Re-discovering life's fifth element

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Re-discovering life's fifth element

Vibha Sachdeva

CNN-IBN

Posted Saturday , October 14, 2006 at 19:07 Email Print

 

WELLNESS PHILOSOPHY: Its not just yoga and ayurveda, people are re-

discovering vedic chanting and aura healing as well.

 

New Delhi: Hectic lifestyles have taken their toll on our health,

which is probably the reason why the holistic wellness system based

on the vedanta philosophy is fast catching on.

 

 

"Today a youngster's lifestyle is all about movies, sports,

television and parties. Beyond these things there is nothing. It's

just a way of being happy but the existence is very sad," says Swami

Mitranandji.

 

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/rediscovering-lifes-fifth-element/23998-

17.html

And its this fifth element - spiritual growth - that Swami

Mitranandji is striving to teach today's generation. This youth

leader at the Chinmaya Mission, was once a bike racer, before he

found his spiritual calling

 

 

"Today I feel people are being squeezed," says Swami Mitranandji.

 

 

 

Not surprising then that there's an entire industry that's dipping

into the early Hindu faith and adopting the ancient practices of

yoga and aruyrveda to offer wellness solutions to people.

 

 

The Divya Yog Trust claims that approximately 20 million people

today are followers of Baba Ramdev's yoga, which proves that this

isn't just a fad following of the rich and the aspirational, but

something that's pervaded the masses as well.

 

 

Take Amatrra, a day spa in Delhi, based on the Hindu philosophy of

astrology, though at this elite club, they call it astroscience, in

the vedic belief that science has an impact on the well being and

even on the efficacy of therapeutic treatments.

 

 

Experts say you cannot be rigid with the system anymore, so many

establishments have adapted to the changing times.

 

 

Says Amatrra Spa Manager, Dr Jairam Nair, "This science given to

Lord Danvantri by Lord Brahma. All we did was carry out some more

research and it has been modified into such a thing that it becomes

customer friendly."

 

 

In fact, the internationally renowned Ananda Spa even conducts

spiritual lectures on the Bhagwad Gita.

 

 

"The entire philosophy is based on the Gita and it does help," says

the director of Ananda Spa.

 

 

So its not just plain yoga and ayurveda for people, they are re-

discovering things like vedic chanting and aura healing.

 

 

Says Ayurvedic doctor Dr Kalpana Sampath, "Anything that is deep,

thousands of years old and which has emerged out of a lot of

understanding of people, that will naturally come to the fore."

 

 

But apart from a few who are practicing the old ways, for many the

original path to the inner self and the divine-has become more of a

highway to fitness.

 

 

(With inputs from Veeraraghav in Chennai)