Connection between Ayurveda & Yoga-Dr Naveen Kandwal’s interview with Sarah

INTRODUCTION

Sarah: Hi! I am Sarah. Today, I am with Dr Naveen to talk about connection between Ayurveda & Yoga.

Dr Naveen: Namaste everyone! my name is Dr Naveen Kandwal. I’m an Ayurveda doctor. I’ve been practicing Ayurveda & Yoga for past 11 years. Ayurveda is an ancient Vedic system of holistic medicine, which talks about attaining positive health for body & mind. Ayurveda uses the principles of herbal medicines, purification procedures, certain preventive measures and various lifestyle management changes so that we can cultivate good habits and be overall healthy.

Sarah: You put a lot of emphasis on  term ‘holistic’. Could you please explain little bit more about it?

Dr Naveen: The term ‘holistic’ means that whenever we talk about our body we talk about the whole of the body not just the physical aspect of the body . Whole body is a healthy connection of body, mind and soul together. So, whenever we are talking about the health or disease, we consider whole of the body. So, that’s our concept of holistic health.

CONNECTION BETWEEN AYURVEDA & YOGA

Sarah: Ok. Then, how does Ayurveda relate to yoga?

Dr Naveen: See, Yoga and Ayurveda are sometimes felt like interconnected and some people might get confused about these two ancient philosophies. Because they think that they both came out of ancient holy scriptures; and they both have their principles mentioned in the Vedas and Upanishads. And they think that both have the same purpose of achieving health, longevity and rejuvenation. So, what’s the real connection or what’s the difference between them.

I would like to clarify that from philosophical perspective, these two are quite same. But on practical grounds, there are many differences. Yoga is about self realization and self liberation. It is a Vedic way of life. And to achieve this goal, Yoga employees a multifold sadhana also known as 8 limbs of Yoga namely- yam, niyam, asan, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyaan and samadhi. The ultimate objective of yoga is to reach to the stage of ‘samadhi’; where we are no longer driven by our thoughts  or our feelings. And we are ultimately connected to the supreme consciousness or the supreme soul. To fulfil this purpose of yoga, we need to adopt the lifestyle of all these 8 limbs of yoga. We need to have, first of all, a healthy body because a healthy body is like a tool, medium or it’s like a vehicle which we will utilise to reach to the destination of samadhi. So, this healthy body we can have through Ayurveda, by applying Ayurveda principles. Thats why it’s very important to adopt Ayurveda in your life if you want to adopt Yoga. So, in this manner these are connected, totally connected.

SIMILARITIES & DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AYURVEDA & YOGA

Sarah: So, there are many similarities & differences between Ayurveda & Yoga. Could you please elaborate this beautiful connection between Ayurveda & Yoga?

Dr. Naveen:  See, there is one more point. Like we need to adopt Ayurveda to follow Yoga. In similar manner, we need Yoga if we want to apply the principles of Ayurveda. For example, we want to be healthy, we want to promote our health and we want to do rejuvenation, longevity. For that we need to be aware of our body; and that awareness comes from Yoga, when we do asan, pranayam, meditation then we become aware of our body. Whatever is going wrong in our body, we get alert signals from our body and we can perceive those signals only when we are aware about our body. We need to have the higher level of consciousness so then we can apply Ayurveda principles. So, in order to succeed in the spiritual path we need to integrate these two philosophies together along with the modern science which is many people think the only science in the universe. But I would say there are other sciences which we need to integrate to attain health and spiritual upliftment of all the mankind.

Sarah: I come from a western background where there is lot of emphasis on science, specially evidence based science. Do you think there is a way to connect these two different worlds? 

Dr Naveen:  Science talks about facts which are perceived through our five senses. According to science, anything which we can feel with using your five senses that is fact otherwise anything else is fake or it is unscientific. But I would say there are many things actually which are beyond this definition of science; which we accept in our day to day life.  Like, we feel connected with our family and our friends, we feel emotions love, hatred; and sometimes we feel positive energy or negative energy. All such things are sometimes beyond the definition of classical science but this is way of living for all the human kind. So, if we want to live happily we have to understand that there is a science beyond science and in fact many researchers are putting  emphasis on this science beyond science and they call it ‘episcience’ and that is actually integration of modern science and ancient philosophy. This is the need of the hour, according  to me, if we really want to have overall upliftment of all the humanity.

HOW TO START FOLLOWING AYURVEDA & YOGA?

Sarah: Ok. If I say, I am a westerner and I have decided to open my mind to embrace Ayurveda & Yoga in my day to day life. How can I start in practical terms?

Dr Naveen:  In very basic practical terms you can start by feeling  your breathing, the way you breathe. This is very basic exercise if you want to just step into the philosophy of Ayurveda & Yoga. First just close your eyes, calm your mind and feel your breath what is coming in what is going out. Then you will feel that there is certain connection between your inner body and outer body and that connection is the fundamental basis of Ayurveda & Yoga. Then you can further understand the principles of Ayurveda & Yoga.

Sarah: Alright. Then what would be the next step?

Dr Naveen: Next step is then how you control your breathing, your prana movement in your body and it is a saying in Yoga that if you can control your breath, you can control everything in your life because everything depends how you breathe.

IS AYURVEDA VERY STRICT ABOUT SPECIFIC DIET?

Sarah: I have heard a lot about Ayurvedic diets. Is Ayurveda very strict about specific diet plan which we have to follow?

Dr Naveen: Actually, it’s a very good question. People think that Ayurveda is all about non tasty food or boiled food and we’ll be put on fasting or starvation. But it is not like that. Ayurveda is very individualised science. It talks about particular individual; what is the need of that individual and also it depends on which geographical area you are in. If you are in Germany, France, or you are in America, we will not suggest you to have chapati or ‘khichdi’ whole day. Rather, we will suggest you something which is good for you and which is totally available in that particular geographical area for you and also that will be tasty for you and it will suit your ‘dosha’, your body type, your mind and your ‘body constitution’ and then you will feel healthy physically as well as mentally.

CONCLUSION

Sarah: Ok. So, to conclude what you just said is that in order to be on the Yogic path and to fully experience that and embrace that, you need a healthy life as prescribed by the Ayurveda science. And in order to have an healthy Ayurvedic life you also need to marry that with the practices of Yoga. So, these two go in union. 

Dr Naveen: Right.

Sarah: And I guess Ayurveda like, in essence, is all about the holistic body. Its understanding  that in order to function as a human being, we need to fully embrace our body, mind and soul as one.  And then understand that one can’t function without the other. So, if my mind is in imbalance, my body will also be out of balance.

Dr Naveen: Absolutely.

Sarah: In order to  adopt the Ayurvedic lifestyle, there are some basic fundamental rules like there is very individualistic aspect of it that is tailored to my specific needs and where I am, where I am in my life and also where I am geographically.

Dr Naveen: Yes.

Sarah: Ok, thank you so much for explaining all this. I know that this is a very large topic and we have only just touched the surface but it was quite useful. Thank you very much.

Dr Naveen: Thank you. Namaste !

Sarah: Namaste !

To watch complete interview, click on link👇
https://youtu.be/v9mJYdPE-ZI

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