113: Figuring Out Your Dual Dosha with Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar

Namaste. It's Sahara Rose and welcome back to the Highest Self podcast, a place where we discuss what makes you your soul's highest evolvement. It's time for ancient Ayurvedic wisdom to become mainstream, modern and plant based. I am so honored to be sharing with you my brand new book, Eco Eat Feel, a contemporary Ayurvedic plant based cookbook. As Dr. Sue Hoska, Shirsagar Ayurvedic expert, says, Eat Feel Fresh provides a wealth of knowledge about the Ayurvedic way of cooking. The book is well organized, a treat to your eyes and a sheer pleasure to read. Sahara Rose is a shining light who will inspire you towards living a healthier and happier life. So sweet of him. So head over to eatfeelfresh.com book to place your pre order and as my token of gratitude I will send you in your email 10 bonus recipes that are not available in the book. And for all North American orders I will send you a signed book plate as well as an inspirational card in the snail mail from me. I am so excited to guide you on this journey and know that it is going to transform your life and health forever. I just got back from an incredible time in Santa Cruz where I spent time visiting Dr. Suhas Kashir Sagar and it was so, so so enlightening. And best of all, he has written several quotes in my book and on the back cover of Eat Feel Fresh. So Eat Feel Fresh is a plant based Ayurvedic cookbook that is inspired by ingredients all around the world. I believe Ayurveda is so much more than a rigid set of rules that only consist of Indian foods. And many Ayurvedic doctors who've been practicing for decades, such as Dr. Suhas Kashir Sagar, Dr. Deepak Chopra, John Immel, et cetera, Dr. Vrinder Sodhi. All who have been guests on Highest Self podcast and have different accolades for my book, all agree. So this is the way Ayurveda is shifting. It's taking the guidelines of Ayurveda but applying them to so much more than just Indian food. And to look at them from a lens of today's day and age. Because society has changed, right? 5,000 years ago we didn't have refrigerators, we didn't have all these chemicals and GMOs. Society was so, so, so very different. So we have to look and see what makes sense for today's day and age and what doesn't. So I really dove deep into these subjects of why. Why does Ayurved you can't eat something that was cooked more than three hours ago? Well, because they didn't have refrigerators back then. Why does it say dough mushrooms? Oh, well, because psychedelic mushrooms are growing there. So I look at Ayurveda from a contemporary lens and show you how you can easily and affordably integrate Ayurvedic guidelines in your lifestyle. I teach you how to make breakfast specifically for your main dosha, the dosha that is out of balance, which we'll be discussing in today's episode. Lunches that incorporate the six tastes. I call them six taste bowls. And these are the six tastes every dosha needs, every person needs, because they balance all of our senses and all of our nutritional needs. And you can alter them by including more of the tastes that balance your specific dosha that is out of balance. And cater it to the season as well. And then I have dinners that are tri doshik things that you can make for your family, your vata husband, your pitta kid, your kapha daughter, whatever it is. And also because a lot of us are dual doshas, which we talk about in this episode. So we may feel like, I'm pitta and I'm vata, so how do I make something that's gonna be balancing for both? So I dive deep into that in the book. Eat, feel fresh, and I talk about what are the ingredients that you can take out, how you can make it work, what are the combinations? So if you're a vata and a pitta, what is that diet going to look like? If you're a pitta and a kapha, what is that diet going to look like? And more importantly, how can we make this functionable? If I work and I don't have time to cook and pick my own spices from my garden, et cetera, how do I make this work? And that was really my priority here because I can give you the most specific, detailed herbs that you have to ship from India, but that's not going to be sustainable. So all of the ingredients in the book are things that you can just find at your local farmers market, Trader Joe's Whole Foods, wherever it is that you shop. Really easy, affordable, delicious, multicultural, just the new renaissance of Ayurveda. And I am so excited to have Dr. Suhas Kashir Sagar on part of the book and to share this wisdom with you. This episode is brought to you by uvada. Uvada is a modernized Ayurvedic supplement company that takes certain issues that we have such as Mood joints, Immunity, digestion and creates these custom little packets exactly for us infusing ancient Ayurvedic herbs with modern vitamins and minerals. I take the mood formula daily. It is great if you work a stressful job, had adrenal fatigue, ever suffer from anxiety or even depression and it really heals you from from a fundamental and holistic level. So if you want to try it out, head over to Uveda Y O U v e d a.com use the code Sahara and you'll receive 35 off your first order and they now ship to almost every country globally, so check it out. If you live internationally they may be shipping to your country too. And they just added India Guys. This episode is also brought to you by Lola, a female founded company that offers a line of organic cotton tampons, pads, liners and all natural cleansing wipes. The FDA does not require brands to disclose the full comprehensive list of ingredients in their feminine care products, so most of them don't. Lola is fully transparent about the ingredients found in their products and they are all made of 100% organic cotton with no added chemicals, fragrances, synthetics or dyes. It makes your month so much easier. Their boxes are fully customizable so you can choose your mix of products, absorbencies, number of boxes and the frequency of delivery. Their boxes is super flexible. You can change, skip or cancel your subscription at any time. I love Lola. I've been using it for many many years and I recommend it to every high self podcast listener who gets their period. You can order Lola for 40% off your subscription@mylola.com and enter coupon code Sahara for 40% off when you subscribe. I am divinely honored to have Dr. Suhas Kashir Sagar back for a second episode on the Highest self podcast. If you haven't listened to episode 51, why changing your schedule will change your life, I highly recommend listening to that episode as well. Dr. Suhas Kashirsagar is such an incredible human being. He is an Ayurvedic doctor. He is the author of Change your Schedule, Change your Life as well as Hot Belly Diet. I was connected to him from Deepak Chopra. Deepak also wrote the forward of his books and they've known each other for many decades now. They both came to India at the same time and studied under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Transcendental Meditation founder and are very good friends. So I am so honored to now have Dr. Suhaska Schirsager in my life as a Divine Mentor. He is all over my book. My new book, Eat Feel Fresh. I have several quotes of him throughout the book. He wrote a beautiful quote for the back of the book and is just such an incredible light and support and wellspring of knowledge. And I was actually fortunate enough to just one week ago visit him up in Santa Cruz where he has his office ayurvedakhealing.net and he did an Ayurvedic consultation as well as a GEO consultation on me. And we actually talk about Jyotish as well. Jyotish is the Vedic astrological system. So the word Ayurveda means the science of life or the knowledge of life, whereas Jyotish is the science or knowledge of the stars. So again, they're sister sciences with yoga, with Pranayama, etc. They all come from the Vedas, the world's oldest written texts of knowledge that spring back over 5,000 years ago in the Indus River Valley in what is now Northern India. So really sacred stuff that we're learning here. But what I love about Dr. Suhas is he makes it really relatable, really approachable, but still comes from that really sacred lineage. So in this episode, I talked about all of the questions that I get from you guys that I am always answering. But I felt like this is an amazing opportunity to have someone like Dr. Suhas answer, because he's just been working in Ayurveda for, you know, over 50 years now. So he is someone that really comes from an ancient background background, and I wanted you guys to hear it from him as well. So a lot of you guys are confused about dual Doshas and what to do if you can relate between two. So I asked him all about that. I asked the questions that you guys have for me to let him relay the message. But just for a recap for those of you who may have this episode be the first one you're ever listening to of the Highest Self podcast, maybe you've never heard of Ayurveda before, etc. Ayurveda is the world's oldest health system, and it is based off of mind, body, balance. And when your mind is experiencing certain things, your body will probably be experiencing them too. And now we're seeing that, you know, our gut, 70% of our serotonin in our brain is stored in our gut. So we're seeing the gut brain connection. But it's so much more than just the gut. The gut is just the beginning. It's everything in the body. I'll give an example. When I was with Dr. Suhas last week. He is an amazing pulse reader. So he took my pulse and from my pulse he was actually able to tell that my eyesight in my left eye