Dr. Akhilesh Sharma

It’s time we gave Ayurveda the respect it deserves.”

His father was a diplomat, his mother a PhD in the times when women didn’t study much in India, and his grandfather a great spiritual master, yet it was his paternal grandmother who was the deepest influence in Dr. Akhilesh Sharma’s life and the reason why he opted for a career that didn’t quite jell with the vision of his parents.

“My father wanted me to follow in his steps, since I was the eldest and only son-I have two younger sisters. My mother wanted me to be a doctor and enjoy the prestige, glamour and wealth that comes with a medical career. Being a pretty good student, I did get admission into medical school, but suddenly things changed.”

Dr. Sharma’s younger sister fell very ill with a fever that wouldn’t go away and which the doctors failed to diagnose, a few months before Akhilesh had to join medical school. “My grandmother used to make these herbal concoctions that were partly taught to her by my grandfather, and people would get better. One night I lay next to her crying and asked her why she didn’t help, now that the doctors had given up. The next day she stopped talking to every one and started preparing some herbs and giving them to my sister. A few weeks later my sister recovered fully and that was a turning point for me. I was in a dilemma as to which branch of medicine I should pursue-allopathic medicine or Ayurveda which my grandmother practiced and which had worked when everything else known to modern medicine had apparently failed. My grand mother said –if you want my advice, then study Ayurveda-its is the only true medical practice.”

When Akhilesh decided to follow his grand mother’s advice all hell broke loose in the house. “My mother was aghast at the thought of her brilliant son, leaving a possible lucrative future in favor of a lost science taught completely in Sanskrit. But I persisted.” Dr. Sharma joined the 6 plus years Ayurveda medical program and soon after joining, went into depression. “It was all so weird… everything was in Sanskrit and I began to question what I was doing there. I couldn’t understand what was being taught and began wondering if it was truly medicine, but as time elapsed things got easier. Ayurveda, which literally means “the science of life”, is the natural healing system used throughout India. It was known to have been first developed and established by the great sages who developed India’s original systems of meditation and Yoga. The study of Ayurveda includes herbal medicine, dietetics, body work, surgery, psychology and spirituality. It not only deals with medical science, but also with the social, ethical, intellectual, and spiritual life of man. Ayurveda amalgamates the accuracy of science and the sublimity of philosophy, poetry, and art. According to Ayurveda, a living creature is composed of soul, mind and body. It is the compound of these three elements that constitutes the science of life.”

After graduating, Dr. Sharma and two other friends of his decided to work in a small Ayurveda hospital in the remotest part of the state of Haryana. When they reached the hospital, they saw a huge lock on the gate. On calling the doctor in charge they were rudely yelled at and asked who sent them there. “Evidently because this place was so far away and there was no bus service, very few patients even bothered to come there. Occasionally some one would show up to clean the place but the doctor handling the hospital was leading a cushy life, not doing any work and being paid. They kept the hospital locked to deter even the paltry few who might have wandered there by accident. When we said we weren’t leaving the guy spread rumors about us being immoral college boys from the big cities, who may have our eyes on the village girls. The villagers were told not to rent us a room to stay there. We noticed no one talked to us.”

Undeterred, Dr. Sharma went to Chandigarh, to meet the Secretary of Health. Once the three friends got in after bribing the clerk, Dr. Sharma told him what had happened. “I told him I come from a family of academicians and chose this profession after fighting with my folks but today I feel that it was a waste of 6 and a half years. This science belonged to India and this was no way to honor it. I had started crying by then and told the officer that he should feel free to rip our degrees.” The secretary was very moved – he called the doctor in charge, suspended him, recruited someone else in his place and sent the trio back. “Things were very different – we were given the red carpet treatment this time.” The three interns then started going to the over flowing state run hospital, and began bribing patients with promises of good food and that there would be only one patient on each bed and treating them. “Many were almost dying because of lack of the medical care needed to treat them and we were able to cure them and send them home. The human body is composed of the three fundamental elements called doshas, dhatus and malas. The doshas govern the physio-chemical and physiological activities of the body, while the dhatus enter into the formation of a basic structure of a body cell, thereby performing some specific actions. The malas are impurities partly excreted in a modified form after serving their physiological functions. These three elements are said to be in a dynamic equilibrium with each other for the maintenance of health. Any imbalance of their relative importance in the body results in disease and illness, and we were able to work on all the areas through diet and treatment.”

