By Dr. Marianne Teitelbaum

Tulsi is regarded as a divine plant in ayurveda. It is loaded with medicinal properties, particularly for the physical and vibrational heart, the skin, and the lungs, as attested in the Charak Samhita, the millennia-old Sanskrit text that Vaidya reads and translates during the session.

It is also a mandatory feature in any Krishna temple, in India and across the world, where live Tulsi plants are grown in dedicated areas of the temple.

This lecture by Vaidya Ramakant Mishra is part of the video seminar "Dravya Guna - Ayurvedic Pharmacopeia", a once-in-a-lifetime series of conferences held at the Prana Center over a three-month span in 2009. The whole collection of lectures totals 45 hours of tutorials, available as streaming videos at www.VaidyaMishra.com.

In this live seminar, Vaidya Ramakant Mishra explains the profound significance of the word "Trupti" as it relates to the vibrational energy of nature, highlighting the millennia-old understanding of Prana recorded in the form of sacred chants in the ancient scriptures.

Vaidya also elaborates on the impact of that energy on our health and modern lifestyle. Some topics covered (with approximate timecode) are: 1) Soma craving for emotional reasons (24:00) 2) Hierarchy of tastes: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent (37:00) 3) Advice on eating with mental focus on the meal and avoiding distractions (43:00) 4) Differences in the digestion of yogurt and milk (50:00) 5) Differences between honey and sugar (52:00) 6) Spices: turmeric, cumin, coriander seeds, fenugreek, black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, green and black cardamom (55:00) 7) Gymnema tea and silver needle tea (1:07:00) 8) Protein and probiotics (1:15:00)

By Dr. Marianne Teitelbaum

By Dr. Marinne Teitelbaum

By Dr. Melina Takvorian-Mishra

Dr. Teitelbaum discusses the side effects of medicines used to treat common illnesses, which can, in the long run, create complications worse than the medical conditions they were intended to alleviate. The list includes natural treatment alternatives to substitute:

Birth control pill

Use of antibiotics to treat acne

Use of antibiotics for ear infections in babies

Medicines to strengthen the bones

Antidepressants

Acid reflux prescriptions

Cholesterol drugs

Even in these modern times of technology and scientific research, contemporary literature can hardly rival the abundant and detailed ancient texts of Ayurveda in matters that regard the effects of metals on human physiology.

In this episode, Vaidya Mishra sheds light on a key metal, iron, and its effects on our body.