NAMASTE!

DR.FIROZ VARUN, AYURVEDA DOCTOR AT KERALEEYA AYURVEDA NILAYAM, IN HIS FIRST TALK WITH ZUZANA ZWIEBEL, EXPLAINS WHY AYURVEDA IS A LIFESTYLE.

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According to me, ayurveda is  a lifestyle. 

I don’t look at it as a treatment. It’s a treatment for the body through lifestyle. It includes all forms of medical treatments, yoga, meditation and many other practices, because whatever we are doing in life, everything is related to our bodies. Whatever can positively influence our body, mind and soul, it is ayurveda.

DR.BINOD SYDNEY
Ayurveda Doctor of Keraleeya Ayurveda Nilayam
WHAT WAS YOUR JOURNEY TO AYURVEDA? 

In our family is quite a long tradition of western medicine doctors, but I am the first ayurveda doctor. It was my curiosity, which brought me on that journey. In 1995 I finnished my studies and since then I am practicing ayurveda.  

WHAT DOES AYURVEDA MEAN FOR YOU? 

According to me, ayurveda is  a lifestyle. I don’t look at it as a treatment. It’s a treatment for the body through lifestyle. It includes all forms of medical treatments, yoga, meditation and many other practices, because whatever we are doing in life, everything is related to our bodies. Whatever can positively influence our body, mind and soul, it is ayurveda.

RECENTLY YOU HAVE CO-ESTABLISHED RESORT KERALEEYA AYURVEDA NILAYAM. IS THIS PHILOSOPHY PART OF IT?

Yes, me and two of my friends, Pradeep Narayanan and Madan Gopal, who have long term experiences in health and ayurveda tourism, we have decided to open a small ayurveda resort in the tiny picturesque coastal village of Puthenthope (16 km from Kerala's capital city Trivandrum).

We believe in power of holistic and authentic traditional ayurveda. Resort have only 18 rooms, so we have space and time to design all the treatment programmes individually for each client. Every programme includes daily consultation with our doctors, ayurveda massages and treatments, morning yoga session and individually prepared ayurvedic vegetarian diet. Our main focus is on psychosomatic connections between body, mind and soul. Part of therapy involves actual treatment, while the other consists of lifestyle changes.

NOTE: More about Keraleeya Ayurveda Nilayam >>

IN KERALA AYURVEDA IS A LIFESTYLE. BUT CAN IT BE PRACTISED ALSO IN OTHER COUNTRIES? 

Yes, ayurveda is inspired by lifestyle in Kerala, but our society has changed last years. My grandfather used to oil-massaged himself everyday evening. He had dinner at 6:30 pm. He went to bed around 9:00 pm and woke up at 4:30 am. That was a lifestyle 30-40 years ago. Nowadays people in Kerala doesn’t use much oil for bath, nobody has time for it. We have a different lifestyle influenced by different organisation of the society. The good sign is, that people are trying to come back to their roots and practise healthy lifestyle. It is almost impossible to return completely to all ayurveda practises, but we should try as much as possible.

There are lots of factors, which are influencing lifestyle. The environment, climatic conditions, food and habits are different in Europe. You should not think, "Whatever I did in Kerala I should do in my country." Ayurveda tells us, that you should do whatever is good for your body. There should be different approach for each country considering its natural resources, but also social and cultural habits. Each person is different, but also a country. 

THESE CHANGES REFLECT INTO THE AYURVEDA EDUCATION SYSTEM. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VAIDYAS AND DOCTORS?

In the past the children studied in the gurukulas. It was the teaching system which prevailed in India. At the age of 5 they were sent to the physician's house. They lived there, studied there and came up. They became Vaidyas when they were able to heal not when they passed the exam with certification. Vaidyas used to have a better knowledge than us because they have learnt about the herbs from very young age. It's the grasping time. You grasp lot of things during that period of time. As a doctors, we come to the medical field at the age of 18 or 20, that time the grasping power decreases. 

One of the biggest problems in Kerala is that a lot of people live in the cities. We are not so much familiar with the trees, plants and herbs anymore. For example, I have seen coconut, mango or jackfruit trees during my young ages, but till the age of 18, I was not familiar with the herbs. In the past, from the age of five, children were taught, this herb is for this thing, that herb is for that thing. They had more knowledge than us.

I've heard that in Kottayam, there were physicians, who could tell a patient is coming from certain area only by seeing the candlelight movement. They could predict snakebites and also had specific knowledge about poisons and toxins, which they could remove with positioning stones on certain parts of the body. These knowledge is vanishing. 

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AYURVEDA DOCTOR IN KERALEEYA AYURVEDA NILAYAM

DR.BINOD SYDNEY

The first thing I want from patients is to smile and to be friendly with me. When I am friendly, they would be friendly. When we are friendly only then energy would be passing and the treatment works.

FOUNDER & SPIRIT OF AYURVEDA TRAILS

ZUZANA ZWIEBEL

Founder & Director of Ayurveda Trails, healing collection of (extra)ordinary people and their stories, whose experiences are transferred into various trails shared by travelers.

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