Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre - Practical Ayurveda: Find Out Who You Are and What You Need to Bring Balance to Your Life

Yoga and Ayurveda are sister sciences. Together, they show a way to live naturally and achieve radiant physical, mental, and spiritual health.

As one of the most important spiritual and healing traditions of the world, Ayurvedic and yogic scriptures describe the ethics and daily, monthly, and yearly practices of a healthy life; this covers topics including diet and exercise, as well as the use of the breath, senses, emotions, and mind. Their approach to meditation provides a step-by-step guide to complete peace and harmonya balance of the mind and the heartopening up the deeper potential of human awareness.

Practical Ayurveda follows the vision of Swami Sivananda (18871963), a renowned Indian yoga master and medical doctor who wrote over 200 books on all aspects of yoga, as well as on Ayurveda.

It was Swami Vishnudevananda (19271993), an eminent disciple of Swami Sivananda, who, sent by his Master, brought the practice of yoga from India to the Western world. After establishing Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers in the Americas and Europe, Swami Vishnudevananda founded the Sivananda Yoga Dhanwantari Ashram, a unique training center in Kerala, South India, where the practice of yoga and Ayurveda are combined.

The daily Ayurvedic routine allows you to gradually develop a healthier lifestyle. The food choices presented in this book work for both the individual persons constitution, and the practice of yoga and meditation.

While Ayurveda increases your prana (life energy) through diet, herbs, oils, and minerals, the practice of yoga and meditation teaches you to stabilize that prana in a more direct waythrough postures, breathing exercises, deep relaxation, and meditation.

We hope that Practical Ayurveda will help you to heal yourself and to help you to manifest your full potential in body, mind, and spirit.

Swami Durgananda

Swami Sivadasananda

Swami Kailasananda

ACHARYAS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SIVANANDA YOGA VEDANTA CENTRES

According to the classical Indian philosophy from which both Ayurveda and yoga originate, there are four goals of life. This book aims to help you focus on the goals of dharma and moksha.

Ayurveda means science of life, and is comprised of a vast body of information about healthy living and treating disease. It covers areas of medicine that range from psychology to surgery, and pediatrics to geriatrics. Originally passed on through word of mouth, Ayurvedic knowledge was eventually written down in the ancient Indian language Sanskrit. Charaka, Sushruta, and Vagbhata are the authors of the three main classical Ayurvedic scriptures.

In recent times, Ayurveda has expanded beyond India into the modern Western world, where its focus on health and overall well-being has been widely appreciated, and this has contributed to its growing popularity.

Ayurveda and yoga are two sister sciences that both come from the same philosophy. However, Ayurveda focuses primarily on the goal of dharma (living the right way), while yoga focuses primarily on the goal of moksha (enlightenment). Both are practical systems with a holistic perspectivepeople are seen as beings with a unified body, mind, and consciousness. Those who visit the Sivananda Vedanta Centers across the world will find both yoga and Ayurveda taught and practiced there side by side.

DHARMA (the right way of living)

Dharma is the principle of living ones life in a way that promotes inner and outer health and harmony, and in accordance with the universal principle of peace. Following dharma means to be truthful to ones nature, and acts from a sense of duty and respect toward it, rather than being driven by compulsive habits. This means living life with a sense of responsibility toward oneself, other people, and the world as a whole, and acting for the good of all. Ways to achieve this goal are covered throughout this book.