Dear friends, patients, fellow human beings 

Namaste from vaidyagrama, an initiative of punarnava ayurveda based in coimbatore in south india!
Please take time out to read this letter that comes to you from each of us who have chosen to make vaidyagrama our home.

vaidyagrama is an experimental green Ayurveda healing community borne of the desire to "live simple, live well, live healthy, live happy!" While this desire seemed to be easy to achieve, it is only at the commencement of this journey that we learnt how difficult this can be.

Nature was with us; the plants, the animals, the forces of nature were all with us. But society was not with us; the laws of the land were not with us; and most importantly we discovered a disconnect within our own selves – it was easy to talk about living life in tune with the principles of Ayurveda; it was more difficult to practice it. It was on this note that the journey began as we did the bhumi puja or the ground breaking ceremony in the month of January 2008.

Now, several years later, and wading through the midst of many obstacles, we have reached where we are now. More than 800 patients from over 50 countries have experienced the Vaidyagrama space. More than 70 of us attempt to take care of this space in as natural a way as possible; we learn every day from our mistakes. We are still in the process of creating the connect within our own selves and nature and as we progress, we are sure that this connect will become more evident in the response of the land to our efforts.

We also look forward to involving the surrounding villages in this endeavor to “live simple, live well, live healthy, live happy!” While our neighbors were initially skeptical of our efforts, today they are more inclined to listen to us and to understand what we attempt to do.

We believe that the creation of a self-sustained natural farming community built on the principles of Ayurveda is an ideal way forward in the interest of Mother Earth; and we have taken our first baby steps in this direction. We seek your support in the achievement of this process by understanding the following –

• this is not a perfect space; nature is not perfect; through the year, there will be occasions when the breeze is strong, when the heat is strong, when it is damp and so on. There is no “climate control” in nature. And hence if we choose to live in tune with nature, we endeavor to be in tune with the flows and sways of the environment around us
• none of us are perfect; we all make many different mistakes – some may be elementary; some may be complex. We will all continue to endeavor to learn from our mistakes; please be patient and help us to learn. We assure you that we would like to be “lifelong learners”. But please do not attempt to teach us to go away from nature
• some of us take longer to learn; some of us take less time to learn; however let all of us learn to be more patient, more persistent and more perseverant; thus as a group we will all learn to also be more forgiving and humble
• conventional paradigms may not be the solution at Vaidyagrama. For when we are trying to move away from chemicals, from synthetic, from machines as far as possible, how can a paradigm that works for the conventional community work in this space? we have explored many different paradigms and solutions before we reached here; we still continue to explore and learn what would be most suitable for the Vaidyagrama space; we have come to the conclusion that there is no readymade solution to learn from; we have to keep searching to create the holistic framework in which the Vaidyagrama paradigm would like to operate
• Vaidyagrama does not offer any readymade solutions to your health issues; we only offer a conducive environment to create a space within yourself whereby you can commence the process of healing
• we, here at Vaidyagrama, are a simple group; most of us are uneducated; some of us have had battered lives; many amongst us were, till recently, learning to survive through difficult situations at home and in our respective communities; it is only now that we have started to think about living healthy and living happy; hence do forgive us when we make mistakes; please do teach us but please do not get angry with us for then you will not achieve the purpose for which you came to this space
• we are still babies in the art of communicating especially in English; and hence please do ask us if the information is not clear or if you need more information; please do speak more to our physicians who can understand you better and communicate your needs to the rest of us
• we are trying to create healing relationships here; not transactional relationships. By reducing a healing relationship to a transactional relationship, we are violating the sanctity of the healing process. You are coming to a space that you can call home; in an ideal scenario, you would be contributing to the extent of your capacity to look after this home. Since today we are brought up in a transactional world and do not know to give our heart, an indicative fee structure has been put in place in Vaidyagrama to help you to know how much to give.
• there are the less fortunate amongst us who need financial support to be able to spend time in the Vaidyagrama healing space. The fact that they pay less does not mean that you are paying more. Vaidyagrama believes that nobody should have to forego the opportunity to be in this space only because of their financial limitations. And hence we choose to help those amongst you who need this support; of course Vaidyagrama has strongly adopted the value of “trust” and believes in people when they tell us that they are financially deprived
• you are most welcome to contribute more than the indicated fee if your heart so desires; it is only with the support of the larger community that this small community can reach where it intends to go
• you are not here to change us; and we are not here to change you! Each of us are here to help ourselves to heal, to grow, to evolve, and in the process to help others also to heal, to grow and to evolve
• it is best to come to this space as a family member; and to leave as a family member; the less the desire, the less the expectation, the greater the benefit on all levels
• you are coming to your home to spend a few days with family members; and leaving from here as a family member would, happy & light!

We pray for all round well being; we pray that we are able to continue to serve to the best of our capacity; we pray that Vaidyagrama is more home and less hospital for each and every one who experiences this space. We pray for your support in this journey that we have undertaken.

Yours in the service of humanity & Ayurveda 
The Vaidyagrama community.


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