Pratima Raichur - Absolute Beauty

TO MY DEAR HUSBAND, VENKATESH,

who has been there for me for the last thirty-two years and has given me a stable, pleasant home, and unconditional love

M y gratitude goes first to Shanta Dandekar, my spiritual mentor, who thirty years ago helped me to know myself and my purpose clearly; to my first teacher, the late Vaidya Rele, and to my present teacher, Dr. Vasant Lad, who answers my calls at any time of day or night with graciousness and wisdom; and to my beloved parents and familymy husband, Venkatesh, and my son, Sandeep, who have helped me with many details of my work, and my dear daughter, Leena, who did all my typing for this book.

I also wish to thank:

My agent, Lynn Franklin, and my friends Deepak Chopra, Bipin Shah, and Anita Raj, who brought Lynn into my life.

My friend, Sunita Vase, who helped to find and translate rare Sanskrit books for me.

The numerous beauty editors who wrote about my work at Tej Skin Care Clinic even before most American readers had heard of Ayurvedaespecially Felicia Milewicz at Mademoiselle, who was the very first to break this ground, and who has been an advocate and a friend ever since.

My fellow teachers Karen and Blair Lewis, David Frawley, and Bri Maya Tiwari, who have helped to expand knowledge of Ayurvedic science in the United States.

My excellent staff at Tej and my business partner in the manufacture of my Bindi product line, Ramesh Sarva, for keeping everything going while I worked on this book. Without their devoted efforts and support, I would not have been able to complete it.

All my clients, who have inspired and encouraged me, and have become my friends through the years.

Peternelle van Arsdale and the many people at HarperCollins, who worked so diligently and enthusiastically to produce Absolute Beauty.

Barbara Balch, for her elegant book design.

And most of all, my co-author, Marian Cohn, for being my voice, lending her eloquence and insight, and sharing my deep appreciation for the wisdom of Ayurveda.

PRATIMA RAICHUR

I would like to add my thanks to the following people:

Lynn Franklin, without whom I would not have had the opportunity to meet Pratima Raichur or the privilege of collaborating with her.

Marty and Bea Gross and Nancy Gross Belok for their constant love and support, and for generously giving me space, both literal and figurative, to write this book.

Karen Lucic, friend and scholar, for her invaluable and astute editorial input from first page to last, and for her encouragement from start to finish.

Richard LaMarita, friend, writer, and chef, for sharing his Ayurvedic knowledge with me whenever I asked, for pitching in during the final crunch to help with Chapter 11, and for making me some delicious Ayurvedic meals.

Doug Winblad, friend and philosopher, for his research assistance and his uncannily lucid explanations of the most abstruse philosophical ideas.

Mark Hardesty and my sister, Regine Urbach, who provided essential computer support and who rushed to my aid, technical and personal, in numerous emergencies.

Doug Beube, Lenore French, and Joanne Rhinehart for cheering me on.

Susan Peerless, sister-in-spirit and first reader, who patiently coached mebody, mind, and soulthrough the long months of work and helped me keep the text on track with keen pointers on every draft. She eagerly tried out Pratimas advice as quickly as I could write it down, and kept me inspired by her own enthusiasm for its results. Her unconditional support throughout was the most extraordinary act of friendship.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who gave me not only the profound knowledge and experience of consciousness, but also the precious skill to teach it to others.

And my wonderful parents, Sidney and Marlene Cohn, who gave me a love of words as well as the opportunity and encouragement to develop my abilities. In giving me life and love, they have given me all the important things.

MARIAN COHN

I n India, where I was born in 1939, physicians have known the secrets to flawless skin and ageless beauty for six thousand years. Those secrets, which you will learn in this book, are contained in one of the worlds oldest systems of health care and healing, named Ayurveda, which means knowledge of life or longevity.

My informal introduction to this ancient science came during my childhood at home, where everyone in my extended family lived in accord with Ayurvedic traditions. Our meals were prepared in Ayurvedic style to maintain physical health, and our daily routine included meditation and other practices to balance the mind and spirit. It was a loving, happy family life, and like a typical child, I was unaware that our way of living was different from any other. However, I did recognize at a young age that there seemed to be something special about my mother and her mother: They were striking women whose inner poise and outer radiance never went unnoticed, no matter where we were.

My formal education in Ayurveda began, I confess, somewhat less happily. It was in my early adolescence, under the tutelage of a famous physician who happened to be my familys neighbor. At eighty, he had come to need some assistance with his work, and I became the reluctant recruit whom he called in to help. Every evening after school, I spent a couple of hours in his home, either reading to him or helping him to make various pills and remedies. Not surprisingly, at age thirteen, I was not very pleased to spend my time with this elderly man or to learn his strange formulas, but he was a relentless taskmaster and insisted that I record everything he said in notebooks. Today you dont understand the importance of what we are doing, he told me, but one day you will have a use for all this in your life.

Years later, when I embarked on the career that has culminated in this book, I remembered the doctors words and realized how prescient he was. Those long-forgotten notebooks were filled with Ayurvedic prescriptions for the care of the skin. By then, I had a science degree from Bombay University and was married, with an infant daughter. I began to work as a chemist in England while my husband completed his medical training, and later I returned to India to work at a cancer research hospital.

One day, two of my hospital colleagues came into the laboratory very distraught. Both had acne problems and had gone the day before to get facials. Their treatments had left black patches all over their skin, which looked worse than the acne, and now they were in tears. To everyones surprise, including my own, I said to them, You should have told me before you went for the facials. I could have prepared something to help you.

That night, for the first time in over a decade, I reread the Ayurvedic recipes I had so dutifully transcribed as a young girl. Since Ayurveda does not include a specific investigation of skin disease, I had never thought to apply its principles and techniques to the problem before this incident. By then, however, I knew a lot about cosmetic chemistry, and with my combined knowledge of ancient and modern science, I created a special mix of herbs and oils, which I delivered to my friends the next morning. Within days, their complexions cleared up completely. Word spread, and soon I was inundated with requests for help from people with problem skin. Each time I prepared a new remedy, everyone could see the positive results on the person who used it.