Practical Ayurveda: Secrets of Physical, Sexual, & Spiritual Health

My daughter is studying massage therapy and requested this book. She said she is learning a lot from it.

A bit hard to rate, this is the first and only book I've ever read on the subject. I write this anyway, just to say that I think the book, or maybe rather "the subject of the book" is marvelous, and I find that most of these "health-ideas" or whatever one should call them, work extremely well and are easilly applied to my own daily life. In the past few weeks I have experienced a genuine "getting-better-both-mantally-and-physically"-feeling, that includes waking ealier, sleeping less (but deeper and feeling more relaxed and well-rested when I wake up), feeling less tired in my body, and genreally feeling much clearer in my mind and my thinking I have been "studying" various indian/eastern thoughts for the past 3-4 years, just for fun and because I find them interesting (and mostly true)and this sort of feels like the logical extension to most of it. Im not a fanatic, Im not a member of any weird cult or bizare comunity ... I did stop smoking and drinking to much though, now you are warned :-) ... but I think that this ayur-veda can really teach one how to better listen to the body, and get better at responding to some quite clear signals that tell us - all day long - whether we are living in a healthy way or not ...¨ This book is good at linking the ayur-veda-thoughts to the general "yoga-philosophies" ... if you don't like this, maybe the book is not for you ... my sister read it and called it "brainwashing propaganda" ... I think it works well, and have some really good explanations/insights on many things ... read it and find out ... I highly recommend it

Davia Frawley says in foreword: Practical Ayurveda is an excellent introduction to the system of Ayurveda and one that is concise, direct, and easy to understand. The book meets these observations. It is written to normal educated western audience. The author introduces the reader to the three humors ( three kind of bodies - Vata, Pitta, Kapha). He gives directions to identify one's body type. He explains how ayurveda views disease as imbalance of humors. Food is recognised as medicine. A chapter deals with herbs. ( Appendix gives the terms in latin, indian context). A separate chapter on weight loss and beauty care, which are concerns of modern human being. He has written a chapter on sexual rejuvenration methods. He points out from Ayurvedic point of view, sexual pleasure is postively viewed. The author is a spiritual seeker. He talks about his guru Poonjaji's a visionary trip to Himalayas where he observes that a sadhu cut off from all human contacts has a girlie magazine under his stone pillow. The author point outs that celibacy and brahmacharya are not one and the same. He also provides another woman seeker's personal observations in this context. Yet, the chapter is not balanced; A good bibliography is given, which referrences to scientific journals. A ideal book for marriage gift.

The foreword by David Frawley says:` Practical Ayurveda' is an excellent introduction to the system of Ayurveda and one that is concise, direct, and easy to understand. The book fulfills the observation. It introduces the concept of differnet body types; how to recognise them,how to make the changes in food habits and life style. He explains also the method of Ayurvedic diagnosis. The section on sex from Ayurvedic point of view discusses about his guru's visionary trip in Himalayas and also one of his woman's friend's insights about relation of spirituality and sex. There is a good appendix relating terms in Latin, Indian and English ( herb names). Interestingly, referrences are given from journals also. It enhances the scientific nature of the book. ( I have referred to a Jaico publication, in India)