The ancient Hindu scriptures say that, once upon a time when the Good was getting crushed in the arms of the evil, there was an attempt by the Supreme Energy to make ‘Good’, Immortal, in the strands of universe, to be passed down the lineage of humanity. In that attempt, the ocean of cosmic milk was churned to bring out the divine nectar, after crossing many a hurdles. Finally, Dhanvantari, the Lord of Immortal Science of Life, ‘Ayurveda’, evolves from the ocean carrying a pot of Nectar, serving the gods and demi-gods, all the eternal good that had been stored in the heavens from ageing universe, to reinstall the values and morals of human life, and made them all immortal, so that, there is always Light that guides the human mind, that has a darker side and keep the flame of Soul alive. Once the soul goes back to its source, it becomes another star of the cosmic mat, providing light and acumen to many more galaxies of the universe.
The History repeated itself in the spiritual city, Vancouver, the melting pot of cultures of the world, when the rest of the world is suffocating in the web of wars and violence, and discrimination of races, and genocides. Supreme Energy had realized again that the time has come to send the God of Life, back to the humanity, this time not just with the jug of nectar, but allowing him to stay on the planet for the time infinite, with a mission of living 'Ayurveda', the Harmonic Science of Living, Lord Dhanvantari walked on Earth again, in form of Dr.Vasant Lad, in the midst of souls yearning for enlightenment, and churned the ocean of wisdom to pour the "Knowledge of Life".
The season of Spring' also called the 'Basant or Vasant', in India, bringing the winds of change, life emerging from the eternal soil, sprouting the seeds of dormancy with warmth of the Sun peeping out of the clouds, the cherry blossoms of the Pacific northwest, that have taken the showers of snow and storms of winters, with the bare bodies of dry branches, impatient to wait for the tenderness in the form of leaves of knowledge to form, letting the petals of freedom, colors of vibrant energy, fragrance of flowers blooming, and joining the procreation parade are the pregnant bulbs of Tulips, waiting for an opportunity to deliver the new life, displaying the bulbs of VIBGYOR with enlightenment.
In the holy scripture, The Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna says ‘Among all the seasons, the invigorating Vasant season (spring) is My manifestation’. In the effervescence of the same light and elation, the dawn of "soulful spring",
Dr. Vasant Lad, an icon of new life, bringing freshness, inspiration and hope to the meditating souls of the ocean city.
Dr.Lad, the incarnation of the Mahatma, Gandhi himself, with the gait and walk that inspired the millions of Indians, wearing the spectacles of delicate glasses for more clarity in vision of universal brotherhood, that hold them with the frame of iron and steel will, providing the strength to hold the cranium, clear of the weeds of dark or grey hair, making way for the spiritual energy entering into the Crown chakra, "The Sahasra", the thousand petal lotus temple of Divine form, enclosing the enlightened mind, to set an example for the humanity, with the importance of living in harmony with nature, in the language of silence and self reflection.
Tall, slender, divine, beautiful inside and out, glorifying the importance of Ahimsa, Non-violence, peace and self realization as the fundamental principles that have been weaved into the ancient script, "Ayurveda", carrying the multitudes of Vedic philosophy, breathing in and out as "SOHAM", and spreading the scent of divine creation, eliminating the darkness surrounding the minds and the notion that there is God inside everyone, but reemphasizing everyone that "You are God, Don’t search for Him inside" and pointing us to see everything and everyone as GOD himself and composing a divine dance in the compassionate singing, words and recitation of poems and slokas from the saints and sages that have walked the Indian Sub continent for centuries, going as back as 5000 BC.
Ayurveda is a philosophy and science that is very easily put to practice, adaptable into any common household, nicely packaged to care for the elements of Life: Body, Mind and Soul. It is not just the medical science as many might be wrongly positioning, but is a multidimensional model, that encompasses all sides of human well being and defines “Perfect Health” as something that is naturally Inherent to Life that is Self-sufficient, Self-Happy, and Self-fulfilled, also called "Svastha", in Sanskrit. This definition of a Perfect Health is also the only one in the world that is complete in every form and is recognized by World Health Organization (WHO).
