I'm sitting in a small café in downtown Mumbai, enjoying my lunch and listening to birdsong. But this is no ordinary café and no ordinary lunch. The café is part of an Ayurvedic Clinic and my lunch is a bowl of mung soup cooked according to an ancient recipe.
I've been here for a couple of weeks and will be here for a couple more. What am I doing here? Well, I'm on a deep cleansing and rejuvenation programme which involves daily massage, hot oil treatments, herbal enemas, purgation therapy, a simple diet of dhal, vegetables and rice, and a plethora of herbal medication designed to detox, rebalance, nourish and rejuvenate my body, my mind and my emotions. It's a powerful process that goes deep into every cell.
But if I ask myself why I'm really here, then the answer is because it brings me closer to God. I believe that right here, inside the tangible world of flesh and blood, is everything we need to know about the transcendent world of spirit.
If we look very closely - just as when physicists look into what lies inside the apparent solidity of particles - our bodies are made up of a vast field of quantum intelligence, a subtle vibrating energy force that is intensely alive and holds all the information we need for perfect health and harmony.
Tapping into this innate intelligence is not only the key to unbounded health but is also the doorway to the divine. It is right here, in this quantum field that body, mind, emotions and spirit interface.
When we indulge in self-sabotaging lifestyle habits such as poor eating, addictions and sedentariness, we deny ourselves access to this intelligent power. The result is not only the inevitable decline into degenerative diseases - such as osteoarthritis, heart disease and cancer - but also a clouding over of our consciousness, a kind of mental and emotional heaviness and a forgetting of the sacredness of our inner nature.
Ayurveda
Ayurveda - the 5,000 year-old science of life passed down by Vedic sages - recognises that the source of radiant well-being lies deep within the quantum realm and that one of the most direct ways to access this is through the gateway of the body.
Ayurveda believes that at the core of all creation is the power of agni, the fire of transmutation. On a physical level, this is our digestive fire and all the biochemical processes of metabolism. On a metaphysical level, this is our inner flame, that part of us that takes in and makes sense of the world, the bridge between the manifest and unmanifest realms.
Everything that we eat gets converted not only into nutrients but also into life-energy and consciousness. It is not surprising then that food and digestion play a crucial role in the Ayurvedic healing system.
We Are What We Eat
Through trial and error, I have also learnt that how we digest our food is how we digest life's experiences. My experience leads me to conclude that when we are aligned to the truth of our inner radiance, our internal fire transmutes everything into goodness … and into godliness. This is perhaps one of the most powerful health secrets!
The quality of physical - and soul - nourishment we receive depends on how conscious we are in every moment … and this includes getting conscious of what we eat and how we eat it.
When we fill ourselves with junk food, our bodies become a dumping ground both for toxic substances and for toxic feelings. Junk food is dense, laden with fats, sugars and artificial additives, as well as mass-produced in less than loving environments. Eventually all this rubbish becomes a sticky mass that blocks our digestive power and obscures our consciousness.
Conversely, if we are preoccupied with the chatter of ego or we are tight with unresolved emotion, even the healthiest food is only partially processed and ends up converted to metabolic and psychic toxicity. This all makes sense in the light of research showing that body and mind are inextricably linked: the gut functions as a "second brain" with the same biochemistry and neural circuitry.
Ayurveda - and especially the panchakarma deep cleanse programme - works firstly towards removing the sticky toxicity from deep within our cells and eliminating it via the digestive tract. Secondly, it resets agni so that metabolism is restored to optimum function.
And thirdly, it teaches us to make conscious eating choices.
On this final point, it's a simple equation really: what we eat is what we become. When our diet is devoid of the vitality of fresh natural ingredients then it follows that we too become less vital in body and mind. It's a vicious cycle in which an out of balance body-mind system makes unconscious eating choices.
The further away we move from a natural diet, the more removed we become from the wholeness of our innate nature. By eating consciously, we are more likely to choose a diet that is light, fresh and pure because it helps us become light in body, clear in mind and joyful in spirit.
Food is more than mere calories, vitamins and minerals. It has the capacity to bring us closer to our divine nature. There is no doubt that Ayurveda has helped me change my relationship to food, to life and to God. Panchakarma has removed deeply held limitations from my mind, allowing me to see the world through fresh eyes.
It has made the bridge between inner and outer realms stronger so that I can see clearly the effect of my thoughts on my reality. And it has re-created my body as a wonderfully sensitive but robust vehicle for my soul's higher purpose.
Today, the hunger for God has become my over-riding appetite, and so my choices in what, when and how to eat have become easier: I eat very simply yet every mouthful is a delight and I eat less but am more fulfilled than ever.
I feel blessed to have discovered this ancient and profound lifestyle system that is no less relevant in the modern world than it was thousands of years ago!
The clinic I visited in Mumbai is called Ayushakti and is run my world-reknowned Ayurvedic physicians Drs. Pankaj and Smita Naram - check out http://www.ayushakti.com/