Charaka says of all the treatments in Ayurveda Basti comprises the main component. By cleansing the colon and then applying herbal medicines there that nourish and heal the colon and improve its absorptive power we nourish the entire body. Charaka gives the analogy of nourishing a tree by its roots to get good flower, leaves and fruit.
I have been a patient of Ayushakti for six years and put (naively, I realise now) complete faith in the doctors abilities and treatment.
My first PK at Ayushakti was transforming; all my health conditions where 'solved' and I was thrilled. My new found health and happiness meant that I followed the diet and lifestyle instructions as recommended by Ayushakti without fault - of course, I wanted to preserve my sense of well being.
Six months after this first PK however, I developed a yellow-toned skin particularly on my hands, face and feet. Various alternative doctors put it down to carotene overdose (I did love papaya) but, even when I cut papaya out, my colour did not improve. I returned to Ayushakti (and saw various Ayurvedic doctors in between) and all put the yellowness, insatiable appetite and excess mucous down to Pitta. I continued to follow the prescriptions and regimes.
As time went by, my symptoms worsened. I developed melasma on the skin, amenorrhoea, very low energy and depression. I had also over the years broken several bones and been diagnosed with low bone density (at the age of 29) and was treating this with Ayushakti too. I do think that the bone density issue existed previous to my first PK, but certainly with correct advice at this early stage, I am sure its long standing effect could have been greatly curbed.
In May 2009 I was knocked off my bike and broke 3 bones; the shock of the accident, plus already extremely low energy reserves, sent my body into total decline. I went to another Ayurvedic clinic in South India, who made my condition severely worse. After being fed litres of ghee and having an insufficient virechan to remove the ghee, I returned home bright yellow, lost 10 kgs (I had only weighed 54 kgs when I arrived) and had difficulty breathing. I resigned from my work, packed up my life in London for a pause, and went to Ayushakti for 5 weeks to sort myself out.
My PK there was extremely helpful - they helped me out of the dire depression, my yellowness did improve, my skin improved dramatically - I was very pleased I had gone (and still am pleased).
On returning home however, I still felt extremely tired, I was still having breathing problems, my period had not returned, and I was still going yellow. Not willing to give up on natural healing, I went to see a phytochemist called Dr Claudia Louch in London. After full blood tests we found that I had been suffering from a severe deficiency in iron and specifically B12 (for those in the know, my Intrinsic Factor levels are healthy) resulting purely from malnourishment. B12 deficiency can show (amongst other symptoms) as jaundice, amenorrhoea, breathing difficulties, nervous disorder (which I was experiencing as numbness in the hands and feet), melasma on the skin, hair falling, high acidity (Pitta), AND low-bone density (megaloblastic anaemia); all of which had been expressed to Ayushakti over the years.
I am not saying that my dire health condition was all the fault of Ayushakti, we make our own diet and lifestyle choices at the end of the day. However, as professional doctors treating and advising people with serious conditions on diet and lifestyle, as doctors who allow patients to place complete trust in them, their skills are extremely questionable.
A week after starting B12 injections, and slowly altering my diet to include organic eggs, fish and meat, my period returned (I had not had a normal period in more than a year) and the yellowness literally vanished. Five months later and my cycle is completely normal again, my hair is no longer falling out, my memory is improved, I have energy, I'm not depressed, I'm no longer mucousy, I'm not constipated, and my skin is very slowly improving. Full healing will take time - it is wonderful to see my world waking up again.
Would I return to Ayushakti? I've not yet decided. It's a very relaxing place to be, I always feel incredible when I leave, the food is good, the guests are often very nice and, after four visits (over six years), I have very good memories there. I may go for a 3 week rest, detox and relaxation... but I would certainly not trust their opinion regarding any conditions again.
My experience has however made me question - do we really know the long term effects of PK? Sure, in the short term I always feel wonderful post Ayushakti-PK (I certainly can't say the same for the South India place), it seems though that the long term results have been far from desirable.
There is a huge hype with many miraculous claims surrounding the founder of Ayushakti, Pankaj Naram but it seems he is not schooled classically in Ayurveda at all and relies mostly on a more showman approach. Nadi Vidya or Pulse Diagnosis is just a tiny fraction of subjective diagnostic tools, but here there is a huge hype about the pulse. When I had my pulse read with Pankaj half was right and half was not so what is the point in a diagnostic tool that is only 50% accurate. Of course many diseases are very common these days so someone could easily get 50% just by speculating. It seems there is too much hype here and too little substance. When questioning Pankaj about basics on Ayurveda that even a 1st year student would know he quickly changed the subject so something seems highly misleading here. The hype seems to help though as people get pulled in and seem to get good results at least initially while they are mesmerized with the charm but Ayurveda is a very scientific system that does not need moods to heal it needs a doctor (Vaidya) to be properly schooled in the very fundamentals of the science, to live those fundamentals them self and to apply them in their treatment.
Many patients I have spoke with have had a mixed effect there and it seems this place really runs on it's hype. They are doing a lot correct, the restaurant has better food than 99% of the Ayurvedic centers in India, the building has a good feeling for an urban setting, the doctors working there seem sincere, though over the years they seem to have a huge staff turnover in general which is highly strange with many stories of disgruntled former staff members.
So all in all it's not all it is made out to be, there is a lot of reliance on creating a mood and hype focusing on the pulse diagnosis which is really used as a gimmick here to get you hooked.
I was attending the world social forum in Bombay and decided to go to Ayushakti simply for an Ayurvedic meal. I had heard about it online before coming to India some months prior. Little did I know what that meal would lead to! As they say...out of the frying pan!
I decided to have a "checkup" with Dr. Metha, she felt my pulse very cordialy and said, you need to do Panchakarma....now. I took her seriously and loved her gentle motherliness. Very special and sattvik soul she is. I always recall her words echoing "Panchakarma is a Tapas" when some patients had come requesting meat diet during treatment. More than anything this moved me very much. Also the story of how she had treated her father's heart condition considered incurable by allopathy.
So what endured was three blissfull weeks of intensive treatment in the care and love of Ayushakti. It was truly a deep cleanse. The Virechana took me to the deepest place I can recall in this earthly existence. I understood why she said it was a Tapas. The body is a temple, we are offering ghee, fire (steam), sneha (oil) to this body and purging and purifying the nadis (channels) the srotas (micro-channels).
What is the result ? It can only be enlightenment, consciousness, more energy, more will to be and to serve something higher.
It all happened at once. Now I understand why they call it Ayushakti.
It was really a powerful experience and I am happy to share with all. I pray the quality continues for all eternity the same. Perhaps someone can write a more recent review as this was in 2003/4.
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