was worse than my right eye and it was actually deteriorating. Deteriorating because I'm, you know, on my computer all the time writing emails, etc. But he was able to even tell that level of a specific and he was able to tell that it was coming from tension from the lower base of my skull. Because what's happening on the base of your skull is going to be reflecting in your eyes and that's actually related to what's the tension in my shoulders and neck. So something like that. Your neck and shoulder tension can be related to your eyesight. Poor eyesight is going to cause you to squint, headaches, et cetera. So it's like all of these things, it's like a little domino effect of how they're interconnected. So in Ayurveda, anything that's going on in your body is going to be going on in your mind. Vice versa. But for a lot of us, we are confused because you've taken a dosha quiz, maybe you've taken mine, you've taken someone else's, maybe you've read Idiot's Guide to Ayurveda and you can relate to two, or you can relate to all three. So before we dive into this, I just kind of want this back frame to be acknowledged that you are all three doshas. You are not just one dosha, you are all three doshas in varying amounts. So you are born with something called a procrati. And your procrita is your natural born constitution. Just like in astrology, you're born with a unique set of all of the planets. You're not just a Capricorn or just a Scorpio. You have so many different planets in different signs. So it's the same with Ayurveda. You have all three doshas in varying amounts and certain parts of your body may be higher in one. For example, my skeletal structure is vata. Really weak, small bones, tendency to crack, small wrists, etc. But if you looked at my face, I wouldn't look like a vata. In my face I have more of a round face, big eyes, big cheeks. And vatas have more caved in faces. Or if you saw my personality, it depends on the day. One day you might say, she's so pitta, she's working really hard. Another day you may say, she's so vata, she's super creative. So we have all of these sides of us, but in varying amounts. So your prakriti is what you are born with. It doesn't change. It's saying you are primarily vata, secondarily pitta, lastly kapha for example. So I actually later found out in my consultation with Dr. Suhas and again at the Art of Living center where I did a panchakarma last month, that my prakriti, my natural born constitution, is pitta, then vata, then kapha. But they're very, very close. So it's like almost tri doshic, but that's just the order that they're in. But I actually have always thought I was a vata because my vata was out of of balance. I had too much vata going on. So I was experiencing all of the vata symptoms. Bloating, gas, constipation, my hair was falling out, I was cold all the time. I was had really dry skin, I felt weak, I was anemic, I stopped getting my period. Eventually I had such a bad vata imbalance, which is what brought me into Ayurveda. So when I would take these quizzes, I thought, oh, I'm a vata, vata, vata, vata. And I was vata at the time. That was the dosha of mine that was in excess. But I was not born a vata. I was not born primarily with that dosha I had just created. That dosha can balance from eating too many raw foods, cold foods, dry foods, frozen smoothies, et cetera, living in a cold place. On top of that, doing a lot of cardio exercise and also living a vata life. Like not knowing what I was doing, multitasking, being thrown all over the place, not having schedule and not being disciplined, not being home often enough. So all of these things mentally and physically were creating a vata imbalance. You can also create a pit imbalance. I had a pit in balance I created for myself last year when I was doing the book launch for Idiot's Guide to Ayurveda. I was staying up. I wrote the book in two months, so I was staying up till three in the morning every night getting the book done, drinking coffee so I could stay up just hustling all the time, getting this book done, interview podcast this, that I was in straight up hustle mode to make it happen. And that created a pittsa imbalance which led to adrenal fatigue. My body was so stressed out, my cortisol levels were so high. Cortisol is the stress hormone that after a Period of time when your cortisol is so high, your body's like, hey, I can't deal with this level of stress. So your adrenals basically stop responding. And that's actually more dangerous than being stressed because a stress response means your body is able to respond to the stress, but if you're not responding, that means your body's basically kind of knocked out. That's what burnout is. And it's funny because pitta is fire, and all of our terminology, a burnout. You know, you've burnt out your fire. So that's what a piton balance looks like. And in the body, that can look like inflammation, rashes, breaking out in hives. I broke out in hives last year, and that had never happened to me before. And inflammation, acne, rosacea, just irritations in general are related to pitta as well as with cortisol, you gain weight in your stomach. So I talked about this in my episode about healing adrenal fatigue. But I start to gain a lot of weight in my stomach and just around my middle midsection area. And that's actually related to cortisol because the stress hormone is stored kind of on that waistband area. So you may look skinny, but you actually have all of this fat. That's why they say, like, skinny fat, which I don't think is a very nice word to use. But basically, if I just had to wear baggy clothes all the time because I was gaining all this fat and something I'm still recovering from, I was. I'm going to do a recap on my adrenal fatigue now. Eight months later. But now my adrenals are responding to stress. Now I have. My adrenals are too high, which is actually better than adrenal fatigue when I'm still trying to balance them. And then a kapha imbalance can look like those times that you're just in a slump and you don't feel like, you know, doing all the things that you used to do, and you're just tired and exhausted. You just need to take a nap and your energy is low. And, you know, maybe you're eating foods that you normally wouldn't eat because you're just feeling so depleted and tired, and you maybe you've given too much. You've been taking care of other people, taking on other people's energy, so you're feeling heavy, and that heaviness that you're taking on emotionally, all those other people's energy gets stuck on your body and you start to gain weight, and it's really difficult for you to lose that weight and you feel like, oh, my God, I'm barely even eating and I just keep gaining weight. Keep gaining weight. Well, it's because it's more than just the foods you're eating. It's your energy. Your energy is taking on too many things. So when you have a kapha imbalance, that weight actually tends to be in the hips and in the thighs. And if you think about that energetically, it's grounding you, it's connecting you to earth, it's making you more rooted. And kapha is earth energy. So even the places that you gain weight can be different. A lot of people think, oh, I'm overweight, so I must be kapha. And that's not true because the types of places that you gain weight is related to your dosha. If you have a more pear shaped body, you probably are more kapha. They tend to have the curvier bodies. Beyonce, that's a good example of a kapha body. She's the fittest person ever, but she has that kapha body, the hips and the booty. And she has a very kapha face, kapha voice. Kaphas have really sweet, loving voices. And they have this maternal, giving, romantic, very like the planet Venus, I think of that. Very Venusian, luxurious. They have that energy, thick hair, and they tend to have just more of a strong body structure. I mean, like, look at Beyonce on stage. Like, girl, you're squatting up and down. It's crazy. She doesn't get tired because of that kapha. She's rooted to earth. The energy is coming from something so much deeper than her. So again, if you're kapha doesn't mean that you're destined to be overweight. It just means you may be more likely to, but doesn't mean so at all. You actually have the strongest endurance of all of the doshas. And if you're overweight does not mean you are kapha. You can be pitta, you can be a vata overweight. Vatas can also gain weight too. So sometimes you have a doshik imbalance of a dosha. That's not you. You can have a vata imbalance, being burnt out, anxious, insomnia, but it's more of a winded burnout, right? It's like, oh, my God, I'm just so scattered. That's a vata pitta burnout. It's gonna be like, whoa. I've been stressing, I've been going at it, I've been working, I've Just been like, my head down on this paper, doing my work, and I totally let go of my social life. Relaxation, self care. That's what a pitta looks like. It's fire. It's strong, it's. And then Kapha is depleted, tired, exhausted. So we talk more about this in this episode, but I wanted this to be kind of a recap in, like, you know, just modern, everyday language so you understand, because Dr. Suhas is very, very intelligent. And so for if it's your first time listening to anything about Ayurveda, just wanted you to be aware of this so you can make the most out of this episode. And he's an incredible person, incredible author, incredible friend of mine, and I'm so excited to have him here on the Highest Self podcast. So without further ado, let's welcome Doct Suhas Kashirsagar. Namaste. Welcome, Dr. Suhas, to the Highest Self podcast. It's so great to have you here.

