How did I come to take up Ayurveda?
By Ved Kovid, Durgadas.
(c) Ved Kovid, Durgadas. All Rights reserved.
Many people ask me, "how did you get started in Ayurveda?". The answer is, I always have been interested and practising the science to some degree.
I guess it is now about time to explain more about my association with Ayurveda and also other sciences.
At about 15 / 16 years of age, I began to read various books on Ayurveda to deepen my knowledge and began practising various techniques, before later undergoing formal training in the science itself. My Mother, Shobha, was herself a great wealth of herbal knowledge and even left behind several manuscripts dealing with the various uses of herbs and compounds.
As a child, since we lived on a farm, fresh ghee was always available and we had a large Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) plant that I became fixated with. At about 12 years old, I can remember using the leaves and meditating on their qualities - my Mother always telling me of their sacred nature and also healing effects.Whatever illnesses I suffered as a child, there were always Ayurvedic remedies first and foremost which cured me and also my father. Various medicated oils, ghees, pastes etc. were common as also others - so it is no wonder then, that Ayurveda took my interest when I grew up!As a child, she had suffered from Asthma, which would not go away. Eventually, her mother (my Nani - maternal grandmother) took her to a local Jyotishi (astrologer) at a local temple and told her certain mantras and rituals to perform. As a result, she was cured of this illness, which never resurfaced.
Of course, her interest in the occult worlds was also great. She had mastered the siddhi or mystic power of the Gayatri mantra on various levels and was an adept in the science of Yoga also, especially of higher realms. Much of what I later taught relative to the mind and lokas comes from her interest and also accessing these powers at an inner level. As a great devotee of Sarasvati Devi, she was also able to bring down her power and blessings in creative manner, as wisdom and accessing the occult worlds also. She had several visions of Dakinis (attendant forms of the Great Goddess) as well as Dhumavati, Lord Indra and others.
There is also a great story told about her birth and the importance of it. Before she was born, my Nani had several miscarriages and hence was unable to get a child. The family also went through a period of financial hardship and difficulties. Finally and miraculously, my Mother was born without any issues and financial problems also solved themselves automatically and hence she was named Shobha after the goddess Lakshmi, my Nani seeing her as an incarnation of her. Nani herself was devoted to Lakshmi in the form of Radharani as well as the forms Gayatri-Sarasvati. My Mother had a brilliant memory of the Vedas, Upanishads, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Yoga, Tantra etc. also as well as Sanskrit (her father being a Sanskrit scholar). I was always rebuke for using Hindusthani words when growing up as opposed to Shudh-Hindi, which contained Sanskritic terms and hence, as the name means, is "pure".
There were also some strange events surrounding my birth also. I have many Naga or serpent combinations in my chart, which my Vedic teacher has always said related to Yogis from past lives, especially Shaivites and Tantrics. Like my Mother, before I was born, there were several miscarriages also and eventually I was born. When pregnant with me however, my Mother describes several times a strong burning sensation of heat arising from the base of her spine up to her neck, she said, relating to the Kundalini. As my parents were busy in their shop during the day as a baby, my Nani would take care of me and I still remember this, while even a few months old! I was only a few years old when my Nani died however and remember seeing her vision before she departed, which is still clear to this day. My Mother was therefore surprised when she tried to break to news to me about her mother's demise and I replied "I know", relating my vision of her earlier than day.
At various times it is described some strange events occurred also. While I was tempted to marry, my family eventually gave in and I had my Mother's blessings to go on the Yogic and Ayurvedic path, which was encouraged.
Naturally however, whatever we do is due to our past sanskaras or tendencies / traits. I was also fortunate to come into contact with Pandit Vamadeva Shastri in my teens when I began many severe Tantric-sadhanas also, who encouraged me to further my research of the Vedas, Yoga, Ayurveda, Jyotisha and Indian History in general. I completed many articles and works by the age of 17, of which many appear in books today, in modified forms. Many insights came as a result of sadhana or spiritual practice, as they also have done in Ayurveda. At about 18, I began the process of writing new Upanishads that better reflected the Vedic deities, of which I shall eventually publish and many of which are composed from verses from the Rig Veda itself. The Vedas contain all knowledge, said the Guru of our family, Maharishi Dayananda Sarasvati, whose works I have also studied closely as well to bring our other insights, notably in my book Agni Rahasya: Secrets of the Celestial Fire in Yoga and Ayurveda.
At about this same time, between the ages of 15 and 17, I had a strange vision of Lord Vishnu holding a conch-shell, discus and pot and arising out of the waters. This vision warned me not to venture too close to the Vamamarga, the Left-hand Tantric path. I had not seen this form of Vishnu before, nor had I read about him or knew much about Vishnu at all! I later realised this was the same form as Bhagwan Dhanvantari, the founder and Patron Deity of Ayurveda himself, that I had seen. His darshan or spiritual glance remains with me to this day and his blessings have also been why I have been able to express my insights in Ayurveda alone also.
To answer the question about Ayurveda then, it is the same as Yoga. There is probably no time in my life when I never actually embraced it and it was never around me, as it always was and shaped me strongly to some degree, just as the other Vedic sciences have been and with the strong Vedic ties in my family, have also reinforced these as well.
