Chyavanpraash

According to Ayurveda, Chyawanprash comes under the category of 'Rasayana' which aims at maintaining youthfulness, vigor, vitality of the body and keeping away aging process, senility and debility. It maintains the proper functioning of the cells and rejuvenates the cells. As such it also keeps away diseases.

The Rasayanas are mean to impart long, healthy, disease free life, intelligence, power of memory, youth and luster. Among all the Rasayanas, Chyawanprash is most useful and famous. It is the most popular rejuvenating Ayurvedic tonic in India having a consistency of Jam and consisting of about 35 natural herbs including Amla (Embellica Officinalis) the richest natural source of vitamin C. It works on the immune system of the body protecting body against everyday infections like cough cold and fever. Thus it is very useful in children, old persons, tubercular patients and debilitated persons."

I clipped the above quote from an Indian web site. Obsessing a little here. Those of you who have listened to the Kitchen Doctor tapes have heard this story:

Long, long ago, there was a sage in India named Chyawan who lived in a forest. His hair was matted and he was covered with tree growth after years of meditating in the same place. A young princess was blindfolded and dancing in the forest when her hands touched the hair of the sage. Her father, the king, explained to the sage that it was the custom in his country that a woman could only touch one man in her lifetime. He thus requested the sage to marry to daughter. Chyawan asked if he could have two months to prepare for the wedding for he wished to be young again so as to afford his wife conjugal bliss. Thereupon, he developed the recipe for longevity that has remained India's most popular remedy, some say for 2000 years, others since the times of the Vedas.

Today, there are many recipes for Chyawanprash, ranging in ingredients from a mere 20 or so herbs and spices to 70 or 80 ingredients. However, the main ingredient, regardless of the exact formula is always amla or amalaki, a tropical gooseberry that is the world's richest source of vitamin C. It is, moreover, a source that remains stable in storage for years. The rest of the ingredients vary from regenerative herbs for the reproductive system such as ashwagandha and shatavari to spices that aid assimilation and digestion.

In Ayurveda, it is believed that most disease stems from problems in the digestive system. The Iroquois and many others share this belief. Ayurveda breaks digestion into three stages: the stomach, the small intestine, and the large intestines. Food that is assimilated in the stomach is used very quickly for the building of fluids, blood and lymph. What is assimilated in the small intestine affects mainly muscles and fat; and what is assimilated in the colon is used to regenerate the skin, bones, hair, nerve sheaths, reproductive fluids, and brain. Fragility of the bones and senility are thus colon problems and they are "vata" conditions, derangements of the air and ether. All proper maintenance requires good digestion and assimilation; otherwise, worn out tissues will not be regenerated, i.e. replaced by healthy new tissues.

A "rasayana" is a formula for just such tissue rejuvenation, and Chyawanprash is the most famous, and in my opinion, the most effective of these highly esoteric remedies. Moreover, it has been so thoroughly studied that it is legal to market Chyawanprash as an antioxidant, the best that has ever been researched in modern laboratories.
Sounding too good to be true? Little by little, all systems of the body work better, but most especially those that relate to the lower chakras.

In India, those with the means to afford Chyawanprash take it every day, usually at least from age 40 onwards. They generally use about 1-3 teaspoons a day.

As one might expect, in India, many people take Chyawanprash in warm milk, but I suggest that most people just eat some straight from the bottle. The taste is interesting, a bit sweet-sour in flavor. Most people are surprised that Chyawanprash tastes as good as it does. My dogs fight over the almost empty containers and all the dogs I've had for the last 20 years prefer Chyawanprash to bones.

Copyright by Ingrid Naiman 2002