Thank you, Sahara. So happy to be with you.

Thank you so much. So I'd like to ask you this question again. What makes you your highest self?

Well, I think what makes me my highest self is to be in my own dharma. This is something that I remind myself on an everyday basis that who am I? What am I doing? What makes me pretty content and happy at the end of the day where it fills my life with a lot of hope, joy, and gratitude. And if I can answer these questions positively every day, then I feel that I am living up to my highest self. I'm going out with a degree of excitement, with passion, like a little kid, as if I'm talking to someone the very first time in my life, saying the same thing, what I've been saying for over 25 to 30 years now. But it's the excitement, as if every new patient is. You are explaining this all over again. Every new person you meet or every new venue you give a lecture or talk, you are just passionate like a kid. And that sometimes tells me that it is not the information, but the way you carry the information and the way you share that with your passion that makes you feel as if you are in your Dharma. And that feeling of Dharma, it sounds right, where everything else aligns properly. You meet the right kind of people at the right time, the things happen for you. You get and seek the right kind of blessings and support from everyone else around. And I think that's a wonderful feeling. And I'm very happy and grateful to have this wonderful occupation that I do, which makes me pretty excited and Committed to on my path.

Beautiful. And I absolutely agree. The doors just open when you're on the dharma path. So I love speaking about how the Dharma is related to the dosha. And I'd love to talk with you about how you've noticed that people's natural dosha constitutions, their prakritis, are related to their dharma paths.

Well, it's a great question, Sahara. And I'm so happy that you are actually demystifying this very ancient concept. Because when you talk about doshas and the body type, the mind body type that you are having predominance over, it comes from several different factors, means we commonly say that you inherit these doshas from your parents. That is partially true. What is partially true is, yes, you inherit your doshas from your parents, but there are so many factors that comes into it. Your intrauterine life, the good and bad emotions that your mom was exposed to good or bad food that she was exposed to, the initial epigenetic atmosphere that you were born and raised, the kind of food, the kind of lifestyle choices, the early childhood experience, they all kind of mold and sculpt you towards your doshik attributes. And Ayurveda has been talking about this for a millennia, for thousands of years now. And it actually says that shukrashoni sah yo dosh bhavet utkatah. So whenever the sperm and ovum are coming together to create the first cell of your body, it's a whole genetic conspiracy that is coming together which is fully encoded with so much of information. The color of your eyes, the color of your hair, the quality of your skin, the strength of your bones, the strength of your muscles. Every little thing is information in the DNA that is comb bind together. And we call this as the initial genetic blueprint. And as we grow older, that genetic blueprint that we are kind of fused together, which is kind of set in a stone at a starting point, starts interacting with everything else. And that interaction gives rise to the body that we create, the mind that we create, the lifestyle choices that we make and who we ultimately become. So I think Ayurveda from modern science is actually validating this experience. There are lots of that are used in modern day genetics that are called as genotypes and phenotypes. So genotype is the environment where you are exposed to, and phenotype is who you are and how you interact with the environment. There's a slow shift and change that happens. If you start living in Manhattan very soon your body will start thinking, behaving and Acting like that. If you are living in some jungles of Africa, your body will start thinking, behaving and acting exactly like that. And it will create the physiological functions based upon the environment that you live in. So when we talk about this concept of prakriti, Prakriti is a starting point and then it goes unfolding in creating 150 cells or trillion cells that you have in your body. And that is exactly what we call it as prakriti. The moment we deviate from that initial set point or the thread of wholeness, we end up in having something, what is called vikrati, which is imbalances. And I think it's so interesting when I was looking at your upcoming book that you're going to share with everyone, food is information. And that information is talking to your genes at a cellular level, at a DNA level, at a very, very minute level. And that is interacting with how your genetic structure is going to respond to the food. And food is just one part of the nutrition. And you have said that beautifully in your book. Where every sensitivity experience is kind of ingestion is an experience that goes in and that creates your body at every point in time. So you have a chance that you can change your lifestyle, you can change your behavior, you can change your emotional process, you can change your food habits, exercise habits, and slowly you can create a new body. And that is what in Vedic terms we call it as kayakalpa, which is complete transformation of your body at a cellular level, at a genetic level. And I'm so pleased with the kind of work and the message that you carry and share with everyone else. It's exactly. This is the new kind of medicine that we are talking about. This is the medicine for the millennia. This is the medicine which is much more cutting edge than even modern day genetics. Genetics, because we are still stuck in this model where the disease is something where there's a distorted pathways and we had to bring in another molecule to counterbalance that. But what we are learning now, that the genes can be turned off and turned off just the way you perceive your life and the way you live your life.

Absolutely. And thank you so much for all of your kind words. And I definitely agree. Ayurveda is the cutting edge and also the most ancient coming together. And we're just really experiencing the things that Ayurveda and the Shaka Samhita said millennia ago. A question that a lot of people have is that they connect with two or maybe all three doshas and they are confused which suggestions to follow and what their dharma is. How do you recommend people really decide what their prakriti and vikruti is?

