Dr. Ramkumar And Vaidyagrama's Authentic Ayurveda
ServiceSpace
--Richard Whittaker
4 minute read
Feb 10, 2016

 

One of the most rewarding experiences I had in India while I was at Vaidyagrama was getting to interview one of its founding visionaries, Dr. Ramkumar. I’ve just been going over that interview and here are a few excerpts…

I asked him was the British influence in India had been very destructive for Ayurveda. He said the biggest changes have taken place in the cities, but that “still today 70% to 80% of India uses some form of traditional medicine, that is lay medicine, herbal medicine, grandma's medicine, folk medicine, Ayurveda, homeopathy. All these systems together take care of 70% to 80% of India's health needs currently.” And that “in the far-flung regions, 80% of deliveries in India are conducted by traditional birth attendants. 80% to 85% of snakebites in India are treated by traditional healers. 80% of fractures in India are taken care of by traditional bone-setters. So while Western medicine had an influence, it’s not as big an influence as people think it to be.”

Dr. Ramkumar’s goal was to set up a place for the practice of authentic Ayurveda. He says, “authentic” meant that the treatment should be from the texts, the medicines should be from the text. This is what we ultimately thought.” But then, “As we began to create the space, we realized that being authentic also meant that we should be as natural as possible. We should be growing our own foods organically. We should be growing our own herbs so that we can have chemical-free herbs. We should be making our own medicines so we are assured of the quality of the medicines. We should avoid using plastic. So everything in that whole eco movement would be a part of authentic Ayurveda. And as the process unfolded, we began realizing that we had to go deeper and deeper into being as natural, as holistic, as simple as possible. And the city was not the best place to do it, at least to begin with. That’s how we finally landed in this space.” He talks about how he was inspired by reading Fukuoaka’s book on do-nothing farming and how they have followed that.

He talks about encountering the caste problem in the nearby village. “We discovered that only one section of the village was being invited because if they invited the entire village, the higher caste will boycott it. So we said, no. Even if only one person takes part in the community kitchen, it will be fine. We will not avoid inviting anybody because of fear. Fear will not be a base for our work. We said, “Invite everybody!”

They kept telling us, ‘Be careful!’ There will be a lot of issues.’

We said, ‘It doesn't matter.’ And for one of those community kitchens, we told the village head man that the Collector from Coimbatore was going there for the inauguration of the kitchen. So everybody came to the inauguration, the entire upper caste and the lower caste was there, too.”

(There’s so much in this interview and later on, the whole interview will be posted.)

Just two more pieces… Dr. Ramkumar talks about two young Ayurveda doctors who have joined Vaidyagrama for their first job: And over the last four or five years, they have become truly Vaidyagrama people. They have imbibed the spirit of Vaidyagrama because they are not contaminated. I tell them that sometimes, “You are better than us.” Because we also come with fixed ideas and this can be detrimental. They are fresh in this space, and that is why you can see them doing everything with no ego. Now, that was the other big thing that we discovered in the word authentic. That if we are going to do authentic Ayurveda, then ego has to be far away from us. We don't want to talk about I, me, my and myself. Then we think we are the doers when we are the instrument of doing. There's a big difference between the two.”

And there is a fundamental effort to honor every level of work in the community—“You will find that here the doctors are doing a lot more than clinical practice. On Thursday nights, the doctors are serving food to the patients. Dr. Omprakash is doing cooking and bringing water. We also share with those who work in the garden, or with cultivation. We told them that today we can only use our hands to eat food, and that their hands have so much of magic in them that they can actually create food. So slowly, slowly, people are beginning to understand. I believe we should be doing cultivation—two vegetables for self-use and three vegetables for other’s use, something like that, you know? Farming has to become the core fulcrum of the community.”

I have to say, this all made a big and very positive impression on me.

 

Posted by Richard Whittaker on Feb 10, 2016


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