Interview: Dr Vinod Kumar, an Edinburgh-based ayurvedic doctor

APPROACH the gateway to a settlement in Goa, India and it's not uncommon for the head of the village to stop you and ask to see your tongue. If it's healthy, you're in. If not, you’re sent on your way.

“You can tell a lot about people from their tongues," says Dr Vinod Kumar, an Edinburgh-based ayurvedic doctor, yoga practitioner and teacher. And he proceeds to stick his own out for inspection. Unfortunately I don't know what I'm looking for, being a novice in matters of the tongue, but it looks fine to me. However, if I was to undertake one of the courses Kumar offers, no doubt I'd be talking tongues proficiently in no time.

Kumar, who also has sound medical qualifications behind him – he's a bachelor of medicine, bachelor of surgery and has an MSc (Ayurveda) from Middlesex University, London – is passionate about the healing powers of yoga and ayurveda and is on a mission to make them accessible to all.

Born in the north of India to a Hindu Brahmin family, he was raised in an environment where the natural healing rituals of his grandparents were routine.

“There was worshipping and giving water to the sun, saying prayers before a meal, worshipping tulsi plants (sacred basil), always entering the house breathing through the left or right nostril, depending on direction," he says.

From this background, Kumar went on to study traditional medicine and also excelled as an athlete, but later in life his interest in alternative healing therapies rekindled and he studied ayurvedic medicine to teach it to others, along with hatha yoga, kundalini yoga and yoga therapy.

“I transformed myself. If you have a competitive approach where you count how many push-ups you can do or how long you can stand on your head, you are playing with the ego, but now it's about contentment, maturity and enhancing awareness," he says.

Kumar places particular emphasis on yoga and ayurvedic medicine in relation to mental health and believes his new nine-week training workshop, ‘Staying Acute and Adept, an integrated approach to Yoga & Ayurveda' is unique in the UK. Aimed at health care professionals and other yoga therapists, it is designed to help them deal with those experiencing mental health problems and addiction.

“Traditional medicine does not treat the person as a whole but ayurveda treats the person as a whole, the mind, body and soul. It is a very flexible tool, the world's most ancient and comprehensive health system. Yoga and yoga therapy are important tools of ayurveda too. Add into this my herbal and other healing treatments and you will see why I believe I cover all the bases," says Kumar.

With practices at The Healthy Life Centre in Edinburgh, The Movement Studio in Glasgow and Union Yoga in Rodney Street, Edinburgh, where he runs regular workshops for the public and yoga practitioners and therapists, Dr Kumar knows about handling stress. Currently writing two books on Vedic philosophical concepts, he is also working to produce CDs and DVDs on some of his unique healing mantras.

And when he's not doing all of the above, he's treating private patients at home with herbal steam therapy, oil massages, dry herbal massage and shirodhara, a head massage with medicated oil. And for the stressed, overweight or those requiring geriatric care, he does a little life coaching too. Somehow he still finds time to practice his breathing for two and a half hours every day, since breathing correctly is the key to a harmonious existence.

So when it all comes together – the breathing, the yoga, the balance of mind, body and consciousness – how should it feel?

“When the subjective and objective join together, it's a feeling that should be left only as an experience. You can't define it."

You can't say fairer than that. And the point of it all?

“We need more than just striving for existence. We need to know about our true selves. How we can be in the world," he says. People think it must be religious and it's too much to absorb, but it's simple. My aim is to share my limited knowledge with others so that people can benefit and I can learn from them too.” n

JANET CHRISTIE

You can contact Dr Vinod Kumar on [email protected] or call him on 07868 492645. An hour-long consultation is £45 with discounts available www.ayurvedicquest.com