The Charaka Samhita — the ancient classical text of Ayurveda — defines a rasayana as “that which promotes strength and immunity to diseases.” These are also known as great rejuvenators. In general, rasayanas create Ojas in the body. Ojas is the most refined byproduct of digestion and metabolism — it is known to be the connecting factor between every organ and system, connecting the inner physiology to the outer world.
Ojas is your neurotransmitters and hormones, so you can imagine how you feel if Ojas becomes depleted: not only will your energy go low, you may also feel depressed since both the hormones and transmitters dictate our mood. You could also catch colds and flus easily if your Ojas goes low since Ojas gives your immunity a great boost.
Ojas gets produced after the food you eat has been digested and absorbed properly, nourishing all the 7 tissues: blood plasma, blood, muscle, fat, bone, bone marrow and reproductive fluids. Ojas is finally produced after the 7th tissue, the reproductive fluids, have been nourished. More Ojas will be produced if you have both a healthy diet combined with good digestion.
It has been said that the rishis who cognized Ayurveda were asked, since we have all these hundreds of herbs and herb formulas for all the very specific imbalances, what would be the one formula that everyone could use, that could help everyone? Their answer was Chyawanprash.
Chyawanprash is Ayurveda’s gift to us. It brings together the best of all the divine herbs in a recipe that is not only balancing, but is also a delicious addition to the daily diet.
The preparation of the 52 herbs and plants it contains involves seven stages and is complicated because the herbs that are used have different properties that need to be prepared in distinct separate steps before being combined in order to get their full benefit.
The original creators of this formula taught how to infuse the different groups of herbs together based on how they are categorized property-wise.
There are 3 groups of herbs: Rasayana or rejuvenating herbs, detoxifying and cleansing herbs, and immunomodulating herbs. But when prepared properly, cooking the herbs into ghee and amlaberry, and mixing them with organic sugar and raw honey, the formula is fully potent and active, helping out the body as soon as it interacts with the oral mucosa. This happens because the ghee, honey and sugar act as yogavahis, or catalysts to deliver the herbs to the deeper tissues.
Once in the stomach, it detoxifies and travels through the gaps in the tissues, nourishing all aspects of the physiology.
Here’s what the Charak Samhita had to say about the benefits of Chyawanprash: Verse 70 says that Chyawanprash is a great tonic for the lungs, chronic cough and helps alleviate breathing problems. It supports and helps older physiologies while at the same time supporting the growth of children and young adults.
Verse 71 says that Chyawanprash supports the vocal cords, nurtures all 7 tissues, nourishes the heart, pacifies vata, nourishes the blood, takes care of excessive thirst, helps the urinary tract, nourishes the reproductive fluid and pacifies the aggravated doshas in the urinary tract.
Verse 73 says Chyawan Prash increases intelligence, boosts memory, enhances glow and complexion of the skin, keeps the body disease-free, lengthens the lifespan, strengthens all 5 senses, supports and promotes conjugal bliss, strengthening both male and female physiologies, and it also supports the metabolic fires, increasing overall radiance, and it pacifies apana vata.
And finally Verse 74 says that whoever uses Chyawanprash for the reversal of aging will get all the benefits of kayakalpa. Kayakalpa means “restoring youth to the body inside and out.” Which means it removes old age, helping one to reclaim beauty, strength and youthful skin.
But beware of just purchasing any Chyawanprash available on the market today. Many of the ingredients in the original classical formula are very hard to procure. The cost of gathering genuine ingredients is also increasing. As a result, many commercial Chyawanprash brands compete against each other with lower prices. And amlaberry is sometimes not even used in the proper form: the best is when it is made with wild harvested amla, as opposed to genetically modified amla which has known side effects. Plus amla found in the wild will always be more potent than that grown with standard farming techniques.
Another problem with commercial Chyawanprash nowadays is the use of refined white sugar as well as ghee derived from milk butter instead of yogurt butter. And almost all brands of commercial Chyawanprash are packaged in plastic jars. Amla, its primary ingredient, being acidic in nature, will interact with the container leaching plastic molecules into the mixture, making it highly toxic. In addition, herbal companies sometimes use preservatives to extend its shelf life. The original formula, when made right, will automatically preserve itself.
As you can imagine, my teacher and mentor, Vaidya Rama Kant Mishra, paid attention to all these details, getting the best wild harvested amla, organic sugar and cultured ghee and selling it in glass jars with no preservatives.
Sometimes it becomes overwhelming because there are so many hundreds of Ayurvedic herbs and formulas out there. Chyawanprash should definitely be on the top of your list of the one remedy you could take to cover all your bases, helping you to age gracefully with a healthy glow and strong immunity to disease.
I hope you will add Chyawanprash to your health regimen like I do.
Thank you,