Dr. Sharma graduated with honors in Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery from Kurukshetra University, India. He also earned a diploma in Naturopathy in 1988 from the all India Nature Care Federation, New Delhi, and a Ph.D. in Herbal Medicine in 1992 from Varaneseya Sanskrit University, Uttar Pradesh, India. Dr. Sharma recently earned a diploma in Swedish massage and Shiatsu, familiarizing himself with other modalities of healing popular in the western world.

Dr. Sharma has operated a clinic in New Delhi for many years, together with his wife Dr. Minakshi Sharma. He has also served as the chief physician and Director of Research and Development for a leading Indian Ayurvedic pharmaceutical company. For over half a century, the company has manufactured a line of more than 400 Ayurvedic medicines. Dr. Sharma is widely recognized for his outstanding contributions in the field of Ayurvedic Medicine. In 1992, the former President of India honored Dr. Sharma with the Dhanvantrari Award, the most prestigious recognition in the field. He was awarded the Chikitsa Shiromani Award for outstanding contribution to Ayurveda in 1995. In 1994, he co-authored the Pancha Karma Vigyaniayam, recognized as a major text in the field. Dr. Sharma is often invited as a visiting professor for the college of Ayurveda in United States.

Dr. Sharma served as an Ayurvedic Consultant/Research scholar in the Moolchand Hospital, an Ayurvedic Research Establishment that is recognized by the Central council of Indian Medicine, Ministry of Health, and Govt. of India. Dr. Sharma also serves as Advisor to the Ministry of Health Govt. of Delhi and Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the All – Indian Medicine Graduates It was at Moolchand Hospital that Dr. Sharma I met Dr. Deepak Chopra’s father, the eminent cardiologist Dr. Krishan Chopra who became one of his mentors. “He was a big believer in Ayurveda and we had a fair amount of cross references. Mool Chand also had its own pharmacy, so we often went there to oversee and even be part of creating the medicines. I think I’m among a handful of Ayurveda physicians in the country that can put a pill in their mouth and just by the taste tell whether the pill has been made correctly.”

Dr. Sharma says what he does not like is the fact that unlike the Chinese model which gives both allopathic and alternative medicine equal status combining the best of both, India has segregated the two schools of medicine.

Recently there was a lot of hype about contamination in Ayurvedic medicines. Dr. Sharma says there are several factors that go into the making of the medicine and if the procedures are not followed correctly the medicine created may not have the expected effect. ‘There was a lot of criticism about gugglu for instance which cures arthritis and also helps in lowering cholesterol. The company that made it here did not purify the gugglu, nor was it prepared the correct way and obviously didn’t have the same effect. Also the soil and vibrations in certain mountains of India where some of these herbs are found cannot be replicated here. Therefore herbs grown here will not have the same potency or benefits as the ones we grow there. Federal regulations also vary- In India what may be acceptable within certain parameters may be considered unacceptable here.

In spite of all the criticism and skepticism that crops up from time to time, from some sections of the medical community, Dr. Sharma says that thanks to people like Deepak Chopra, the popularity of Ayurveda has sky rocketed. Dr. Sharma himself has done a lot to show through workshops, seminars and personal consultations how well Ayurveda works. He has become a very popular and sought after speaker and spends half his time traveling all over the world introducing Ayurveda to a global audience.

“It was interesting when I met Prince Charles after a presentation on Ayurveda, and after checking his pulse told him what ailments he had. He couldn’t believe I could tell him all that just by checking his pulse and joked that someone from his staff must have told me! But he was very open minded and asked me why Ayurveda had not received the respect it deserved and I told him candidly it was because the British did not let it thrive. He was gracious enough to acknowledge that what I had said made sense.”

