Kolkata, Dec 4, 2016: After 6 successful sessions, the 7th World Ayurveda Congress took place in Kolkata from the 1st-4th December 2016. The previous versions were held in Cochin, Pune, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Bhopal and Delhi- were successful and have received a very god response. Bengaluru received the highest number of delegates and Pune had the highest number of visitors.
The 7th WAC was held at Science City in Kolkata. This event comprised of 5 plenary sessions, 25 parallel sessions and a huge number of presentations with associated events. The magnitude of the previous versions have elevated the expectations of the stakeholders, Ayurveda practitioners and enthusiasts.
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The goal of the WAC is to revive trust in the therapeutic value of Ayurveda, which is affected due to the advances in modern medicine and therefore people are losing trust in the traditional methods. It aims to make Ayurveda an integral part of healthcare. The WAC was started to provide the enthusiasts with a platform to support Ayurveda with the help of proper infrastructure. The WAC facilitates the acceptance of Ayurveda as a whole healthcare system is adaptable everywhere.
Dr. David Frawley. Wikimedia
The enthusiasts and intellectuals who attended this conference saw eminent personalities speak during the 4-day event.
One of them is Dr. David Frawley, or Pandit Vamadeva Shastri who is an American Hindu teacher and author and has published many books on topics like the Vedas, Hinduism, Yoga, Ayurveda, Vedic astrology. He also founded the American Institute of Vedic Studies in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pandit Vamadeva Shastri was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President of India in 2015.
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Dr. Frawley questioned the marginalisation of Ayurveda in India which gave birth to the form of medical practice. He asks that if a communist government like China's can promote and support their traditional medicine practices involving Chi, why could the Indian government not support Ayurveda until Narendra Modi's term.
He pointed out that there is an increasing number of healthcare issues and the segment of the world's population which cannot afford modern medicine need to resort to natural ways of healing like Yoga and Ayurveda. This means that Ayurveda needs to be more widespread and accessible around the world.
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"Drugs should be the last rather than the first means of treatment, beginning with natural healing methods like yoga and ayurveda instead. Special ayurvedic methods of oil massage and Pancha Karma, such as are popular in Kerala, can remove disease-causing factors before the disease even manifests," said Dr. Frawley to DailyO.
The world and above all India should honor its traditional healing practices of Ayurveda and accept it just like it embraced Yoga.
-by Shivam Thaker of NewsGram. Twitter: @Shivam_Thaker