Chennai offers healthful succor to those who are weary of body and soul…
Freedom, that single word is so fraught with meaning and signifies different things to different people. Many years ago, Jawaharlal Nehru, in his famous Tryst with Destiny speech, when India attained independence gave eloquent utterance to the meaning of freedom and spoke of how a beleaguered nation’s soul broke free from its fetters to find new utterance. And Sufis, mystics and philosophers alike tell us that through every state in life man is consciously or unconsciously striving to attain freedom.
Today, we may not have the same motivational force that drove our forbears to accomplish what they did, but our demons are not the same. They are to do with such urban afflictions on the mind, body and soul, such as stress, pollution and other related factors. The need of the hour is holistic healing and a wellness regime that restores the body politic to sound working order, for it is only then that the soul can break free and achieve nirvana.
As a nation, we have the distinction of excelling in holistic healing, our worldwide reputation in ancient Ayurveda, Yoga, homeopathy and Unani has stood us in good stead, and what is heartening to note is that young India is increasingly aware of the benefits to be accrued from the ancients and is ready to embrace them. Although Kerala, in the south, has always been extolled for its curative legacy, other places in India, too, have picked up the tab and are doing great things in the realm of holistic healing. Take Tamil Nadu, for instance. The state has not only woken to the fact that medical tourism can reap great dividends and bring in the lucre, it is also persuading its denizens to cleanse their bodies and souls through age-old practices such as Ayurveda, Yoga naturopathy, wellness programmes and art-of-living courses.
Briefly, Ayurveda, or the ‘knowledge of long life’ is the Indian health science that goes back several thousand years and is dedicated totally to the preservation of the body and soul. It is set apart from other traditional sciences by its USP, which is that it seeks to prevent illnesses by maintaining an internal balance in the body and thus works against the ageing process. So it is that Ayurveda has found its way into modern-day India, working wonders with stress management, bringing about a virtual “burnout regeneration” and combating ageing.
In Chennai is Cholayil, which was established about 30 years ago and was originally one of Kerala’s reputed and respected Ayurvedic families of India, as also the makers of Medimix, one of the largest selling Ayurvedic bath soaps. Cholayil has developed the concept of Sanjeevanam, an outstanding holistic health centre that combines the goodness of Ayurveda, Yoga and naturopathy.
The Cholayil Academy was instituted with the sole objective of providing a better quality of life through Ayurveda and particularly to motivate the younger generation to study and practise Ayurveda, to speed-up research activity in this field and organise seminars and conferences for the benefit of students, researchers and practitioners of Ayurveda, to bring state-of-the-art techniques into all possible areas of Ayurveda and to set up free medical camps for the treatment of the needy.
Take a trip to Uthukottai and visit the nearby Cholayil Medicinal Plant Conservation Park and see the hundreds of medicinal plants housed in the 120-acre farm that has forests on one side and a 50-acre water reservoir on the other. The garden also grows orchids and other rare plant species.
The Cholayil Medicinal Plant Conservation Park houses rare and endangered medicinal plant species that are preserved and reared under controlled conditions in various green houses in order to study them and make them fit for mass cultivation.
Just how serious is Tamil Nadu in propagating the science of Ayurveda is borne out by the fact that one of the leading institutions of Ayurveda, the Venkataramana Ayurvedic College, was recognised as a formal degree college (BAMS) in 1979. The college avails of the medical and instructional facilities in Chennai along with its own in-house facilities.
And if therapy for the soul is what you are looking for, Chennai has its own Vipassana Meditation Centre (VMC) in Thiruneermalai, located at the foothills of the picturesque Thiruneermalai range, not too far away from the city. The setting is idyllic, and the centre holds traditional ten-day silent retreats just as Buddha had suggested. Called Dhamma Setu, the pagoda, with more than 200 meditation cells, sprawls across a 16-acre farmland and is about 10 km away from Chennai airport. Set up by a businessman named SN Goenka, the Vipassana meditation as propounded by him is now popular in more than 30 countries.
The VMC offers no quick-fix remedies to heal the soul, it is a 10-day live-in regimen for serious practitioners who want to re-condition their minds and souls. The Chennai VMC is now part of a 110-unit chain that has spread worldwide in such diverse countries as Israel and South Africa. Goenka says, “We have had instances of Vipassana reforming hardened criminals and, on a couple of occasions, even terrorists. Its effectiveness lies in its simplicity.” The basic tenets of Vipassana enjoins the participant to abstain from lying, stealing, killing, sexual activity and intoxicants. Silence is essential and all communication forbidden—there is just you and your soul.
Chennai has wellness programmes at various centres in the city, with professionals, students and businessmen queuing up to learn about holistic methods for stress management. Enterprising people like Sumeer Kumar of The Wellness Marg provide hopefuls with Yoga training, post-rehabilitation training and therapy, corporate training and stress relief. And Chennai’s Marina Beach is always bristling with health fanatics who jog, jump and run on its sands.
Next time you are in Chennai for a spell, indulge your body, mind and soul.