Plan your pregnancy the Vedic way

A decade ago an NRI couple from Canada lost their only child, an eight-year-old daughter due to an incurable genetic disorder. After subsequent medical screening of the couple, doctors strictly advised the mother (who had genetic problems too), not to conceive again to avoid a fatality of her child again.

A decade ago an NRI couple from Canada lost their only child, an eight-year-old daughter due to an incurable genetic disorder. After subsequent medical screening of the couple, doctors strictly advised the mother (who had genetic problems too), not to conceive again to avoid a fatality of her child again.

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Ten years later, however, the same couple now has a healthy eight-year-old daughter.

"This is a result of an Astro-Ayurvedva-Vedic Karmakanda effort at our hospital to help couples have healthy/ideal progeny via process of Ayojit Garbhadaan (Planned Pregnancy)," says Prof SN Gupta, Medical Superintendent at PN Patel Ayurvedic Hospital at Nadiad, Gujarat.

"And emboldened by the success of the practice which is inherent in Vedic form of living, eight to ten couples (from cross sections of society) are now registering selves annually with the hospital to deliver an out and out healthy progeny through the oriental way," Gupta added.

Entire process of planned pregnancy starts with Panchkarma Therapy (to purify the couple of any physical or mental health problems/defects), followed by a strictly followed month long schedule of Bramhacharya (celibacy) during which Rasayan Aushadhies of Ayurveda are administered to them.

It's during the month of strictly followed celibacy that qualified astrologers at Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vibhag of the parent institute, JS Ayurveda College (Nadiad), on the basis of meticulous planetary calculations fix the dates for a fruitful sexual intercourse between the couple, so as to lead to the best planned pregnancy, said Gupta, a professor at Dept of Kaya Chikitsa in the college.

Just after the process of conception is detected by Prasuti Tantra experts (Ayurvedic gyaenecologists), the priests from the Sanskrit section of the college go for necessary rituals and yajnas to ensure a healthy conception.

Even as the rituals and yajnas go on, the experts of Ayurveda ensure a perfectly healthy dietary schedule for the pregnant woman along with necessary herbal medicines during various stages of pregnancy.

During the period of pregnancy, while the Vedic Karmakanda specialists perform Punsavan Sanskar (for spiritual awakening of the would be mother) special herbal medicines too are administered to her for a side effect free immune enhancement, which will lead to the birth of a healthy child without any congenital problems, Gupta said.

And the newborn too is welcomed in the world with process of Jata Karma, where Rasayan Aushadhies are delivered to the baby amid chanting of Vedic mantras, followed by Nishkrama Sanskar when the baby is exposed to sunlight for the first time.

The entire process of having an ideal/healthy progeny doesn't end with Nishkraman Sanskar, but is capped by Annaprashan, a ceremony where the baby consumes first morsels of staple food amid Vedic rituals to ensure healthy future for the baby, he added.

In Varanasi recently to attend a CME at Department of Rasa Shastra (Faculty of Ayurveda, IMS-BHU) Gupta said "the process is not religious but purely based on Vedic sciences, taking into cognizance the important sanskars of a life cycle spanning from Garbhadan (conception of foetus ) to Agni Sanskar (cremation after death)."