Prof(Dr). Rama Jayasundar

Head, Department of NMR & MRI, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India

About the session:
The special session is titled ‘Mind, Body and Consciousness in Ayurveda’. With increasing disease burden and mental health issues, there is growing acceptance of the necessity of addressing the spiritual and existential issues for a comprehensive understanding of health and wellbeing. There is increasing interest in understanding how consciousness and spirituality is experienced and expressed in illness and healing. The relationship between Mind, Body, Consciousness and Spirituality has now emerged as an important area in health research and clinical practice.
In this context, it is imperative to look at the body of knowledge that Ayurveda represents. Current scientific thinking considers consciousness as an epiphenomenon. In other words, consciousness is considered a by-product that occurs when matter attains a certain degree of complexity. On the other hand, Ayurveda (which stems from vedic knowledge) not only sees matter as being derived from consciousness but also considers no aspect of life to be disconnected from its source. Ayurveda connects entities considered disparate in modern science. The true aim of ayurveda is to connect us to a deeper experience of who we are. Ayurveda (along with yoga) helps us connect to the universal self and experience more peace, harmony and connectedness resulting in better personal and collective wellbeing. This session will explore these aspects of ayurveda and how it uses this understanding in healthcare.
About the organiser :
Prof. Rama Jayasundar is the Head, Department of NMR & MRI, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India. A PhD from University of Cambridge, UK, she is trained in Physics and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). She also holds the professional medical degree in ayurveda (BAMS - Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery). As an MR scientist, her area of specialisation is Biomedical MR - clinical imaging and spectroscopy, Neuroscience applications of MR, Radio-frequency (RF) coil designing & building, and RF pulse sequence programming. Her current research interests harness her distinctive training in experimental MR, physics, ayurveda and modern medicine for innovative research in ayurveda, its concepts, methods, pharmacology and clinical practices using NMR, MRI and a number of analytical techniques

Speaker 1: Dr. Shankar Adluri
Title - Mind Brain interaction from an Ayurvedic perspective
About the Speaker:
Dr. Shankar Prasad Adluri is one of the rare physicians holding dual qualifications in Modern Medicine and Ayurveda. He did both his Medical Schooling (MBBS) as well as Masters in Internal Medicine (MD) from Gandhi Medical College at Hyderabad. He also completed his Diplomate of National Board of Examinations (DNB) in Internal Medicine in 2001. Having worked as a consultant in the Department of Internal Medicine and Critical care in various prestigious institutions at Hyderabad such as Mediciti hospitals, CARE hospitals, etc. and having worked as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Gandhi Medical College, he started to pursue traditional learning of Ayurveda from Vaidya Dr I Sanjeeva Rao and Vaidya Pradyumnacharya Nilangekar. He followed this with formal Ayurvedic education by completing BAMS from Vagdevi Ayurvedic Medical College from Warangal and an MPhil in Ayurveda from Pune University in Rasa Shastra. Currently he is the Director of SIVAS Health and Research institute at Secunderabad and also works as a Senior Consultant Physician at Sunshine Hospitals in Hyderabad. He is actively involved in research in areas of immunology, infectious diseases and lifestyle disorders through the principles of Integrative Medicine based on the wisdom of Ayurveda, Yoga and Vedanta.
About the talk:
Mind Brain interaction continues to garner one of the highest scientific attention in present time, due to its close relationship to Human consciousness and existence apart from its utility for many upcoming technologies. Still a lot remains to be understood in this very complex domain. Ayurveda is an ancient Vedic medical science deeply rooted in, and utilising the consciousness based understanding of Life of Vedic darshanas. Hence it can provide some interesting inputs into this complex question from a meditative or intuitive understanding of its Acharyas, which apart from being relevant can have great implications in many areas of science and medicine.

Speaker 2: Dr. Tribhuwan Sharma
Title - Concept of consciousness and its implications in Ayurveda
About the Speaker:
Dr. Tribhuwan Sharma is one of the rare physicians holding dual qualifications in Modern Medicine and Ayurveda. He obtained his MBBS and MD (Internal Medicine) degrees from Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College, Meerut. He then went on to do MD (Ayurveda-Kayachikitsa) from Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi. He is presently doing private clinical practice in Haridwar and associated with Rishikul Ayurvedic college, and guides PG students in their research work.
About the talk:
In Ayurveda consciousness is classified into two - (i) Avyakta Atma (unmanifested), which is the cause of whole universe and is unchangeable (ii) Vyakta Atma (manifested), which manifests itself in the individual. Any activity is performed when Atma and Manas conjugate. Though Manas is active it is unconscious and hence cannot function without the presence of Atma which is conscious (Chetana Dhatu). This Atma (consciousness) is the ultimate reality and transcends all the physical and psychological phenomenon. Though Ayurveda deals with the ailments of mind and body like other systems of medicine, its concept of consciousness inherited from vedic philosophy makes it unique in its approach and aims. This will be discussed in the presentation.

Speaker 3: Dr. EM Vikas Neelakandhan
Title - Daiva Vyapasraya : An Ayurvedic approach to health through consciousness
About the Speaker:
Dr. Vikas Neelakandhan is an Ayurvedic Vaidya. He obtained his Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) degree in 2010 from Vishnu Ayurveda Medical College, Shoranur, Kerala (University of Calicut) and MD (Ayurveda-Rasa Shastra) in 2014 from Alvas Ayurveda Medical College, Mangalore under Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences. He trained under Ashtavaidyan Vaidyamadham Cheriya Narayanan Namboothiri at Vaidyamadham Vaidyasala Nursing Home for 4 years in Ayurvedic Psychiatry and Dr. Raveendranath at Poonthottam Ayurvedashram for 2 years in Panchakarma.Dr. Neelakandhan has a long family tradition in the practice of ayurveda, astrology and rituals. In his clinical practice, he uses practices of his family tradition and his training in ayurvedic psychiatry to treat mental health conditions.
About the talk:
The world is observing an alarming increase in the number and intensity of psychological maladies nowadays. In these circumstances, it is imperative to examine how Ayurveda, one of the oldest medical science with its own psychiatric principles, is relevant to deal with the present day mental health issues.Ayurveda proposes three streams of treatment -(i) Daivavyapasraya(ii) Yuktivyapasraya and(iii) Satwavajaya. While Daivavyapasraya is the healing of psychosomatic ailments using the application of consciousness, Satwavajaya deals with psychosomatic ailments by behavioral corrections etc., and Yuktivyapasraya treats psychosomatic ailments using medicines and therapies. A profound understanding of daiva vyapashraya chikitsa will give us an insight of using consciousness to heal the mind and body. In that sense, the study of daiva vyapashraya is very relevant. The presentation will explore this.

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