On Swami - The Wellness Sense: A practical guide to your physical and emotional health based on Ayurvedic and yogic wisdom

The Wellness Sense

Om Swami is a mystic who lives in the Himalayan foothills. An advanced yogin, Swami has done thousands of hours of intense meditation in complete seclusion in Himalayan caves and woods.

Prior to renunciation, he founded and ran a multi million-dollar software company with offices in San Francisco, New York, Toronto, London, Sydney and India. Om Swami has a bachelors degree in business and an MBA from Sydney, Australia. He completely renounced his business interests a few years ago to pursue a full-time spiritual life.

He is also the author of the best-selling If Truth be Told: A Monks Memoir . You can connect with him on his blog, omswami.com , which is read by millions all over the world.

The Wellness Sense

A Practical Guide to Your Physical and
Emotional Health Based on
Ayurvedic and Yogic Wisdom

O M S WAMI

First published in India in 2015 by Harper Element An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

Worldwide publishing rights: Black Lotus Press Copyright Om Swami 2015

P-ISBN: 978-0-9940027-3-0

E-ISBN: 978-0-9940027-0-9

Om Swami asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

www.omswami.com

The views and opinions expressed in this book are the authors own and the facts are as reported by him, and the publishers are not in any way liable for the same.

This work is not a substitute for treatment or advice by a qualified health care professional.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

This work is dedicated

to the welfare of all sentient beings

Acknowledgements

W hen I wrote this book, it was extremely important for me to have my views validated by qualified medical professionals. I wanted to provide you authentic information that you could rely on, and not just a figment of my imagination. Because what you have in your hands is not merely an introduction to Ayurveda, but a detailed exposition of the collective wisdom contained in Ayurvedic and yogic scriptures. I wanted to eliminate even the slightest possibility of overrating my own experiences or misinterpreting medical texts in any way. To this effect, I am deeply indebted to the following brilliant and busy doctors, who not only took time out of their hectic schedules to read my manuscript but also provided comprehensive and insightful feedback:

Vivek Tripathi, MBBS

Renu Madan, BHMS

Jayavani Pandey, BAMS

Ravi Verma, MD

Priyanka Sara, MD

R.C. Pandey, MD

Chetana Verma, MD

L. Mahadevan, MD

I would like to thank the commissioning editor at HarperCollins, Ajitha G.S., who not only agreed to publish this book so that it reaches a wider audience, but also personally reviewed the manuscript offering wonderful and candid feedback along the way.

I would specially like to thank Sameer Mahale, national sales manager, at HarperCollins who saw the promise in this book and worked hard to ensure that it is released well within 2015.

Also, I cant thank enough my first editor, Ismita Tandon, for doing a magnificent job with the early draft of my work. Im equally grateful to some very kind people, notably, John Coen, Camila Vicenci, Jocelyn Meli and Shaun Jenkins, who went the extra mile and gave me detailed feedback.

My gratitude to Garima Om and Anju Modgil for going over the manuscript with impeccable attention to detail, reviewing each and every word.

I would also like to thank Carl A. Harte for his thoughtful review, and Rea Mukherjee for the final scan.

My gratitude to Saurabh Garge at HarperCollins for the beautiful cover design.

And, above all, my deepest gratitude to Mother Nature for using me as an instrument and allowing the ancient wisdom to flow through.

Contents

About This Book

I n these pages, I have combined my reflections on major Ayurvedic texts with my years of experience in yoga and tantra, to give you the essence of health and well-being. To make the most out of this book, read it patiently as if chewing gum, to enjoy and absorb the knowledge contained herein.

Although I received my formal education in information technology and business, for years I have practised healing and experimented across the disciplines of astrology, mantra, tantra, meditation and alchemy. While Ayurvedic texts mostly focus on physical health, and yogic scriptures on mental well-being, tantric scriptures pay attention to the metaphysical aspects of our existence.

When we synthesize the wisdom across the three disciplines of Ayurveda, yoga and tantra, we gain a unique and holistic understanding of health. Because all three insist that we are an integral part of nature, anything that happens in the play of nature affects us. Therefore, the more you are in harmony with nature, the more peaceful and healthy you will be. The objective of this book is to help you see how your body your health and well-being is intricately linked to Mother Nature, and how living in harmony with nature brings changes in your own nature.

I have always been passionate about health and natural remedies. So much so, I once owned an Ayurvedic health care company with a research team comprising some of the most brilliant Ayurvedic doctors in India. During the clinical trials of our products, I had the opportunity to meet and interview many patients. Except for Vishys example (in Chapter 6), all case studies in this book are real. I have only changed the names and, at times, places to protect the privacy of the individuals concerned. I have mostly used the masculine pronoun in general references for convenience purposes only; the teachings of Ayurveda and yoga are universally applicable.

I hope this book motivates you to lead a more natural, healthier and more peaceful life.

Introduction

E ven though I grew up reading Ayurvedic, yogic and tantric scriptures expounding on health, yoga and alchemy, my own health was never good. For the greater part of my life, as a patient of asthma, I was allergic to pollen. I dont remember a change of season when I didnt fall sick. I was living proof of modern medicines belief that allergies could only be treated temporarily. I had given up my asthma medication with the help of a controlled diet. Yet, every year, at the dawn of spring, my asthma would get worse and I would start gobbling up cough syrups and cold and flu tablets. With a red nose, heavy head and a wheezing chest, I would increase the dosage of my inhalers and lose most of my appetite.

My body needed rest, but time was perhaps the one thing I could not afford. My projects, teams and clients needed me every day, in five different time zones, and the immense stress at work left me gasping for breath. Exercising at the gym, playing badminton, eating organic food and taking supplements only helped a little. The fact remained that whenever seasons changed, I fell sick. I would notice those who remained mostly healthy, regardless of the pressure at work or the challenges at home they endured. Many of these healthy people even ate unhealthily, yet they remained mostly fit. I seriously wondered: What is the secret to their health? There is no secret, really. In accordance with Ayurveda, I came to the conclusion that each one of us is truly different, and some of us are more prone to certain diseases than others. I accepted the fact that asthma was my way of life.