Dr. Lad begins the time travel by laying the foundation on which the human life is built, the Soul or the Spirit, that transcends beyond this material world, but covered by the layers of Prana (sensations), Manas (Feelings), Budhi(Intellect), Smrithi (Memory), Chitha (Images), Ahamkara (Ego). So, our journey at every moment consists of, perception of the objects and situations with sensations, converting them to feelings, creating our Intellect and storing them in Memory in form of the Images, that over a period of time accumulate into "Ego" which becomes the cloud covering our Inner Soul. This is what ancient Hindu wisdom calls Web of 'Maya' that creates an illusion and blinds the real perception of truth. The true nature of inner soul is "Sat Chith Ananda", Pure Bliss. He explains how we are made up of trillions of cells, and every single cell is in a state of awareness, and has its own mind, thinking and intelligence. These cells in our body are constantly communicating with each other in form of Prana. This flow of prana is what we call "LIFE".
He also very subtly delves into the concept of Ego and convinces that Ego is an essential element of this creation because of which the Universe sustains and that even a cell has an Ego of its own, that helps it to propagate and exist. He explains how "I" is very important and essential feeling, that helps humanity in the self and spiritual realization. Every thing in this world has "I" within.
But he also with a beautiful analogy ( trying to erase the lines of the marker pen ink from the white board, that sticks to his finger and does not want to leave his finger tip), explains how our own "I" which is pure and simple Ego, can become very sticky and cause attachment to the surroundings and objects. He provides a solution to carefully tread the path of our own existence, using the total awareness in our cells, and cosmic intelligence that creation had bestowed on us, as tools to cross the hurdles of Desires, Anger, Miser ness, Attachment, Pride, and Jealousy.
He ultimately requests us to experience the truth "I am Pure bliss, awareness and existence", not the feelings, sensations, thoughts and actions.
Also he brings to every one's attention to a very beautiful fact, with a great sense of humor that "Our birth is our choice and that we choose our parents and enter into the divine womb of a mother that we feel comfortable with" and we are all what our thoughts are and that we transform them into actions, and these actions carry our souls in the boat of life crossing us the worldly matters to join the source after the journey.
Dr. Lad then dives into the science of Ayurveda and details the different character traits of life, that evolve from the Ego, The three ‘Gunas’ as mentioned in Vedic literature, 'Satwa' associated with Clarity, 'Rajas' with Movement and 'Tamas' with Inertia. These form the basis of our personality at Mental/Emotional levels and physical constitution at physiological level.
Everything in this universe is made up of five elements: Fire, Air, Ether, Water and Earth. At a cellular level, he gives an example of how a simple cell is made up of five elements, the cell membrane formed from Earth element, spaces inside the cell representing Ether element, Air pockets of cell the Air element, Nucleic acids forming the Fire element and finally the cytoplasm of cell made with Water.
From this evolves the backbone of the Ayurveda, the three properties of the forces that these 5 elements create within a human body. Vatha - Energy of movement, Pitha - Energy of Digestion and Kapha - Energy of Lubrication. He explains how life is made up of these and each individual is predominantly characterized by one of these dominant than the rest.
The imbalance or disease caused in the body is because of the change in any of these energies caused by many factors from Diet, seasonal changes, Environment, Jobs, Goals, Relationships, Ageing, Nature of mind and emotional changes.
But he also clarifies that Body and Mind can be kept in the state of balance by four goals as defined in Vedic system, Dharma - Righteous Duty, Artha - Wealth, Kama -Fulfillment of desire and finally the Moksha - Enlightenment or Self Realization.
Dr. Vasant with his divine and melodious voice sings the glory of God from the famous Bhaja Govindam of Adi Sankaracharya, " punarapi jananam punarapi maranampunarapi jananii jathare shayanam" meaning that "we all take so many births and deaths and our actions (Karmic deeds) create our destiny and it is very hard to liberate from this ocean of samsara or family". Even though we all set our goals to something materialistic, our ultimate vision should always be to attain Liberation and that is possible only through understanding our selves, following certain righteous ways of life, in harmony with nature and aligning our body, mind and soul to the dynamics of energies defined in Ayurveda.
He warns that our faulty life styles, creates leakages in our own bodies and minds, the impurities (doshas) start accumulating in our life bucket and carry the deposits to the next birth manifesting them in form of psychosomatic disorders.
