The news is completely shocking to me. Ayurveda has been our tradition since ages and its reliability had endured for years. Mentioned in the Upanishads and the Vedas ayurveda brings in visionarily medicine for all diseases. Since the Britishers ravaged over our land, usurped our wealth, and scavenged our texts and knowledge Ayurveda faced such threat that we ourselves became credulous of its miracles! And today Ayurvedic traditions lay forgotten and medicines often unavailable that new chemical compounds have come into the market in the name of Ayurveda. It is such a pathetic condition that we manipulate our culture just for the sake of money.
Ayurveda have lost its importance in our hectic lives and our Western lifestyles. Pills have become more than a medicine as to a thing of credit. People take in pills as if it defines their status and the numbers keep in increasing day by day. The life closely bound with nature was the system of Ayurveda and now I'm afraid that i can point out people who cannot distinguish between a thulsi and a neem! How many of us can recognize the 'Muyalcheviyan" or the "Bhrahmi" and know exactly what is it used for and how?
This is the exact problem why ayurveda faces such downfall. When a company claims they have produced a herbal oil and names so many herbs and stuffs no one actually knows what those names refer to or what those medicines are actually used for. I have often noted that an ayurvedic product in its advertisement shows in a picture of Aloe Vera and Claiming that it is Bhrahmi!! Do they even know that they have mistaken it or have they actually showed Kerala that we don't know to distinguish between the two! Sounds interesting , I know but this is the main reason that different companies use their own customized mixture and method to manufacture the same product and that is exactly why the Advisory Board now find it vital that they standardise the ingredients and test them before it is issued in the market.
This doesn't sound much good because the decision as such shows that the Advisory Board itself confesses that the medicinal preparations have been customized for the sake of increasing quantity and not quality. I just hope this doesn't bring in black marks to our tradition of Ayurvedic practices. I just have hopes that our culture be preserved intact and without manipulations. If the companies can't even produce an ayurvedic medicine correctly as it have been prescribed in our ancient texts, I doubt how much effective and harmless will the new inventions be!
