama.45 Kaivalyadhama studentsranging from Chinese,American and Brazilian, toFrench, Italian, Finnish,Swedish, Spanish and Englishattended, and all teachings weretranslated from English toFrench by Didier Mangou.

The residential nature of thecourse, in the peacefulcountryside of South-EasternFrance, permitted participantsto immerse themselves with

dedication and sincerity in thepractical and experientialelements of the training,alongside the academic, theore-tical and philosophical contentof the course. This trainingprogramme marked the firsttime for Kaivalyadhama to offerPranayama certification of thisnature in France. The workshop

ended with the students wellequipped and inspired. Hailingfrom China, America, Braziland France, Italy and Finland,to Sweden, Spain and Englandthey will now pass on theKaivalyadhama tradition andteaching methodology in theirown countries.

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English ElocutionEnglish elocution was held on 22 July 2011 inthe activity room. The programme was startedafter the welcome of the chief guest, Mr Nelson,and students from primary and secondarysections took an active part in the competition.After the programme Mr Nelson guided thechildren to be more confident and loud whilereciting and then was honoured with a smalltoken of love. A vote of thanks was given by MrsJaskiran.

Quiz competitionKaivalya Vidya Niketan conducted a generalknowledge quiz competition for juniors, std 1st

to 2nd and seniors, std 3rd to 6th. Different roundsincluded a warm up, balloon round, buzzer round,audio visual round and rapid fire round. MrsMalti Shanbag was the guest for this competitionand the winners of the inter-house competitionwere as follows :

Junior Quiz Competition

Blue house Green house Yellow house

1st prize 2nd prize 2nd prize

1. Dhruv 1. Tanishq 1. LatikaChowdhary Bachche Thorat

2. Aftab 2. Murtuza 2. VirendraShaikh Khedwala Singh

Senior Quiz Competition

Blue house 1st prize Green house 2nd prize

1.Sanket Lalwani 1.Sohani Sinha

2. Suhas Paul 2.Ashish Chellani

3.Shubham Ramkar 3.Nikhil Kumar

4.Aryan Solomon 4. SidhantKhandelwal

Investiture ceremonyThe first Investiture ceremony was held 5 August

Vidya Niketan School Report

The Green School2011 with Sri Yogesh Godse, CEO, LonavalaMunicipal Council, as Chief Guest and parentsof the newly elected leaders were invited.Students and teachers were assembled in theactivity hall for morning prayers. The ChiefGuest arrived along with Sri Subodh Tiwari,Secretary, to grace the occasion. Sri V. K. Jain,educational advisor, helped and supported theplanning and execution of the ceremony.

The Ceremony began with a procession wherethe selected leaders marched forward and tooktheir positions. After a special prayer, Mrs AnitaBhosale introduced and felicitated the ChiefGuest, Sri Subodh Tiwari and Sri V. K. Jain.The young leaders took an oath to maintaindiscipline and earn a good name for the schooland Institute, pledging to carry out their dutiesloyally, impartially and courageously. Next theschool captain, vice captain, house captains,sports captain and monitors respectively wereinvested and given badges and flags to entrustthem with their responsibilities.

Senior kindergarten students presented adance ‘Nanha Munna Rahi Hun’ and the ChiefGuest addressed the parents and studentsassuring them that the Institute and school willdefinitely prove to be an excellent source for

Young leaders marching

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creating good citizens of tomorrow. Sri SubodhTiwari gave best wishes and encouraged thestudents for all the forthcoming events of theschool. Siddhant Khandelwal, a class V student,extended the vote of thanks to all and theceremony concluded with the hymn ‘We shallovercome’ and the National Anthem.

RakshabandhanRakshabandan was celebrated by pre-primarystudents with girls tying rakhi to the boys withthe help of respective class teachers. The mainpurpose behind the celebration of this festivalwas to inculcate the value of love and affectionand brotherhood. The function ended with adistribution of sweets.

Green School ProjectOur environment needs immediate attentionbecause of prevailing global warming conditions,as what is currently happening will have adverseeffects on present and future generations.Keeping this in view, Kaivalya Vidya Niketanhas taken steps to spread awareness amongstudents, teachers and staff to create a clean andgreen environment in the Kaivalyadhama campusand beyond.

Eco-friendly activities are promoted at theSchool to avoid usage of plastic. To start this,students participated in making colourful paperbags. Students are also taught about resourceconservation such as switching off lights and fanswhen leaving the classroom. They were also told

about the optimum use of water and turning offtaps properly after use. Students are taking utmostcare of plants which they planted on InauguralDay of the School. Garbage management is alsouppermost and three bins, i.e. dry, recyclable andnon-recyclable waste, have been installed.Forthcoming events are:

1. Essay competition on the importance of trees.

2. Painting and drawing competition on naturalsceneries.

3. Students will prepare slogans on theenvironment.

4. Prepare an eco-friendly Ganapati.

Poetry CompetitionA poetry competition was held on 22 August 2011and Professor Nelson Dantes, Ness Wadia, wasinvited as judge. It was the first competition forthe tiny tots but right from nursery to senior KG,all participants recited the poems confidentlywithout fear. The winners of the competitionwere as follows:

