Dhanvantari Vandana – May the World be healed

Dhanvantari Vandana

As the world and India reel under the onslaught of the Corona Virus, its time to revisit some powerful healing Mantras from our Vedic past. One such Shloka is the Dhanvantari Vandana.

In the Ayurveda classes that I am attending through the Living Without Medicine forum, our faculty Dr. Dhanwantri Jha recites just the first shloka.

"Namami Dhanvantari Aadi Devam, Surasura Vandit Paada Padmam,
Loke Jara Rugbhay Mrityu Naasham, Daataaram Eesham Vividhaushadhinaam"

A literal translation would be - I surrender to Bhagwan Dhanvantari, at whose Lotus feet all the Devas and Asuras pray for a long life. May the world be rid of old age, the fear of death, and be healed of various diseases through your medicines. 

Just read the Shloka aloud and it immediately gives a sense of calm. Here is an audio of the Dhanvantari Vandana, chanted 108 times by Swami Purnachaitanya. Do play it for a few minutes if not the whole hour. Watch how the energy around you changes.

The Sanskrit Effect

Just so our “modern” Indians feel more comfortable, I am sharing research done by a Neuroscientist, Dr. Hartzell. He felt after years of research that Sanskrit helps improve cognitive functions. A Neuroscientist Explores the “Sanskrit Effect”.

Sound therapy has been in vogue for a long time. Cows give more milk if music is playing in the background. Tibetan Singing bowls create specific healing sounds. Infact Krishnan and I went for a Shamanic sound healing meditation with Tibetan singing bowls at Zorba the Buddha in 2018. The healer was Lifang Huang. The effect was very therapeutic.

Osho has spoken about Sanskrit in his discourses on Isha Upanishad. These discourses are available as a book titled “I Am That”. Sharing some excerpts from that book –

“…Sanskrit is the oldest language on the earth. The very word sanskrit means transformed, adorned, crowned, decorated, refined – but remember the word “transformed”. The language itself was transformed because so many people attained to the ultimate, and because they were using the language, something of their joy penetrated into it, something of their poetry entered into the very cells, the very fiber of the language. Even the language became transformed, illuminated.”

“….The Sanskrit language is called DEVAVANI – the divine language. And it certainly is divine in the sense because it is the most poetic and the most musical language. Each word has a music around it, a certain aroma.

How it happened? It happened because so many people used it who were full of inner harmony. Of course those words became luminous: they were used by people who were enlightened. Something of their light filtered to the words, reached to the words; something of their silence entered the very grammar, the very language they were using.

The script in which Sanskrit is written is called DEVANAGARI; DEVANAGARI means “dwelling-place of the gods”, and so certainly it is. Each word has become divine, just because it has been used by people who had known God or godliness.”

All the more reason to make Sanskrit an everyday language like before. New research also points to improved cognitive function when using Sanskrit and ancient Vedic texts also say the same thing.

Prayers for the world to be healed soon …