MENTAL WELL-BEING AND AYURVEDA

ACHARYA SHREE VARMA, also known as DR. KRISHNA VARMA, comes from a lineage of Ayurvedic doctors who have been practicing for over four centuries. With a vision to share this wisdom with the wider humanity, he founded the Shree Varma Organization in 2001. Here, he is interviewed by MARION MARCEAU from the Heartfulness Yoga Academy about the Ayurvedic approach to mental health.

- MARION MARCEAU

Q: Hello, Dr. Shree Varma, welcome. Could you tell us a little bit about your background?

Happy to meet you, Marion. I'm from the Durango tradition and my birth village is on the border of Tamil Nadu and the Kerala Kanyakumari district in South India. The family has treated chronic ailments with Ayurveda, yoga and varma for nine generations, but I'm the first university graduate in Ayurvedic medicine in the family. My father believed that while Ayurveda has been proven over centuries, he wanted me to be qualified. So he sent me to Chennai to Dr. MGR Medical University to do a Bachelor of Ayurveda Medicine and Surgery. From that degree, I have the title "acharya."

We teach preventive healthcare for a disease-free life, maintaining positive health in a healthy person, and curing diseases with the help of Ayurveda, yoga, and varma.

Q: What is the relationship between yoga and Ayurveda?

Ayurveda is not a medical science alone. We say it is shraddhayu - if someone has the desire to live for 100 years without disease, Ayurveda will teach that philosophy and the associated principles, and it has three different dimensions.

The first is prevention: the guidelines of dinacharya, the daily regimen, and ritucharya, the seasonal regimen. It speaks about the principles of life, how to start the day, how to design your day. It prescribes a healthy life. You get up one and a half hours before sunrise and start your day with breathing practices. And it speaks about meditation, and physical exercise. So the first priority in the morning is yoga to ensure a healthy life of 100 years.

What is the definition of health in Ayurveda? A blissful state of body, mind, and soul.