Well, they are absolutely right because everybody is made up of all the three doshas. There is no one who is not having all the three doshas. Ok, so everybody has all the three doshas. Number one, when you talk about the prakriti or the predominant dosha, there is one or two doshas which are slightly nose ahead of the other two or the other one. And so you need to identify some of the strength that you have in your physical structure which are slightly ahead of the other two. So you are looking at maybe a leading dosha. So for example, if you have say 30 Pitta and 30 Vata and you have faulty kapha, then you are having a predominance of kapha which is influencing the vata and pitta quality in your body itself. So you should always go with the leading one. But when you say that you are having a little confusion where all the three doshas are very close together, it's very likely that you have more or less all the three doshas in a state of balance or a state of harmony. And that's the time when you should actually go and look at foods which are clean, healthy, natural, organic. You're eating foods which are easily digestible and most importantly contains all the six tastes. Because six taste is the simple way to balance the doshas. When you integrate all the six tastes in your diet, you are balancing all the three doshas. So technically you should be eating cleaner foods in small portions at the right time and balancing all the six taste. And you are pretty much safe. But there are people that we see that there are one or two doshas are way ahead of the other. And sometimes it may not be even the prakriti you're talking about that doshas are ahead. It could be even the imbalance or the vikriti that makes you feel that I am a kapha type and you are trying to eat the foods or lead a lifestyle which is going to counterbalance that activity itself. So it can get very tricky because prakriti is something that who you are innately. And there are layers and coating and coating over imbalances that can happen down the road, which sometimes becomes a little bit more difficult. And I sometimes tell people that when you're cleansing, when you're fasting, when you're feeling your pulse away from food, that's very likely that you will see your true nature itself.

So what I'm finding is the most in common in this day and age is the vata imbalance in the mind and the kapha imbalance in the body. So how would you deal with different imbalances, mind versus body?

And that's exactly the book which I wrote about change your schedule, change your life is about so much of vata in the mind, the pressure of the schedules, mental work where you're constantly busy with your activity, so called your virtual activity, that you're keeping yourself occupied. The body is not doing, the mind is doing. And in that case you have to actually use the counterbalance. So if someone is having a very hyperactive mind and if I tell them to just sit quietly and meditate in that state, they may not be able to do that quality of meditation that they want. They have to make use of their body first before they sit down quietly and enjoy their meditation. So in other words, you have to make them active to get rid of the heaviness and the sluggishness in their body as a priority. And in other words, if you understand them, you need to move them away from a tamasic state of body where the body is heavy, dull, groggy, toxic, entire. Make it active, make them go out on a walk or a hike or a bike or a run or physical movement or exercise. And then because of that rajasic activity, the body is going to feel light, the srotas are going to be open, the energy is going to be flowing, and that's when you meditate, you are going to have better experiences and the mind is going to feel more quiet and more centered. So I think we need to drag them away from their heavier self. And again, we often think that this is one for your mind and this is one for your body. But you can create a fusion which is exactly good for your mind and good for your body, like physical movement exercises, yoga, various types of yoga, they're all good for your body, good for your mind the same time, good for your heart, good for your brain at the same time. Eating spices, good for your heart, good for your brain. Fasting, good for your heart, good for your brain. Getting enough sleep, good for your heart, good for your brain. Meditation, good for heart, good for brain. So connecting both the dots where it is good for my body as well as good for my brain and the mind at the same time is actually the key. And there's an interesting subtle point where when you're eating clean, pure, healthy foods, which are vibrant, colorful, organic, properly prepared, fresh, more importantly, then your mind becomes, and this is a very new concept, especially in Western modern day nutrition, that what you eat is exactly the kind of mind you get. And there's an interesting quote in Bhagavad, Gita and Upanishads that we talk about, that the grosser part of the food that you eat becomes your body. The subtle food actually becomes a part of your sensory faculties and your mind and even the subtlest portion of that food, which is establishing a connection with your individual soul or self. So it is that connection that we want, that at a subtler level, that food should retain its purity and quality that is going to nourish not only the body cells and tissues, but the mind and the quality of the soul and the spiritual existence that you create out of it.

So beautiful. And it's so true because, you know, so many people eat a lot of meat and then they wonder why they're so angry and on edge or they eat a lot of packaged foods, they wonder why they're so tired. And you literally take on the energy of any food that you consume.

And I have this discussion with many of my students that the whole protein debate and everything. And I said that if you take your beef and bury it in the ground, you don't get a new cow out of it. But if you take my few rice grains or anything and put it in the ground, you get a whole new plant out of it. So it's not dead, it still has life that it will sustain and create. The seeds sprout, the lentils sprout, the grains do sprout, they do have life in them. So when the food is alive, it is vibrant. Once it is dead, it is dead. And one of the challenges that we have in the modern day nutrition, because all the dead food needs to be stored in cold and frozen climate. And that is actually creating this whole imbalance with greenhouses and gases and the transportation of this food. The food is already getting putrid and bad and infected by the time it is on your dinner table itself. So I think just for organic reason, a clean, plant based, vibrant diet is the need for the humanity because it's going to save the planet much more easily. More importantly, it's going to actually make us interesting why we are talking about this Sahara, because I'm working with a very interesting group which is talking about inflammation as one of the rampant epidemic in the country itself. And what is happening is many people who are exposed to foods which are unhealthy, they're getting inflamed. But what we are noticing is they don't only have inflamed body, they have inflamed mind, they become violent, they become more aggressive, they make rash decisions, they are having failures in their relationships and marriages, they are having difficulties and challenges in terms of how they are going to make make positive, constructive decisions for themselves, for their family and everything. So I think we are seeing the connection between the inflamed microbiome or the gut inflammation with the enteric nervous system, how it communicates with the central nervous system. And I think that's exactly what the key is. So when Ayurveda talks about agni and Tejas, which is the first cornerstone to have a healthy oats, this is exactly what we're talking about. So what you eat is exactly what you become. What you eat is exactly what you're going to think and how you're going to act. So cleaning up the diet, healing your gut is something which is going to not only heal your body and mind itself, but it's going to create or cultivate a social health and I would say global world peace.

It's true. We are dealing with a mass pitta imbalance. We can see Donald Trump has a very strong pitta imbalance. We can see even the redness coming out of him. And, yeah, it's a massively inflamed society.

And that's one more example. What you eat is what you become and the choices that you make from that, definitely.

So I would love to know, do you think that everyone should seek to go back to their prakriti or that's just what they were handed with and you can kind of decide what your Vikirti is.

You're very bright, Sahara. Okay, so it's a very good question. So I think number one is everybody should be eating clean and healthy, organic, non GMO foods. Less in quantity, good in quality. That's a general rule for all the dosha types. Then it comes a subtle variation that if you're more of a vata type, you need to be focusing more on grounding vegetables. It could be yam, it could be ghee, it could be some tubers, it could be some squashes in a way that you can handle it and digest. Maybe in a pitta, you can focus more on eating more greens, eating more bitter, eating more alkaline, astringent foods. In kapha, you want to minimize your refined starches and carbohydrates and eating small portions of those foods. So, number one, it's like zooming in. It starts at a big funnel where you are eating clean foods and this is the general guideline for the clean food. Then it comes to the doshik guideline that this is what the general guidelines and there are keywords that you have used very beautifully in your book that I said of that water, the key word that you want to grounding, like example is the good word for vata. Cooling is a good word for pitta. Cleansing or stimulating is another good word for kapha. And you can find diet, food, drinks, everything based upon that. So then it comes to the quality because Ayurveda is all the science of qualities itself. So then you look at the qualities of vata. So within good healthier food, you want the food to be warm, you want it to be slightly oily, you want it to be easily digestible, you want it to be infused with the right kind of spices which is going to warm up the vata and going to reduce its dryness and its cold quality. In terms of pitta, you want to use the spices which are more cooling and gentle and light. Maybe you may want to use coriander or thyme or basil or things like that which are more of a milder version of spices. You can go more kapha in terms of stimulating and cleansing kind of food where you can use mustard seeds and ginger and heavy duty spices which are much more stimulating for that. So it's an interesting funnel where you start eating clean, healthy food, then you understand your doshas and start managing and changing those things according to doshas. And the third funnel is even more important that you understand that what you're eating is not only taste driven, it is not only taste driven. That this is what I like and that's the reason why I eat. It should be driven towards a degree where it provides you nourishment. But you are not over indulging into any of the tastes that you're eating. And that's what we call it is more to the satvic degree where you are eating food just enough, where you are living healthier and longer and eating less makes you live longer, healthier and happier. And this is an age old research that those people who eat less live longer. Those people who eat more than what they need will actually create bunch of diseases. So I think the key is going back to the basics and I think Ayurveda has created an excellent, excellent template for understanding food, diet, nutrition, identifying what your individual needs are on a given day. Some days you do a lot of physical activity, movement, running around and you may need a little bit more care, calories and more nutrition. Some days you're just more sedentary and static and you haven't done a lot of work and you may end up eating a little bit less food on those days. So it has to be individualistic, it has to be personalized. And more importantly, that awareness, where you shop, what you buy, what you eat, how you prepare is your own responsibility. No one is going to come and help you and guide you. You need to play with food. You need to really learn, understand, you need to invest into your health. I have this debate every day with my pat where they say the organic food is three times more expensive and I don't know how to cook all these vegetables. And I said go and learn how to do the cooking. Go and learn how where to shop in the right places. Because your body and your health is the greatest investment you have. Everything else comes later.

Absolutely. It's so true. And just going back to the basics and feeding your body right can just alleviate so much of the issues that we're dealing with today.

I think what, what I see nowadays is that the life has gotten so hectic and everybody's so busy that the first thing that they let go is cooking and eating the right food at the right time. People are eating on the go, they're driving and eating or drinking coffee and things like that. They're working. Most of the people sometimes end up in work cell. They are constantly either fidgeting with their phone or looking at the screens while they're eating. So it's an important process where you need to sit down, you need to, to chew your food quietly, you need to have the right kind of beverages, you need to identify and recognize the taste. The food has to be vibrant, colorful, appealing, with all the rainbow colors in it. And that feeling, that quietness, that stability for you to find time to do good things for yourself is something which is missing. And you talk to so many young people and millennials and I think we are all becoming very time poor in many ways. You don't have time for your own stuff. And when you don't have time for your own self, many other schedules take priority over that. And very soon you drift into a degree of imbalance.

Definitely. So I'd love to ask you. So let's say someone was born, for example, vata kapha, which is what I see again the most common. And they want to be become more pitta, take more action and they do. So do you think that they can continue living a more pitta life or they might must live their life as a vata kapha? Or kapha vata.

What you're saying is that they can have the same body, but they can have a different mind.

Exactly.

And that's what we should all strive to do. Okay? We can't change our body because we can't change our parents. So your body type is something that you're born blessed or cursed with, I would say. But every one of us can always move from dull, heavy, tamasic quality to more action oriented, dynamic, rajasic quality and slowly move beyond that to become more and more peaceful and sattvic in nature. So everyone and everyone must address their mental body types as we call it. And it's a very unique combination. Imagine what you are saying, that vata kapha person, if they are in a tamasic mode, the same person is very dull, heavy, groggy, tired, in a destructive mode, eating foods which they are not able to digest because vata is a visha magni is a lean dosha, Kapha is gaining weight, retaining fluids as such. And that irregular pattern accumulates a lot of toxicity in the system. So their body becomes toxic, their mind becomes toxic, they feel depressed, they feel unhappy. And so in this situation you can't say that suddenly we should change the diet and everything else we need to change their mind from a tamasic state to a rajasic state. What we are doing through food, through diet, through lifestyle, we are reprogramming their body. But we can reprogram their body only to a certain extent. There are people who are born with big hefty bones and things and they will always remain slightly overweight. But that doesn't mean that you will always remain depressed or unproductive or lack of goal and dynamism in your life. Absolutely not. You can always change and shift your mind with certain changes that you are experiencing in the body itself. So as the body changes, the mind can always shift into different gear. If a vata person is in a tamasic mode, he will be hurting himself more. He will be more in a self destructive mode, addictions or suicidal tendencies or those kind of thoughts. A pitta person in a tamasic mode can be very homicidal. They might don't want to hurt themselves, but they might hurt others so they have more destructive thoughts about hurting others. A kapha person who is in a tamasic mode can be even more dull, depressed, self destructive itself. They don't even want to talk to anyone or do anything about it. Imagine a vata person in the rajasic mode is more aggressive, they are more moving around Lack of groundedness and more restless quality. A pitta person who is in rajasic mode can be even more irritable, more grumpy, more angry, more dynamic, more trying to do more than what they can handle or accomplish at times. And the Kapha person in rajasic mode is a very different personality as such. So there is a subtle influence of these mental gunas on your body type. And everyone can and should change their mental functioning and slowly move to changing their physiological functioning within the limits. You can't completely say that I'm a lean and thin bony vata person and you would suddenly take some steroids or do heavy meat eating or protein powders and you would be again beefy. And you won't be able to accomplish that because there's physical limitation that you won't be able to. And so we need to learn to live within the means of our physical body type, but try to strive to change our mentality to the best of our ability. And one thing which I have noticed in my clinical practice is food, herbs, spices, supplements, lifestyle choices. It exactly does that it changes your body also has an impact on your mind.

Definitely. It's very true. And I see a lot of people who they, I think all of us, we strive to have the mental characteristics of the dosha. We are not and I think it's sort of this, we're caught in between. Should I do what is coming most naturally to me or should I try to step into this unknown?

Well, I think that is also makes you very interesting because if at all everyone strives to be a different dosha mentally, then life would not be that much of a fun because you're attracted to to someone's creative quality, you are attracted to someone's decision making qualities, you are attracted to someone's unconditional loving qualities and those are innately embedded qualities. With each dosha itself, you can't get away from that very far. But you can always polish off the edges of the negative qualities of each dosha. And that's what I mean to say, moving towards the mental qualities of each dosha. So you can always polish that. It doesn't mean that if a kapha person gets pitta means he won't be loving anymore, he won't kind anymore, he won't be happy, go lucky anymore, he would be all of that plus dynamic and goal oriented. That is what attracts everything. So I also practice medical astrology and I see a lot of couples who are trying to date and see whether they're compatible with each other. And we Always look at their doshas and see how their doshi compatibility is in place. Whether the job that you're doing really meets your doshas. If you're a kapha type and you're having a sitting sedentary job may not be the best kind of job for you. So it doesn't mean that you should immediately quit that job. But you need to do everything possible to balance that activity. You need to start your day with vigorous activity before you go to work. You need to end your day with some vigorous activity after the work is done. So that's exactly so. If you're a vata type girl who is married to a pitta person or a pitta boyfriend, then she might be insecure, she might be creative, she might be impulsive, she might be spontaneous and the pitta person could be very different. So you attract each other's quality. But that's exactly what will keep you amused for the rest of your life. It doesn't mean that you are right and I'm wrong. These are diverse qualities. And those qualities is exactly what Ayurveda is all about. Ayurveda is all about understanding the qualities, respecting the qualities and trying to use the qualities to the best of our ability. If one food is heavy, the other food is light, the other food is drying, the third food, food is oily, you need to use it in the right qualitative structure to nurture and nourish ourselves. And so is with people. People have different doshik attributes and different mental attributes and how we get along with them, how we win friends, how we maintain friendship is because of certain qualities in you which I like, which I may not have. But I may strive to have those qualities from you. But it doesn't mean that I should be changing myself to become you. Okay? I jokingly say try to be yourself. Because everyone else is taken when everyone else is taken. Who you are is exactly how you need to really understand and even be convinced with the qualities that you have of each doshas. You don't have to paint a negative picture. This was actually a question that was asked to save Charaka that what is the best body type to have and how to be that. And Sage Charaka addressed this very clearly. He says you don't have to change your body type at all. The wisdom lies is accepting the qualities, learning about the qualities and transcending the gunas, transcending qualities very soon so that those qualities do not take you up and down constantly like a roller coaster. And that is the wisdom Ayurveda is philosophy plus the medicine itself. And whenever you understand it from a medicinal perspective, very soon the philosophical perspective and the spiritual perspective is equally important.

Absolutely. And I would love to ask you as a medical astrologer, are you able to see someone's prakriti in their chart?

Absolutely. That's the reason why I do that. Because when they are born, when they take their first breath. So someone is born at say 3:45 on 10th of May in Los Angeles, then we know exactly where the planets are in the sky. What is the influence of those planets that were affecting for this baby which started nine months and nine days ago and now this is the time when they're taking their first breath on their own in this part of the world at this time. Then where the planets are up in the sky in different zodiac signs will create their life, will create the moon sign and the sun sign and the constellation which gives us a very precise combination. This is what your innate body type is and how you go about it. Because that doesn't change your birth time, your birthplace, your date of birth is unique to yourself. And that thing, what we create, a Vedic horoscope or birth chart is completely set in stone. The planets will keep on changing the zodiac sign for the rest of your your life. But this is who you are, this is what your body is, this is how your mind is made and how it is going to interact with the choices that it is going to make. So as soon as a child is born in India, the first thing they do is they look at their child and it gives us a lot of, lot of information about the upbringing. What are the foods that should be given to this person, what kind of education emphasis should be given? Will they be good in arts, Will they be be good in sports, will they be good in science? What are the things that you should be cautious of, careful of good and bad times in life. So it's a phenomenal science. And one thing about that you have studied about Ayurveda, Yoga, Jyotish, all the different branches of Vedic sciences, they are seamlessly perfect, they all correlate, they don't contradict with each other. They are all seamlessly perfect because they are totally grounded in this Vedantic wisdom as we call it.

Well, I'm so excited because I will definitely get my chart read from you and I can't wait to see what it says. Can you share with us what the dashas are?

The planetary times and the planetary phases. So the word dasha means a major period of a planet like Saturn governs 19 years of your life. Jupiter governs 16 years of your life. Mercury governs 17 years of your life. Moon covers 10 years of your life. So these are the phases. When you are under the influence of that planetary phase, you are having that many years under the influence of that one major planet. And based upon where that planet is situated in your horoscope, in which house, in which area of life, in a good bad situation, in a good bad company, that's how that phase of life is going to affect you. So when we look at medical astrology not only tells us about their health and good and bad periods in life, but if someone wants to do the right thing or embark on starting a business or, or a bigger venture or write a book or try to start something new or entering into a relationship, it's a real good idea to see exactly where you are in the planetary phase in the dasha. To see. And that dasha has to be compared with where the planets are in the sky. We call it as gocher or transits. So you have to look at the transits and you look at the major period or the dasha that they are going through. If the dasha is not right, then you don't get the right disha. Disha means direction. So it also is a very humbling feeling. That's what I notice every time you look at your chart. It is something is a very humbling feeling where you understand your strength, you understand your weaknesses, you understand your opportunities, you understand your threats. What are the things that you should minimize or stay away from? What are the things that you must do to cultivate more positivity and energy in your life? What are the areas that you should learn to ignore and not to really forcefully address those at given time? So it gives you a lot of wisdom to help you make some decisions. And many people are at times confused and they're stuck in a situation in life where they're not knowing exactly whether I should stay in this marriage or get out of this or I should close down my business or relocate. That's a great time to really look at your chart and get an insight from a very different perspective.

Definitely. Yes. And from what I've learned about Vedic astrology back in the ancient times, what I've been told is we lived for 150 years. So the dashes are a 150 year period of planets.

120.

120. And you're born somewhere in that cycle and those are the planets that you experience, Is that correct? And can you add More so when.

You were born, when you were born where your moon is in which constant constellation, and that constellation is under the influence of a given planet. And that's the dasha that you start. They're all going sequentially, one after another. So if at all you are starting with the Mars, then you will go with Rahu, and then you will go with Jupiter, and then you will go with Saturn. So that sequence is decided so based upon where moon is in which constellation at the time you were born. That's where that dasha phase will start and will continue thereafter. So if you add up all the planetary phases of the nine planets, that is 120. So that's why it is called as Vim Shotari Dasha Vmsha means 120. So it is 120 years of the planetary phase. Someone can live in this Kali Yuga up to 120 years. That is considered to be a good, healthy, long life to complete the whole planetary cycle.

So back in the time that the Vedas were being written, was it normal for people to live the full 120 years?

That's correct. Because I think people were living in accordance with the, with the laws of nature. They were taking better care of themselves. The life was divided into different ashramas, what you're supposed to do, and you were not exerting different pressures and pulls in different things in life. And it was kind of divided. And whenever it was a vibrant. We're talking about at least thousands of years ago, because we are not talking about last few hundred or five hundred years ago, where lots of wars and lots of damage has happened to the humanity. It's. But we're talking about when the collective Dharma of humanity was really good, then people were living healthier and longer life. As the collective consciousness in the Dharma is going down, the lifespan is shortening and it's creating a shorter lifespan. And I think that is exactly what is described in Ayurveda also. It's called Adharma. Adharma is the collective vibration that affect every one of us. Impatience, bad decisions, destructions of the planet Earth. All of those things are collective decisions that are made with how we think and where we are leading our life towards and when.

In your opinion, do you believe that Kali Yuga will end?

Well, there are cycles. There are cycles of this, and every, every few hundred years there's a cycle. So we are going through a 400 years of the cycle, which still has another 160 years to go, where this bubble will enter into a different phase. Itself. So we still have a little bit of a darkness left for us to deal with.

And what is the phase that is to come?

Well, it always goes. So Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapar Yuga and Kali Yuga. So these are the four phases. So after, after the Kali Yuga phase, it's again the dawn of the Satayuga, which is the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment as we call it. So after the darkness, the dawn comes and then the dawn goes into a dynamic phase of sunrise and things like that. And then slowly it fades away. So it starts with Satya Yuga and then it goes into Treta, then it goes into Dwapar, and then it comes into Kaliyah. So these are pretty long planetary cycles, but within those there are some subdivisions where every few hundred years it changes and shifts. And the same is with planetary dashas and Mahadashas. So within a 16 year phase, there's all the other planetary phases also which could be lasting for few years, to few months, to few weeks, to few days, sometimes few hours.

Beautiful. And do you think that our past lives can affect our current health?

That's what Jyotish is all about. Because the reason why you were born and blessed in this given lifetime, the parents that you chose, why you chose this womb to be born off out of everybody else, the initial upbringing that you received from those parents, the experience that you got because of that, is all karmically destined to a certain extent. And then the choices that you make, one is Daiva, which is destiny, and the second is Purushartha. The choices that you make so many times, the destiny actually makes you capable of doing the right choices and meeting the right people at the right time and doing the right, right thing. So when we look at the Jyotish chart, we also look from where you are coming and we also see where you are going and what steps you can do to probably regulate those things. You can't muddle it, you can't change it, because many times you are set with the flow of the Karma itself, but you're enhancing and optimizing the flow of your productivity, your energy, your ability to do something meaningful and purposeful, your and everyone else around. So I think Jyotish is a science which is able to decode the Karma to a greater extent and maybe support and guide the person accordingly.

So when you see someone, health problem, etc. How can you know it's related to karma, past life and how it's something that they've created in this life?

Well, that's exactly the kind of diseases that we look at. Because many times that you are trying to do everything right. And that's the reason why you land up into a good state of health. But in spite of doing everything right, you're just in the wrong place at the right time. You might be driving on a freeway, you're doing everything right, you're eating clean food, you're healthy, you're happy, and someone comes and rear ends you and you have a whiplash and you have some injury and things like that. You did not do anything bad. And there's no mistaken intellect here, but the mistaken intellect is on the other person's part. So now you are stuck with the problem. But you were there at this point time when this trauma happened to you. And this could be in a plane crash, this could be in a motor vehicle accident, or a baby is born with a hole in the heart, is that right? There's no real bad karma. The baby is done to be born that way or some genetic condition itself. So that's the time when we actually look at these are more karmic diseases, why they are born of certain conditions in which we'll have to deal with. And actually two thirds of ayurvedic treatment, treatment is actually based on understanding why you are going through. Even the people that we meet or the good or bad suffering that we go through, sometimes it just gives us a complete different lift and it takes us to a different league. Sometimes it just weighs us down and something terrible happens and then we are stuck with some bad things that are happening. So when we see the trend of the events that is happening that is making you prone for certain things, it is exactly where you are looking at the karmic diseases. Just to give you another example, if you are going through a painful relationship and you have ulcer or an autoimmune condition, you may think that this is just an autoimmune condition. But the reasons why it happened at this time is the stress that you are going through with this, which is affecting that. And going back and decoding and understanding all of that is exactly one of the remedies that I personally put practice. I look at everybody's chart from a medical astrology perspective and it's a phenomenal way to look at someone's health. Life on a spectrum scale, where you start from and where you're going. So from your birth to wherever you are in the grand scheme of things, understanding your personality, the choices that you make, the early childhood experiences that you have, it's a wonderful tool. I'm surprised why it is so less used in medicine. Even Hippocrates, who was the father of the medicine, he said that a physician who is not an astrologer is a fool. He believed in looking at the astrologer chart along with their pulse and the diagnostic tools to really understand their psychology. And that's exactly what I practice. And I wrote a book about this called AS Vedic Counseling. The art and science of Vedic Counseling is really understanding the shadowy personality because you might be pretty good Monday to Friday 9 to 5. But there is a shadow part of your personality coming from some imperfect affection, some old wounds and some old unhealed traumas that is making you crave for sugar or drink more over the weekend or not exercise or be angry or not able to do something. And that shadowy part, many other people are not even aware of that, that you are such a different person when nobody's watching you. And when we look at Sabva Jyotish chart, you can actually see that shadow personality which could be one of the main reason for the problem that they create in their life.

And are the shadow personalities always related to a dosha?

The shadow personality is related with dosha, which is the unhealthy part of doshas, like pitta. When we say that Pitta can be a natural leader, they can be dynamic, they can be organized. But the shadow part is they can be very compulsive, they can be very obsessive, they can be very cruel, they can be very manipulative. That is the shadowy part of that pitta personality. So every dosha has prabha which is luster, which is radiance, and chaya which is the shadow part.

Can you have the shadow part of a dosha? That's not your predominant one.

Sometimes it comes from the experience that you cultivate. It's what you watch, you become sometimes, what you experience, you become sometimes. And that's unfortunately what we are seeing with the massive epidemic of social media, video games, movies, kids too early, they're exposed to many of these things and that is make us think, behave and act who they are not at times. And that is completely defined the law logic of that. And that is to see that they are living in complete different fool's paradise. This is not who they are, this is not what their doshas are. But they are behaving just because of the impression that is getting trapped into the nervous system and they have no way to get rid of it.

Definitely. And do you see people often who are truly tri Doshic or like equal some agni or is this something that people just think they are very rare.

But we do see that very rare. If I had to just throw up a number, there are about 10% of people, which is 1 in 10 people that can be pretty balanced to a greater extent. They will still deviate here and there a little bit, but they are more or less balanced. They are tri dosha in nature.

And when you are assessing someone's dosha, do you go more after the facial characteristics or the body?

I look at the jyotish shot. That's a good thing because many times when you look at their body itself, it could be layers of imbalance that you're looking at. And they could have a thick head full of hair at one time, but now the hair are very scanty and thin. It could be happening, an imbalance that is happening. And if you ask them that, he said, oh, I always had a thick head full of hair and this is just since my menopause, that the hair are very thinning. But if I look at that, then I might be making a mistake. The same with skin, the same with bones, the same with all the different caricatures of the doshas that we look at. Sometimes the vikruti takes over and masks the prakriti. So you have to decode those things and ask the questions on the spectrum scale that this is exactly who you were all your life. And they may say, I was bony, skinny, thin in the first part of my life and then the first pregnancy, I ballooned out and was never able to lose this weight. So it's an imbalance that you're looking at anytime you see someone's wrist. And there's a good strong kapha person who has big bones and big wrists and big fingers, and they carry weight much more easily and effectively. And there's a vata person sitting in front of you who is carrying a lot of weight, and you look at their wrists and fingers and they are bony, skinny, thin. They are very small bones and joint structure with hefty big fat everywhere else. And that is when you know that this is a vata type, mimicking as a kapha type, which is an imbalance.

