Foreword
When Vishnu Dass was my student, he was a very spiritual, atten-tive, and dedicated student and always worked with great sincerity, Now he has been in practice for a number of years, and his horizon of wisdom continues to expand and to be enhanced. He has taken his wise experience and written a guide to herbology based on Ayurvedic principles. This wonderful, practical book is one of the masterpieces of Ayurvedic herbology work. He has put a lot of effort into this and his dedi-cation, devotion, and commitment to Ayurveda and to his teacher is very beautiful. He has explained in simple but direct terms the Ayurvedic approach to health, herbal medicine, and materia medica. Plus, he has elaborated on Ayurvedic history and philosophy and of Ayurvedic principles, and concepts regarding the five elements, three doshas, and the subdoshas. He has wonderfully blended these phi-losophies into a direct application of herbology. He has given a most practical approach of Ayurvedic herbology pro-viding the action and classification of each herb including rasa, virya, vipaka and prabhav, and each botanical, Ayurvedic, and Sanskrit name. He also covers the western concepts of herbology, including western pharmacological actions such as alterative, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-pyretic, and diaphoretics. Additionally, he has pre-sented these functions for Ayurvedic herbs. This book breathes the life of practical Ayurvedic principles, meth-odology, pharmaceutical and pharmacological actions. For example, key points in Ayurvedic herbology are the timing of taking herbs and their dosages, and he has elaborated on that quite effectively. He also expounds upon the Ayurvedic principles of formulation according to dosha and disease as well as classical herbal preparation techniques. Historically, Ayurvedic medicinal preparations looked for methods to preserve the effectiveness of herbs that would match that of fresh herbs. The rasa, virya, and vipaka of fresh herbs are readily available, but the ancient rishis looked for methods to use with dry herbs also. To have a preparation that could be as effective as swarasa, fresh juice, this text advises you to take one part of the dry herb to two parts water and soak these overnight. Squeeze this mixture through cheesecloth and the results are similar to the fresh juice, a modifica-tion of swarasa. Another method is kvatha, a decoction by volume of one part herb and 16 parts water, boiled until it yields 4 part as a decoction. The rishis were trying to preserve herbs, but even stored decoctions and swarasas only last a short time. The next stage of longer lasting herb-al medicines was to cook the decoction with equal quantities of oil or ghee, creating medicated oils and ghees that would last for years. This is the natural way of preservation in Ayurveda, without chemi-cal preservatives. In their continued quest for immortality, the rishis next produced gu-tika and vatika, pill forms of herbs. Their crowning achievement was siddha kalpa or rasa shastra. In siddha kalpa, they incorporated mer-cury, sulphur, silver, gold, copper, tin, zinc, and iron bhasmas (ash) into medicines that heal the very essence of the human body. The rishis found that mixing this bhasma with herbal compounds caused them to be effective indefinitely and that even very small doses can have profound, positive results. Bhasmas do their job and leave the body through the urine, feces, and sweat. To use such heavy metals, they must be made safe for human con-sumption, to be 'humanized.' To do this, they heat the metal until it is red hot and then dip it in sesame oil, then cow's urine, cow's milk, cow's yogurt, cow's buttermilk, cow's butter, and finally in ghee. Each step is performed seven times, one for each tissue. This absorbs the toxic poisonous properties of the heavy metal and it becomes human-ized. This humanized form is burned into ash, which is the bhasma used in medicine. There are three important tests of proper process-ing for the safety and purity of the ash. A pinch of the bhasma should float on the surface of water; that test is varitaratva. This means it can easily pass through the cytoplasm of the cell and into the rasa dhatu, the serum and blood plasma. The specific gravity of the ash is less than water and can pass through the surface tension and surface angle of the plasma. Next, take the bhasma and rub it between the index finger and thumb. It should spread into the ridges of the finger, the fingerprints. This test, rekhaagamitra, means the bhasma will eas-ily pass through the capillaries. Finally, apunarbhava; you should not see any trace of the metal because it is pulverized. This is the ancient science of Ayurvedic metallurgy and alchemy. Metal becomes pure energy, vibrational medicine. Vishnu Dass has covered many subtle topics in this quite scholarly work. In a true sense, this is an integrated work, both for eastern and western herbalists, who can use this knowledge for healing and creating effective herbal products.
About The Author
Vishnu Dass is an Ayurvedic practitioner and herbalist and the owner and director of Blue Lotus Ayurveda. He received his training under the guidance of Dr. Vasant Lad and is a graduate of the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, NM. Having served on the board of directors for the National Ayurvedic Medical Association, he remains an honorary lifetime practitioner member. He teaches extensively on Ayurveda and Yoga philosophy for schools of clinical herbalism as well as Yoga retreat centers and teacher training programs. His knowledge in both Eastern and Western herbal traditions combined with years of clinical practice comes together in his practical and inspired writing.
Acupuncture & Acupressure (197)
Gem Therapy (23)
Homeopathy (513)
Massage (22)
Naturopathy (429)
Original Texts (220)
Reiki (59)
Therapy & Treatment (171)
Tibetan Healing (131)
Yoga (43)
हिन्दी (1087)
Ayurveda (3168)
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist