Ayurvedic Guide to Wellness: Ayurvedic Rasayanas

Rasayanas: A Conversation with Vaidya Rama Kant Mishra

Q: What is a rasayana?

Vaidya Mishra: In the ayurvedic healing tradition, maintenance of good health is considered just as important as the treatment of disease. The branch of ayurveda that focuses on prevention, or maintaining the health of the healthy, is called rasayana shastra--the science of rasayanas.

Rasayana (pronounced ruh-sah-yuh-nah) is the designation given to special herbs, fruits and spices, or combinations of them, that are particularly renowned for the positive influence they have on overall health, vitality and longevity.

• Taken in good health, a rasayana optimizes all aspects of the physiology and is useful for keeping both disease and premature aging at bay.
• Not only does it offer diverse benefits for the different systems of the physiology, a rasayana is beneficial for a broad spectrum of humankind, regardless of age, gender or ethnic background.
• Further, a rasayana, besides being holistic in its action, is also balanced, generally creating no side effects even if taken indefinitely.
• Finally, a rasayana's benefits are also cumulative--the longer you take it, and the more regularly you take it, the more pronounced the benefit.

Turmeric, holy basil and ghee (clarified butter) are examples of ayurvedic rasayanas.
Amla and Harada, two of the three fruits that make up Triphala, are individually designated rasayanas. In combination with Behada, as the rasayana Triphala, they deliver an even more potent, synergistic healing boost to your physiology.

Q: What are the factors that you look for in raw herbs or raw rasayana substances?

Vaidya Mishra: To actually deliver the full spectrum of benefits that a rasayana substance offers, quality and adherence to the instructions laid down in the texts or passed down through the families of vaidyas for choosing, identifying, pre-processing and storing raw herbs and other materials are very important.

Herbs vary widely in their properties and the healer and the grower or supplier have to work closely to ensure the best final product.

Some herbs have one part that is therapeutically more valuable than the rest of the plant; other herbs are so full of healing intelligence that all parts can be used singly or in combination--for example, the leaves, stems, flowers, seeds and root of the Tulsi plant are all used in ayurveda. In fact, even the soil in which the Tulsi grows is sometimes used in external poultices. Grinding up all the parts of a plant without knowing whether one part is best or some parts are best or all parts are best, just in the interest of creating more bulk raw material, can sometimes dilute the therapeutic value of the resulting supplement.

Some herbs have to be picked in the night in the light of a full moon; others can be harvested any time of day. Season is, of course, important in determining harvest times--the herbs have to be at just the precise stage of maturity for maximum potency--grown enough to bring to fruition their healing value, but not over-mature with the properties starting to wane or 'sour.' Picking over a harvest carefully to sort out the best of the crop assures the best quality final product, even though the pick of the crop is many times more expensive than the rest.

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