This is an Ayurveda community for people to freely share their God-gifts with one another. We define Ayurveda as the ancients did, to include spiritual and holistic life - nothing was separate from anything else, and herbal medicine was a last resort.

The main Ayurveda healing is prevention by living in tune with nature, according to one's dharma (life purpose), and making their life priority connecting with God or divine nature. With this focus, there is little room for imbalance to occur, much less develop into illness.

So we include in Ayurveda the health and spirit of humans, creatures, and the earth; we include fair play and fair trade amongst the fellow children of God. We believe from our own experience that when following the laws of nature and one's dharma, life, while challenging, is never an undue burden.

From the spiritual Ayurveda vantage, God or nature or spirit gives us all our basic needs when we are grateful for what we have received. When in worship (gratitude) God looks after our basic needs (food, clothing, and shelter) so we never have to unduly struggle or stop our worship to think about how we will get money - God brings to us what we need when we need it.

When we look at life's examples, we see abundance everywhere - the birds do not have to work for their food; when we plant one seed, we eat for the season; we are blessed with hundreds of beautiful flowers; herbs abound at our feet. It is only when a person is ungrateful - wanting something they don't have - that the economy of 'supply and demand' comes into play. When grateful, there is no need for charging, or wanting, or needing...all is placed at our feet; the ripe fruit falls in our laps.

So abundance means, you already have all you need (not 'you can get anything you want', because you already are given all you need-when you need it). So when we are so blessed, we no longer need to think about 'getting' things - our minds and hearts, full of gratitude, are free to share and help those who are less fortunate (ie, those who do not yet understand or have the opportunity to live in tune with nature). When we are one with the eternal, unending spiritual source, we are full and our cup runneth over, and nourishes those around us while ever-remaining full ourselves.

Practically applied, an Ayurvedic practitioner's goal is to heal and educate the people so they do not get sick again if possible; explaining how to follow the laws of nature to prevent actions and thoughts that lead to illness. If they are successful, they will go out of business when everyone has healed themselves by living in nature's harmony. Those who follow this view find a loving God rewarding them with a more spiritual life, and supporting their basic necessities; such a dharma is a worthy one. Conversely, when a vaidya spends their time worrying how to protect their careers, they are not focusing on their dharma - to help others - they are locking themselves out of abundance realization and ultimately, missing a life of grace. You can either have a material or spiritual priority in life. Focus on the spirit, and you also find all material needs automatically provided.

Following abundance theory, this educational site is free. The vaidyas graciously donate their time and expertise to write articles. We maintain the site. And we respectfully refuse offers of advertising and business associations. While we respect the need for and benefits of socially responsible businesses, we find little discussion and living of a purely spiritual, Sat Yuga-based (non-economic-based) lifestyle, and so we feel called to provide this vision as a living example reality for others to dream and grow towards.

We believe that people are God's children and are basically good. It suits us best to try to see the best in people and give them the benefit of the doubt; we find it is better to be wrong on a rare occasion--people rarely disappoint when you think the best of them. And when you think the best of others, you allow them the space to become what they are capable of becoming - more saintly.

The experience of abundance extends to the environment - we needn't take more than we need in the fear of 'running out', or creating items that pollute the air and water and earth when we can find what we need, or slow down and create things that do not pollute and in fact nourish mother nature.

In our own lives, professional and personal, we do our best to follow the law of abundance. We look for and see that we are given all we need. On the spiritual level, where everything is Soul (air, water, earth, people, food, money, animals, etc.) we already are everything. So there is never any need to ask for anything - just being grateful for what God brings to us, doing what brings us peace and inner joy (ie, when helping/sharing with others)

We have been touched by the Vedic vision of Sat Yuga (nirvana) - a world where all people live in inner peace and joy - even at one with their inner eternal bliss of God (sat chit ananda), ever sharing their unending inner divine love with others, creatues, and nature. We know what we think becomes our reality, we do our best to keep this vision in our minds as much of the day as possible, aiming to live as if the Sat Yuga is already in its full glory. Yes, we deal with the realities of day to day life, but try to not forget the highest possible future - the goal of life - Self-Realization and a world where all our brothers and sisters live in Self-Realization (Sat Yuga). We need to keep such a goal in mind in the midst of daily life for it to have meaning and direction.

So we spend as much of each day living as much of Sat Yuga as possible; being grateful for whatever God brings us that day - pleasant or unpleasant - we try to see the best in each situation and than God. We do our best to follow ahimsa, causing no harm to people, creatures, or the planet in action, words, and in our thoughts.

Practically, we remove our eco-harm through buying organic foods, clothes, products, home and garden products; non-toxic building materials, recycled items, reducing/reusing wherever possible, reducing energy consumption and driving, etc., in our home and office. Where it is not possible for us to control our CO2 output, we purchase carbon offset credits that go to build alternative energy windmill, biogas, and hydro energy facilities - particularly that help small family farms, Native Americans, and Eskimos develop such earth-friendly small businesses to be true earth stewards. We also buy trees to offset our paper use and our breathing; donating the trees to our local village and also to needy national forest preserves. We also donate to our local water activist group to improve the health of our our local waterways.

Some call this 'zero-carbon or carbon neutral citizens and businesses. We take it a step further and donate more than we use to build a more bountiful earth for Sat Yuga to flourish. We have chosen the highly rated Native Energy company to donate our carbon offsets.

We also contribute to organizations who do not live 'business as usual', and have discovered how to make real changes, helping people help themselves out of poverty, improving education, and the environment. Here is a short list of some of the companies that we respect and are inspired - groups actually changing the world:
Ashoka (US & international projects)
Nature Conservancy
Arbor Day
American Forests
Native Energy
Our local public radio and TV stations

We also refer to Charity Navigator to learn which organizations are most efficiently using their donations to give most of the money to the needy (rather than office/fundraising expenses).

We extend our living ahimsa, to include how we earn a living and how we earn through investments. We bank at ShorePacific Bank a socially responsible bank, where money is only used for microcredit loans to help poor people lift themselves out of poverty and each project must also be green (ie, ecologically responsible). There are many micro-credit banks around the US and the world that can be found in online searches.

And we investment in New Alternatives a mutual fund that only invests in alternative energy companies. Many of them are international small businesses helping the people earn a living wage. A full list of other socially responsible funds and their performance is at SocialFunds.com

All this is called Sadhana (meditation) - silent, seated sadhana, and active eco/social sadhana - 24/7. Living ever-mindful and prayerful to grow ever deeper in closeness with God is the goal and purpose of all our sadhana.

Ayurveda states, 'detox before rejuvenating'. We follow this in eco and social Ayurveda as well - remove any harm we are causing, and create nurturing, peaceful and joyful environments.

Some people have called us "crazy", but that lets us know we are doing the right thing (ie, not business as usual).

This might sound like a mere theory, but from our experience, each step we have taken we have experienced such lightness, and ever-greater peace and divine joy. This is karma-bhakti Yoga - devotional action. In Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna admonishes Arjuna, 'Be a Yogi'; 'Do your duty, act in this world, help others out of a sense of God-love and divine brotherly love.' 'Dearer to me than those who create theories are those who act to care for my children and creation.' So these are our actions, based in love, and we are so much rewarded with inner life, it cannot be described.

We share these ideas for those who too will become inspired by such a vision of how life can be lived in grace and divine harmony.

Wishing you all peace and inner eternal joy
Ayurveda Holistic Community