July 25, 2011

Herbal cure

G. LAKSHMANA RAO

The Hindu Natural way Herbs like rosemary, lemonbalm and thyme can help treat minor ailments. Photo: Special Arrangement

Heal your body with herbal medicines

Holistic Herbal Medicine

Most people think that herbal medicine is the same thing as Ayurveda, Siddha, or Unani. It is true that these three Indian systems of medicine also have some pure single as well as multi-herb medicines. All three systems also use extensively animal products, minerals, metals, calces, acids, alkaline substances, raw sugar, and spices. They also use a wide variety of fermentation and distillation processes.

Herbal medicines, on the other hand, are made from only edible and non-toxic plant substances. They do not involve fermentation and distillation processes. A true herbalist does not use any branded medicines in the market. He makes his own medicines from raw herbal substances.

The principle of herbal medicine is that good health is the natural state of the human body and that the human body has an inherent healing power to restore itself to good health if you assist it. Even contagious diseases are unlikely to affect a person if the body's immunity to disease is high. A high level of immunity to disease, robust health, and plentiful energy make a person happy, enthusiastic, and productive until death.

According to practitioners of herbal medicine, drugs that are taken on a daily basis to maintain health are contrary to the basic principles of total health care. Mere absence of disease is not good health.

Herbal medicine treats the root causes of disease. It treats the person, not just the disease. It treats a wide variety of modern chronic diseases with a view to a permanent cure and not just for temporary relief from symptoms. These include cardiovascular blockages, arthritis, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, asthma, sinusitis, and gall bladder stones.

Adverse factors relating to diet, life style, physical exercise, state of mind, and the quality of environment in which a person lives, travels and works degrade the body's immunity to disease. So, along with herbal medicines, these physical and environmental factors have to be rectified for permanent cure and robust health.

Even when the same disease affects several patients, the root causes can be different in each patient. So, customized medicines and treatment for each patient are important in restoring a person to good health. How can an herbalist do this? An herbalist keeps each herb in a processed and readily usable form for use in different combinations for different patients.

Herbal medicine is participatory medicine. The patient has an important role to play in curing a disease. So, a herbalist has to seek and obtain full cooperation from the patient in terms of diet, life style, and physical exercise. A properly qualified herbalist is also a competent nutritionist

Radical realists

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Radical realists

Radical realists

Baskaran Pillai Jul 25, 2011, 02.05pm IST

The physical immortality of the body is a key concept among the Siddhas. According to them, enlightenment is simply not psychological. Liberation is not just psychological liberation from thought forms. Nirvana, according to Swami Ramalingam who turned his body into light in 1874, is a stage in the evolutionary process. He maintained that one should attain evolution of body, mind, and soul. You cannot simply evolve your psychology or your soul, and say that it is everything. Sri Aurobindo, although he was not a Siddha, upheld the Siddha ideal that unless the body is turned into light, the evolution of the human is not complete. Aurobindo admitted not reaching that stage, but praised Swami Ramalingam and the Siddhas for holding the highest ideal of enlightenment. The Siddhas believed that if anyone dies, regardless of how enlightened that person might be, he would have to be reborn to understand the nature of the body.
An inclusive school
It is interesting to note that the Siddhas are eclectic in their appropriation of mystical schools that pre-existed their time. They freely drew from alchemy, astrology, herbal medicine, kundalini yoga, image worship and rituals, and other modalities. They brought the scientific approach into each discipline that they touched. If the Siddhas prayed to Ganesha to remove obstacles, then they linked Ganesha with the Mooladhara or root chakra in the subtle body. For them, it is simply useless to do idol worship without aligning it to the enlivening of the chakras.