••••• Nursery : 1st Miss BhanusgareMugdha2nd Mast.GhareShripad

••••• Jr KG : 1st Mast AdityaKhilare2nd Miss Krishna Khandelwal

••••• Sr KG : 1st Mast Rishi Bhandari2nd Mast RishabhKhirid

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installing the Ganesh murti in the shrine

Poetry Competition

Teacher’s DayTeacher’s Day was celebrated withenthusiastically by all the staff of Kaivalya VidyaNiketan, 5 September 2011, where Mrs AnitaBhosale, Principal, gave a presentation onDr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan to studentsfollowed by a short speech. 6th Standard studentssang a song for all the teachers. English and Hindipoems were recited.

Later, Sri V. K. Jain, Educational Advisor,addressed the students and narrated a realincident of France. He wanted to inform thestudents that teachers know them well. He alsofelicitated the teachers with the wall clock. MrsGeeta Rai gave a vote of thanks. The programmeconcluded with the National Anthem.

Students singing on Teacher day

GANESH FESTIVALA Ganesh festival was organized in the School,1-5 September 2011. Sri Subodh Tiwari installedthe Ganesh idol in a decorated shrine at theassembly hall and a traditional pooja followed.Evening Aarti’s were also conducted everydayby staff and College students. A bhaktigeetprogramme was organized by students and theSchool’s music teacher. On the third day, aparent-teacher meeting was held when parentswere specially invited for the morning Aarti.Poojya Swami Chaitanya Swarool, Sri V. K. Jainand Sri Tiwari were also present for the Aarti.

Professor Nelson Dantis felicitating the winners

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RAMADAN EIDA Ramadan Eid celebration was organized forpre-primary and primary students. After a briefintroduction to the festival was given, themeaning of the words Eidul Fitr was told as ‘Eid’word is an Arabic word which means festivityand ‘Fitr’ means breaking of the fast. The staffand students welcomed Mrs Pushpa Mandke andMrs Malti Shanbag on the occasion. A delicacyspecially made on Eid, the ‘sheerkhurma’, wascooked in the School pantry and distributed toall students, teaching and non-teaching staff.Students recited a prayer before the meal in theIslamic style and then everyone enjoyed thesweet. The staff and students thanked Mrs SeemaNaidu and Mrs Anita Bhosale for organizing theevent.

Ozone Day CelebrationOn the occasion of World Ozone Day, 16September 2011, KVN organized a green day forpre-primary students. Students were dressed ingreen, with the pre-primary classes decoratedwith green colour art and craft. The lobby wasdecorated by Tr. Prasanna. The programmestarted just after morning assembly with Tr.Amina (Jr. KG) giving an explanation of theimportance of the green day celebration. She saidgreen is the symbol of prosperity and is closelyrelated to nature. She also added that the idea ofcelebrating is to spread the message of greeneryby stressing the importance of planting more treesand saving Earth from pollution. Based on thispoint, a small skit was presented by pre-primarystudents.

Students Tr. Sandhya (Primary), Tr. Sangeetaand Tr. Rizwana explained the importance ofozone day to the students and the Principalexplained the harmful effects of UV-Radiation,what is ozone layer depletion and how tominimize its depletion. A student from Std VthAswari Dhore read some information aboutozone day. The day’s activity included studentsfrom class V planting some seeds with theintention of spreading greenery to protect theEarth from harmful effects and to increase theoxygen content of the atmosphere.

The final day was celebrated as Teacher’s Dayand a Visarjan procession was organized fromthe School to the place of immersion. After theTeacher’s Day celebration, a procession startedwith the school Lezim band and students givingcries of ‘Ganpati Bappa Morya Pudhchya VarshiLavkar Yaa!!!’ The procession ended with theimmersion of the Ganesh idol. Everyone prayedto the divinity to give prosperity and good healthto all and also to the School. The students andthe staff were thankful to all present for theAarti’s and encouragement, and for the help inmaking the event a memorable one.

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Ayurveda and YogaThe precepts of Ayurveda can be traced backtoAtharvaveda which were formally andcomprehensively dealt in Caraksamhita byCaraka and in Sustrutand VgbhatSanhitas. Themyth says, after having dealt with the ‘Scienceof Life’Caraka assumed the identity of Patanjaliand developed Yogasutras. Hence, it is of littlewonder that these two profound sciences arecomplementary to each other; observing thetenets of Yoga and Ayurveda makes one livelonger, healthy and with vigour. However, it mustbe recognised that medicinal plants which are abackbone of Ayurveda, are in a grave danger ofperishing in these challenging times and the needfor their conservation is both, dire and urgent.

By establishing Herb and Nutrition gardensat Kaivalyadhama we seek to generate awarenessfor the valuable indigenous flora and indicate itsintimate association in the evolution of humanity.We trust this will lead to a better conservationand regeneration effort towards these plants. Wealso hope, this project will raise awareness ofpeople aboutplants of surrounding environs andwill help indicate humanity’s intricate links withNature.

