YOGA AND AYURVEDA

By

Shruti Swamy

             Ayurveda practitioner Dr. Letizia Vercellotti just completed her forty day residence here at SRSG, where she taught a month long course on Ayurveda to the Gurukulam students and interested guests. Letizia hails from , and this marks her second visit to the ashram—but far from her second visit to , which she has been visiting since 1982, and also studying Ayurveda since that time. Now, twenty-five years later, Letizia combines her education in Ayurveda with her training as a psychologist, which gives her a unique perspective on the science of health.

When, as a newly married couple, Letizia and her husband first visited , Ayurveda was not on the agenda. They had come with the plan to teach skiing in Kashmir after seeing a picture of the snowy slopes. “When we got there, there was not a single tourist, and it was so cold!” she recounts. “But it was a blessing, because it led me to my Guruji.”

Letizia studied Ayurveda with her guru, who spent the last forty years of his life in silence. Her approach to the subject, of course, has been forever shaped by her time with her teacher, and she thinks of Ayurveda not as a medical science, but as an entire way of life, inseparable from yoga. “You cannot have Ayurveda without yoga,” she says, “Nor can you have yoga without Ayurveda.”  She says what attracted her to the field was how easily she could see it apply to her own life, “There is a very strong correlation between the theory and practical application.” 

           Her experience with SRSG has been a good one, she says, though teaching has come with its challenges. “Teaching here has been a spectacular experience,” she says. “The class was very diverse… the guests, the Gurukulam students, and some staff and residents. I’ve never faced this diversity of interest and understanding in Europe .” However, this added challenge came with its own reward. “In the end it was a good experience,” she says, “because I saw a real increase in the participants’ interest and attention once they understood the practical application. That’s why I’m happy. For a new group of people, the door is open. They will integrate yoga and Ayurveda.”