Whatever is manifesting in this birth is simply a reflection of the accumulation of actions from the previous life. Disease is caused by our own ignorance most of the times. So he says, that Ayurveda plays a major role in not just treating a disease, but defining and setting standards for body and mind to transcend the faulty life styles and walk towards the Pure bliss and Joy.
He creates a beautiful bridge between the science, philosophy and religion, by declaring that "Science is an Experimentation of Truth", and "Philosophy is the Love of Truth" and finally "Spirituality or Religion is Experiencing of the Love". Ayurveda is a communion of Science, Philosophy and Religion.
He also regrets that, the moment Religion/Spirituality falls into the hands of fanatics, the experience of love is crushed and exploitation of human mind begins in the name of God.
The turmoil that exists in humanity is the outcome of the Brains' perception of the information and its responses. To streamline the response in an appropriate way, Dr.Lad suggests that we all should learn to "Watch the Watcher". He says the moment we become the watcher, we start witnessing everything and we just become the witness to our own existence. The witnessing is, Silence and this gives birth to "Unconditional Love" which is the only solution for ending human turmoil and pain. In the process of watching the watcher, one experiences Compassion and Love, because at this point we enter the Heart. Then he suggests that we move down slowly to the Belly button. It is the center of connection to our source of life, the Mother, from which we are created. This point is our existence through which we breathe life. He simplifies that, Life is a Journey from Brain to Heart to Belly Button which is our ultimate beginning and end.
Dr.Vasant Lad also digs into the details of the treatment management, also called "Chikitsa" which encompasses different subtle approaches in diagnosing, managing and treating any kind of dysfunction in body or mind. In this regard, he explains how powerful Ayurvedic system is, in reading thousands of different pulses (72,000) in diagnosing any malfunction. He also enlightens the participants about an experience he had in a conference, where, a scientist from NASA had challenged the pulse diagnosis and Dr.Vasant was asked to check the pulse and explain any problems that exist.
Dr.Vasant had to begin his meditative diagnoses and found that the man was having Prostate cancer. He also read other vitals like body temperature, blood sugar and cholesterol. The scientist was shocked to see the truth.
Dr.Lad uses this personal experience among many more, to very humbly confess, that he is not here to take pride in his diagnosis, but to share the magic of the creation and Ayurveda’s insight into it and what it has to offer the humanity.
He also had an opportunity to take a number of cases from the audience and instantly provide them with diagnosis, treatment and management of life style for them.
He very rightly chose half a day to explain the importance of Pranayama, The regulation and control of Life force i.e. Prana. Prana forms a basic element of our existence and we ignore that completely in our day to day life. He explains that regulating the breath can not only cure all kind of chronic and malignant problems, but also form a foundation of our life to be complete, fulfilling and beautiful. The auditorium reverberated with joy and happiness as all the 100 or more participants joined the Breathing Divinity, and the sounds of "SoHam", mellowing cosmic music, 'Om', revealing the God. He teaches the Mantra or secret of simple, joyous life, the song of 'Soham', the sound of inhalation and exhalation.
"SO" representing God and "HAM" the Ego. Every breath takes the God inside and throws Ego out. He made aware of the most important part of human existence, The Breath.
His divine words of wisdom transforming into a soulful music many a times, accompanied by accomplished musician Sunita Bapooji, another woman of divine unconditional love, who is an exponent in Indian classical music, and heals and cleans the impurities of humanity with her Yogic and ancient ways of living, loving and Caring. At many a times the auditorium would vibrate with contrasts of silence and music both originating from the twin souls of Vasant and Sunita.
The program would not have been possible without coordination, commitment and love of some elite in Vancouver like Jayashree, Neelam, Oma, Gayathri, including every single soul in the spiritual congregation.
The moment finally arrived in the form of, he taking a breath away, but leaving the Silence of Joy, and Souls filled with tranquility and ecstasy. His movement, like a breeze in the spring, carrying the fragrance of perfumed soul, and dropping a few tender petals of heart for the humanity to softly walk on them and feel the beauty of divine creation.
It took a spring like Vasant, to remind that the Ayurveda, science of self healing, is Us, the nectar of life flowing within, in form of Prana and it just takes a breath to find the treasure.