On the surrounding hills (100 acres) ourendevourwill be to develop a live seed bankthrough extensive plantation of indigenous plantsand create sacred groves of endangered speciesof the Western ghats

Need for a Herb GardenAyurvedic medicines are mostly prepared froma wide variety of plants and trees. Today, ascarcity of these raw materials is a sore fact. Ina definite sense there is a very real danger that infuture many of these may become entirelyunavailable. It is in this context that our endevourassumes significance.

Herbal Garden and Medicinal Plants

at Kaivalyadhama- Dr. Nalini Geete

There are several causes leading to the currentstate of affairs. Here are some relevant issues-India’s forest and plant-life resources have beenseriously depleted in recent decades, and thereare no signs that the trends will be reversed.Deforestation, indiscriminate felling of trees,ignorance about plants and herbs, conversion offorests to agricultural land, mono-cropcultivation, excessive use of chemical fertilisers,population growth — all these factors haveresulted in this malaise.

A loss of traditional knowledge, passed downfrom expert to apprentice, is becoming evident.There are thousands of plants in the AyurvedicPharmacopeia. How is the herbalist to identifythese if he/she has not seen them before? Andhow is a teacher to teach about them, if he/she isunable to show samples to the student?

Due to the lure of export, (a case in point,raktachandan/Chandan) even what is availablein in terms of raw material, often tends to besubstandard. And how can medicines preparedfrom substandard, even adulterated, rawmaterials ever be effective in curing ailments?

These issues are complex and appear to beoverwhelming. Our project is a relatively smallbut perhaps significant attempt to address thelarger issue and counter the macro trends.

Traditionally, rural India has been self-sufficient in routine health care. Minor ailmentswere prevented or successfully cured withAyurvedic remedies. The notion of “Grandma’sPouch” of traditional remedies, available in everyhome was a part of the tradition. The possibilityof self-sufficiency in everyday health care needsis oneimportantobjective of our endevour. Otherobjectives are- to nurture and revitalizetraditional health-related practices that have beenbased on the Yogic and Ayurvedic Sciencesthrough subtle understanding of body, mind and

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Mailing Address:Editor : Sri Subodh TiwariAssisted by : Mrs. Malti Shanbag & Dr Stuart RoseKaivalyadhama,S.A.D.T. Gupta Yogic Hospital & Health Care Centre,Swami Kuvalyananda Marg, Lonavla - 410403, India• PHONE : 02114-273039 / 273001• FAX : 02114-277402 / 271983• EMAIL : kdham@vsnl.com• www.kdham.com

info

@ac

etan

pure

.com

the essence of life; insightful responses to anindividual’s needs; relevance of preventivemedication.

Our intention, outlook and visionOur primary objective is to reach Ayurveda tocommon people.The aim of our projectthus is tolay the foundations of a sane and healthy lifestyle through Yoga and Ayurveda. We also seektohelp disseminate information about medicinalplants, their use in the treatment of commonailments, and raise awareness for the need fortheir conservation among school children as wellas neighbouring rural communities.(Swasthavritta).

“We are working with a science that has cometo us as a legacy of knowledge distilled andcollected over centuries, it behoves us to hold itwith care, preserve it, propagate it and in timepass it on to the future generations.

This is a global heritage which needs to beshared and not be limited to a group of selectfew.”

Ayurvedic GardenThe plants have been an integral part of Indianhomes and environment since ancient times.Earlier, most villages were enclosed by sectionsof forests and towns contained a large numberof gardens. This offered Ayurvedic physician aready access to herbs. It should be acknowledgedthat religious significance accorded to many ofthese plants was neither a coincidence nor anaccident but one that helped forge a sensitiverelationship of people with Nature and thussaving these invaluable plants from extinction.

However, over the last century or so in post-industrialized commercial urban societies thissituation has been compromised considerably.Most people have now become ignorant orindifferent to this vast wealth of knowledge.Coupled withincreasing population pressuresandallure of a ready-made ‘pop in pill’ treatmenthave together led to rapid depletion of thistraditional pool of wisdom and consequentlyresulted in a loss of many medicinal plants. Thosewho have some ‘feel’ for the plants or forgardening usually opt for ornamental and exoticspecies. Thus, the need for preserving andpropagating indigenous medicinal flora isindeedboth dire and urgent.

Plants have played a vital role in thesustenance, nourishment and healing ofhumanity. This multidimensional role isincreasingly being overlooked and unwittinglynegated and this has had disastrous consequencesfor ecology, all over the world.

In India we are endowed with a rich andextremely varied flora. This flora was protectedfor millennia through intelligent traditions,customs and other means. However, now adefinite danger exists for this flora to be vanishedfor various reasons mentioned above and alsodue to lack of a concerted effort in this regard.

to be continued .........

Wish YouA Happy Diwali &

Prosperous New Year !