Here's a note we received after the call, “I feel so enriched to be a part of the Maitri Circle with Dr. Bharat Shah. The moment I saw the invite, without missing a beat I RSVPed. Being a doctor myself, there were so many wisdom nuggets on the call that I ended up penning them down. Sharing my reflections with everyone. ”

We started with a few moments in silence and beautiful prayer offering by Sandeep. With immense gratitude and joy the hosts Jaimit and Krunal welcomed our guest. Dr Bharat Shah has been researching and helping health seekers with his deep understanding of Naturopathy, Ayurveda, Medicinal Plants and Yoga along with modern medicine. Vinoba and Gandhi have been his inspiration for decades. Simplicity and contentment are the primary guiding force in his life. Below are some wisdom nuggets and highlights from the call. You can read about him more on the invite page.


Fundamental Philosophy of Nature Cure:

Human body is self-programmed machine, which is self-developing, self-repairable and self-maintainable with its own intelligence and healing mechanism. Isn't it amazing that without any external interference, from a single cell, development of all the organs in the body takes place. From birth to death, millions of cells die and new cells are formed each day to rejuvenate the health of the body.

Let’s try to understand its inbuilt miraculous and specific intelligence by an example that if there is a cut on hand, that means the blood vessel is punctured and it causes bleeding, what do we do? We apply pressure and the clotting process takes place. Does it happen at any other body part? Have u ever thought, what will happen if the clotting occurs in the brain and not at the injury site? The injury site will continue to bleed which will lead to loss of blood and then further consequences and the brain will get stroke due to thrombus formation. Surprised?

Just realize that pain and disease are our friends and not enemies. They always come with a message, we should work to find the hidden message behind it and create an appropriate environment for the body to heal itself. For example, when we feel a loss of taste or loss of hunger then instead of eating spicy food to bring taste to the tongue the body is asking us to fast. Fasting can help the body to detox. Likewise temperature rise in the body occurs to eliminate infections, but when we block the process with external chemicals then it can cause toxins to stay in the body and just suppress the symptoms.

The call is in Hindi, here is the full video recording of the call.



Primary Factors Contributing to Health:

• Diet: Some questions came from the circle around the food preferences, timings etc. Ayurveda supports cooked food while naturopathy puts more preference on raw uncooked food. What principle should be followed?. In the era of veganism, we have so many doubts that milk should be taken or not, according to him? What should be the timing of our food?
  • Food preference: Bharat bhai emphasized on bringing a balance between fresh home cooked food and uncooked raw food like salad, fruits and vegetables. We can't miss on raw food as it contains a high amount of antioxidants, enzymes, flavanoid, minerals which is required for proper healthy metabolism. 300-400 gm of raw food is necessary in daily diet but this also depends upon the digestive ability of the individual. In case of weak digestion, juices are advisable. Around milk according to him 200-250ml of milk is required for a healthy individual, on a daily basis. If it causes cough, then saunth or ginger can be added or it can be taken as diluted concoction. In case of active infection, milk should be avoided.
  • Timing of food: The basic principle is that we eat only when we are actually hungry. We tend to confuse it with false hunger created by mind. When the stomach feels light and there is enough gap between two meals, to ensure digestion of the previous meal, then it's ready to take the next meal. Food timings must be aligned with solar rhythm also, the last meal of the day must be lightest and lunch can be heaviest and breakfast can be moderate.
  • Fasting: It’s a potent therapeutic as well as preventive measure for overall good health. But it's very crucial to do it according to the individual's capacity and in a proper healthy way. Now modern medicine has proved that even in many degenerative conditions like arthritis, Alzheimer’s, also it has been found to be beneficial. It removes all waste materials and toxins from the body at cellular level and gives the body the time for rest, recovery and rejuvenation. There is a famous saying “let food be thy medicine”, I found this true in each sense.

• Lifestyle: We need to find space for the following in our daily routines
  • Adequate physical activity
  • Exercise
  • Ventilation
  • Sunlight (10-20 mins of light sun exposure)
  • Optimum rest and sleep
  • Apart from that, deep breathing exercises.