Dr. Sharma says he finds a lot of stress among people these days. The women especially since they are multi tasking. He also feels that India will lose Ayurveda to the West if it doesn’t actively seek to protect its intellectual property ‘ The Us government and other private individuals are likely to invest what we haven’t in the past 60 years in research and development, and promotion of Ayurveda in the next five years. “

Dr. Sharma says that Ayurveda works because it is the oldest documented health care system on earth, while the history of modern medicine is only 300 years old.

“Ayurveda is also based on clinical observation and interaction between the human body and nature in micro and macro cosmos and yet we have sidelined this complete knowledge of life.. Today the book of contraindications is more than double of that of indications in modern medicine, and every medical doctor worth his salt knows the limitations modern medicine has.

That is why people like Dr. Deepak Chopra, who understood this way back, have tried to go beyond those limitations and embrace Ayurveda, in spite of being trained in modern medicine.”

Dr. Sharma adds that while only 7 and a half percent of the Indian budget is geared towards Ayurveda, yoga and yunani medicine, he is seeing a positive change in the attitude towards Ayurveda in India. His seminars and work shops have been also been a phenomenal success in America and Europe.

“Today, an estimated 300,000 Ayurvedic physicians practice in India, often in close conjunction with doctors trained in Western, conventional medicine or in homeopathy. Ayurvedic practitioners teach patients to understand their unique bodily constitutions and show them how to use diet, massage, herbs, and lifestyle adjustments to harmonize body, mind, and spirit. In recent years Ayurveda has begun to flourish alongside other holistic, patient-oriented, natural, non-invasive medical systems such as traditional Chinese medicine in other countries and I’m really happy about that.”

There are so many confusing comments on various aspects of alternative medicine, so let me begin by asking you: what is Ayurveda?

Ayurveda is a combination of two words-Ayu and Veda. The literal meaning of the word Veda means knowledge and the word Ayu means life-so it is a complete knowledge and know how about life. So Ayurveda, a Sanskrit word has a wider meaning than the word biology. Bio means life and logy refers merely to logistics where knowledge is much more than logistics of science. So Ayurveda has a much broader expression and vision about life. It’s just not merely a system of health care. It’s a complete approach towards life. So the word Ayurveda has a very sacred meaning and a very vast mission behind it. It is the oldest documented system of health care and philosophy towards life mentioned by the masters in the eastern part of the world and its origins are in India.

How does Ayurveda work?

We say that everything in this body is made of five elements-air, fire, water, earth and ether. Even Chinese herbology has picked up the concept of five elements, redefined it and created a four elements expression.
Billions of people on this earth are made of these 5 elements. They are called Panch tatwa and they combine in a particular combination called Vatta, Pitta and Kapha. These are the three basic humors of the vital forces and a person is healthy when all the vital humors are in perfect balance in the body. Whenever they get out of balance we start getting diseases depending on the symptoms and attributes of the three vital forces.

So in order to keep it balanced, the right kind of life style, diet, and code of conduct is needed. Its not merely just pills or medicine that makes you healthy. It’s the complete balance of all things and discipline required that creates the medicine of a life time.

It looks at the body not just in a physical way but also the psychosomatic, emotional and spiritual aspect which is also an integral part of the human body and any other living being. So Ayurveda’s core comes from the oldest philosophy of the world called Sankhya philosophy which talks about 34 tatwas or objects including Purusha which is the human body which must be stabilized within and connected to the divine. Ayurveda is not merely a health care system, or a physical body or merely a life style. It is the art of being.

You are born on this earth with a soul, with senses and a body and a mind, all of which have to be integrated within oneself. That is the objective of Ayurveda.

What is the difference between Ayurveda and modern medicine?

The objective of Ayurveda is keep a person continuously healthy and if at all you get out of balance due to unhealthy habits then how to get that balance back. Modern medicine says when you are out of balance, let me give you a pill to fix you, but they never look at the cause that created that imbalance in the first place and that it is important to keep you healthy all the time.

Many people seem to be self diagnosing and buying herbal supplements off the rack. Some seem to be going to doctors who are not qualified because of their ignorance. How do you know a genuine Ayurveda specialist from a quack?

