NAMASTE!

Princess Gouri in her eleventh talk with Zuzana Zwiebel explains why the ecology and the protection of the environment is connected with ayurveda.

HOW IS AYURVEDA CONNECTED WITH ENVIRONMENT?

I hope ayurveda will play its rightful role in the field of medicine - it will help to heal and the product themselves will be properly certificated. This aspect should be checked!

For instance, now you have these 'Arishtam' (fermented decoctions), which contain certain percentage of alcohol in it. I do not think it should be in the plastic bottles. I do not like medicines in plastics bottles! I am very anti plastic, because we do not know and we have not lived with plastics long enough to see how the reaction would be to certain elements in the medicines with the plastics. But today you get everything in the plastic packages.

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THE TALK WITH PRINCESS GOURI - 11: Ayurveda & Environment
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THE TALK WITH PRINCESS GOURI - 11: Ayurveda & Environment

THE TRAVANCORE ROYAL FAMILY is the ruling house of the Indian princely state of Travancore. The family lost the ruling rights in 1949 when Travancore Kingdom merged with the Indian Union and their privileges were abolished by a constitutional amendment in 1971. The Travancore Royalty could be also considered descendants of the ancient Cheras, Ay-Venad, Pandya and Chola dynasties, due to consistent intermarriages with these lines over the centuries. The Travancore royals are among the rare breed of royals who follow the matrilineal system.The members of the family are based in Trivandrum, Kerala and are the ones who keep alive the traditions and rituals of their ancient dynasty including the upkeep of the famous Sree Padmanabhaswami Temple. Read more >>

YOU ARE VERY CONSCIOUS ABOUT THE ECOLOGY &  PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT…

This environment is the only one you have. The air you brief, it is polluted, and the earth is polluted. You ruin it - you ruin yourself!  

If you ask me, what is Kerala’s biggest problem today, I would say, it is the garbage! As the Malayali is very conscious of his physical cleanness and wellbeing - he has a bath in the morning, changing cloths in the evening, has a shower in the evening - and he will take his garbage and put it on the street. So that is very, very serious problem as I see it and most of these garbage is not biodegradable.

ARE YOU COOPERATING ON ANY ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECTS?

We are trying… Some local organizations are doing very good job. There is very dedicated and committed group of women, not highly educated, but from very influential backgrounds. I think they are doing extremely good job. The environmental education has to start at school, children has to be approached in early age.  If you say to 5 years old kid, do not through candy wrapper on the streets, he will remember!

What is good and save for worms to eat is safe for you. They know better than us what to eat.

WHAT ABOUT ORGANIC FARMING?  

We have started the organic farming on the other side of the palace. The ground has already been tilde, but rains are not really sufficient this time to do organic farming. It can be done even if you live in the flat or apartment, you can have a little box with herbs and spices such as chilies or coriander.   

You may also notice one thing - many of the organic vegetables do not look very beautiful. The snake gourd does not come straight and long, it is little curly. The brinjal (aubergine) has little worms in it. That’s another thing, my grandmother used to say: “What is good and save for worms to eat is safe for you. They know better than us what to eat.”

Someone told me very interesting thought, that Kerala people want everything beautiful. They want everything to look good. So we specially cultivate vegetables in the area of Tamil Nadu, suing lots of pesticides, vegetables for marketing in Kerala. As long as it looks good, Malayali will buy it. I do not know how much truth there is in it, but it is sad, if it is true.

THIS PROBLEM IS CONNECTED ALSO WITH ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION...

The average Malayali is very well educated, have an enquiring mind, even with the advent of television, you will still find them reading the newspaper and many of them read multiple newspapers to get the different viewpoints. In that way, I think we are step ahead, but we should put this knowledge and this information to good use.


Read next chapter of THE TALK WITH PRINCESS GOURI Nº12

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The Travancore Kingdom Royalty are considered the descendants of the Gods and ancient Cheras, Venad, Pandya and Chola dynasties, who brought the philosophy of ayurveda to the world.

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