• Mind: Fear, worry, anxiety, stress shuts down the immune system. The thoughts in mind while eating also plays a great role in digestion and normal bodily functions, e.g. in case of acidity, instead of taking antacids, along with modifying diet and lifestyle, also keep a check, what is my state of mind while eating? How am I feeling at the moment? In reference to this, there is wonderful research conducted by Japanese scientist, Dr Masaru Emoto. In his book “The Hidden Message In Water” which states that our thoughts and emotions affect the crystaline structure of water (see a video here). He took different samples from different places ranging from river, spring water to polluted water and labeled them with love, peace and few others with anger, hate and the results showed that positive emotions and words gave rise to certain crystal formation and negative words under the same situation gave rise to distorted bizarre structures. The food and water we intake is just a chemical composition but it affects us depending on the emotions and feelings we would have while eating, cooking etc. My takeaway from this is always pray before and eat with gratitude, silence and mindfulness- "Prasad Bhaav"

• Emotions: The feelings which we carry for ourselves as well as others are an important aspect in our health for example guilt, hatred, jealousy or compassion, kindness, love. As these feelings are opposite, their effect on bodily functions, sensations is also accordingly.

• Environment: The physical environment around us also affects our health. The air we breathe or water we intake, chemicals in personal care products also add to health or sickness. Studies say, no matter where we are, the drink water contains plastic particles in it.

Preventive Measures for COVID:

It is important to understand that COVID is a viral infection and there is no definitive treatment for it in modern science until now. But even any pathogen based illness can’t affect everyone in the same way. The internal environment of a body plays a big role in any disease. Boosting our immunity and observing a healthy lifestyle is necessary in prevention along with all major precautions and government guidelines. Few more points can be taken into consideration are

• Avoid cold food and cold water, as it increases risk of viral infections.
• Supplements like Vitamin C and Vitamin D3 can support.
• Herbs like saunth (ground dried ginger), giloy, tulsi, kariyadu can be taken as concoction. Giloy has high immuno-modulatory properties to help the body fight with infection.
• If infected, salt water gargles with turmeric and steam inhalation with ajwain is helpful. Light food, proper hydration and liquid diet can support and enhance the natural healing process of the body.
• Minimize watching news and social media platforms because it further breeds fear subconsciously. You can watch a little bit to keep yourself updated on key updates, but it is best not to keep watching it for long hours.
• In case of anxiety or fear firstly put awareness to abnormality and accept it. Then reach out for support to family and friends who have a positive attitude and can help.
• Deep breathing with breathing awareness for 2-5 min, 3 times a day has proven to be very effective. Just inhale slowly and deeply through the nose along with thoughts that with each inhalation, you are taking healing cosmic energy in and with exhalation, tension, tiredness, fear is going out. Exhale slowly through the mouth.
• Make Shavasana / yog-nidra / progressive muscular relaxation with positive programming, a part of your daily schedule. Recordings are available on the website here.
• Prayer- faith and surrender to higher power.

Children’s Care in COVID

• Children can get infected and transmit COVID like adults and as kids having less immunity, more prone to any bacterial and viral infection. But surprisingly, in COVID, chances of infection and severity is less as compared to adults and that’s a big sigh of relief to all parents out there.
• Infants < 1 year are at highest risk, so proper care to minimize contact is advisable.
• Avoid chocolates, cold food and cold drinks.
• It is crucial that parents do not impose their anxiety to kids, keeping kids engaged in creative activities is essential.
• Herbal concoctions are beneficial.
• In routine asymptomatic fever, we can wait for some time before directly jumping to medicines because fever and diarrhoea are detox pathways for the body.
• Hydration, rest and light food is essential in recovery.

The closing remarks of Bharat bhai summarizes the whole call so beautifully.

“People often think that advances in medicine have to be a new drug, a new laser, or a surgical intervention to be powerful; something really high-tech and expensive. They often have a hard time believing that the simple choices that we make in our lives each day; what we eat, how we respond to stress, whether or not we smoke, how much we exercise and the quality of our relationships can make such a powerful difference in our health, our well-being, and our survival, but they often do”.
- Dr Dean Ornish

Rahul gave a perfect close to the evening by inviting us all to sing a masterful adaptation by Dr. Manu Kothari of a famous Bollywood song, to depict a beautiful doctor-patient relationship.

Grateful to all for co-creating this beautiful evening, may all be happy, healthy, see the divinity and be free from suffering.