The real diagnosis is made when the patient sees an Ayurveda doctor in person. It’s not just looking at the pulse, and merely the symptoms. It’s the intellect, the connection of one soul to another. When somebody comes to me, I have been trained by my masters to say a prayer in the form of a mantra, making a cosmic connection telling the universal consciousness or the Paramtaman or God, or whatever you call that Higher consciousness that O lord give me the best of intellect so that I’m able to get the best out of the body that has come to see me and am able to transfer the best of healing because this is not just a body but a part of you. With that intention and prayer I look at the person.

In modern medicine when you just fill up a form, it’s mechanical and is missing so many of the things which are beyond the understanding of bookish knowledge. It is like we have created a computer, but the super computer is our own brain, our own consciousness which has a higher level of intelligence of making a selective diagnosis or understanding what we should do with each unique person. Every being is a representation of God and there is no other way of attaining the greatest punyas (good karma) that healing another being. But if we are not sincere then we are cheating ourselves and the other person.

Health care in Ayurveda was never meant to be a business. It requires a lot of patience. You have to carefully examine every individual, and his psychological, physical and emotional condition. You start the diagnosis by looking at the way the person first walks into the room and presents himself, what has he gone through and what has brought him to the state he is in.

An Ayurveda physician has to advice the patient on life style, the kind of diet for his body type, the code of conduct he must follow and why discipline is important.

For example, if a person is hypersensitive and remains angry all the time because he is a big corporate head, we need to make him understand that anger is a disease and he has to avoid it. Medication is not the only answer. You may take a pill for hypertension but your blood pressure continues to fluctuate because you are angry all the time and not controlling your anger. Even being over ambitious at times can lead to disease, and then there are other things-family environment, family issues and so many other aspects that have to be dealt with and brought to balance. If you don’t do that and keep depending on a pill and not meditating and being taught to deal with the other issues then you are cheating yourself and the doctor is also cheating himself and his patient.
What makes a good doctor? You have to check credentials and look for references of course but the most important thing is to make sure the person has the credentials of being a good human being first and foremost. Ask other people who have been to him how they feel about him. Just because someone has the best degree from the best college and a license to practice doesn’t make him a good physician. If the vibrations are not good, the person is impatient, short tempered and is not able to understand what you are going through, and your consciousness tells you something is not right, you need not go back to them.

Again if he is more interested in telling you how much he charges, then too be careful. He may be just out to make a few quick bucks off you and nothing else. In Ayurveda, the most authentic physicians are in the remotest areas because the spiritual masters have said that health care is spirituality and spirituality is not for sale. The American market is opening up for Ayurveda, because there is a big spiritual craving. People have attained everything here in the field of material benefits but spiritual enrichment is unfortunately missing so to be able to understand that you have to start getting spiritual. Being spiritual is being aware of your own consciousness and seeing whether something feels right or not. If you develop that extra sensory skill, you’ll be able to see very easily who the true physician is and who isn’t. It can be any doctor no matter which science or system he or she belongs to.

How has Ayurveda changed you personally?

That is an interesting question. I read some of the stories coming from the scriptures and they had the direct influence of Ayurveda in many ways. For example, medicines like Arjuna and Ashoka were mentioned there and stand very true and valid even today. When we started living the Ayurveda way, started following the Ayurvedic diet for certain conditions we saw the healing process speed up and how it affected us at mental level even changing our thought processes.

When we planned to have a child in our lives, and followed some of the Ayurvedic principles we have seen amazing effects at physical, mental and spiritual level in our own kids. They are so bright with clarity of thought and action and have purity of consciousness.

We realize that these things are not merely stories. When you start living Ayurveda in your life, it can directly influence you. It changes your perspective of looking at life and yourself.

Even when you are suffering from a chronic illness, your perception of it changes in such a positive way that no matter how many difficulties you face in your personal love or relationship in your physical body you are able to combat all that and that is the strength of Ayurveda. It is a matter of personal experience for each individual. The more you dive into it the more you’ll find it an endless ocean of knowledge.