Definitely, yes. I think the wrists, the hips are a really good place to look, just the bone structure.

And that's where the clinical judgment comes in. And when we are educating people, I think being mindful about the choices, the food that affect you, the quality of your agony, the quality of your digestion, moving towards more of an idealistic healthier lifestyle, keeping yourself physically healthy and active, getting enough sleep at the right time, focusing on detoxification. And this is exactly what I've seen, Sahara, since I've been doing panchakarma for almost 25 years now in this country, I have seen that once you have gone through a process of effective cleanse and detoxification, the body suddenly reprograms itself to its doshas because the toxicity clogs and makes the doshas mistake. And we talk about six stages of doshik imbalances. So when you go through a good panchakarma cleanse, when you go through a good detoxification, then the body is able to reprogram and go back to its initial state of balance, as we call it. And I think that is something which is very interesting for many chronic diseases. I tell them to do an effective panchakarma, and very soon their doshas are in a state of recalibrating itself. And this support and respond to the food and herbs much better at that stage.

Absolutely, yes. And I think a lot of people get so stuck into I'm a vata, I'm a kapha, I'm this. And they're only looking at that one dosha and not how the doshas move each other.

And I think every dosha is going to affect the other dosha. And so we have all the three doshas. Every dosha works hand in hand to carry out every function in the body. Okay, so when you talk about digestion, there is a sub dosha of vata, which is called a samanavata, which will kindle the agni. There's subdha dosha of kapha, which is clay, the kapha, which is going to secrete all the digestive juices and enzymes and things. There's a sub dosha of pitta, which is pachak pitta, or ranjak pitta, which is going to secrete hydrochloric acid and pancreatic juice and bile juice. So they all work hand in hand to carry out the complex function of digestion. Whether it is sleep, whether it is digestion elimination. Every dosha, even, even at a cellular level, works hand in hand. The challenge is, we think that when we have one dosha predominance and there's just one activity that you're doing which is constantly aggravating one dosha, it doesn't only affect that dosha, it affects the qualities of the other doshas. Just to give you example, like if you are having, say, kapha aggravation. So because of kapha aggravation, kapha is a cold dosha. But the cold quality of vata will also increase. And so the vata will be depleted. But it will have a lot of cold quality which will dampen your agni and weaken your digestive fire and will make it impossible almost for you to digest the food. So every doshik attribute has a corresponding effect on doshas. What you're trying to do is an excellent experiment, Sahara, because we are trying to understand people at their doshik level, who I am, am, what I think, how I make decisions, the life I create, the work I do, the occupation I choose, and then more importantly, taking to a discussion about does that make you feel good? Does that make you feel happy in your body? Body, do you feel really good every time? The work is not creating stresses on your body itself. That's the sign when you are feeling really good. So your ability to be productive and do something with your life and make choices means, I saw this book that you're writing and the words you use in terms of doshik management were really good. They were balancing affirmations. Is that right? Those are the words that you use and those balancing affirmations that we talk about. Whether you are talking about santulana, which is balancing the doshas itself, whether you talk about portion, which is to do with nurturing or nourishing, whether you talk about dhavana, which is cleansing. And these words are like mantras. Okay, so these words have mantra like quality. Not only you read them, understand them, but when you eat a food based upon that recipe that you're talking about, it will have exactly the same effect. That is why the Ayurvedic herbs and formulation are always given names which are very poetic in nature, like Chandra Prabhavati. It will give you the radiance, like a full moon or something like that. So every Ayurvedic supplementation is this very lofty quality, like brahmharasa. So it will create a cosmic consciousness where you will be able to transcend your emotional pain and grief and will connect you with your higher self. So it may sound very lofty, but that's exactly what is implied. You not only read that label, you feel that it is embedded in that formulation, the way it is formulated. And you see the benefit because it works that way. The matter changes the energy in which the consciousness functions.

Absolutely. And that's so interesting that you said that, because I didn't even know that they were called that. But I named all of the recipes Sanskrit words that bring out the qualities that that recipe brings. So that's really interesting.

No. And they are all mantras. Whether you talk about Vivekta, whether you talk about Aswadya, whether you talk about Santosha, these are all mantra quality words because they are all hidden, decoded beej mantras in there. They are all having root, seed, syllable from where they're coming from and when they're embedded in the food. That's exactly the benefit and the effect that is implied.

Beautiful. Well, thank you so much for sharing so much profound wisdom with us. I'm sure people will listen to this episode numerous times. Where can people connect with you, visit you and get their Jyotish charts read?

Well, I think people can contact me on drsuhas.com which is my website and you can always look up my new book, Change youe Schedule, Change youe Life. And it's doing very well. And thank you, Sahara, for your wonderful help in spreading the good word. I think it's absolutely the need of the hour to make sure that you understand your work schedule should not dictate the quality of your health. So check it out. It's on Amazon. It's in every leading bookstore in the country itself. If you want to look up the work where my clinic is, we have a beautiful Panchakarma clinic in Santa Cruz, California. And you should look at up on ayurvedichealing.net www. Ayurvedichealing.net and the best place to find all the information about me, my programs, classes, school is drsuhas.com which iS-R-S u h a s.com perfect.

And I'll post all those links in the show notes. Can people get their charts read from you online or must they visit you in person?

They visit in person. That's, that's good because I can see them, talk to them, feel their pulse and things. But if not, we can do it over Skype, we can do it over FaceTime and you don't even have to be in this country. I do quite a few sessions where people are based in different continents and we do it all online.

Perfect. Well, thank you so much again for sharing your wisdom and I look forward to having you again.

Thank you, Sarah. All the best. Keep up the good work.

Namaste. I just want you to take a moment to just take that all in. We are so blessed to be enlightened by teachers like Dr. Suhas Kashir Sagar. And I am so grateful for the time that he spent explaining all of this stuff to us. He is someone who's so accomplished. He is really one of the main people who brought Ayurveda to the West. He actually created the Ayurveda center at Art of Living center and has trained thousands of people. So really what a privilege to have someone with the gravitas that Dr. Suhas has on the highest self podcast. And I hope this cleared out a lot of the questions you had about dual doshas. And if you're looking for more information, I invite you to check out my book Eat Feel Fresh. I have quotes from Dr. Suhas all around the book. It is modern, it is plant based. I explain dual doshas in the book as well as well as how to make a recipe tri doshic. So how can you make it work for members of all three DOSHAs in your family and even for yourself as the season shifts? And little things that you can do such as maybe avoiding the excess garlic if you have a pitta in your family, or avoiding excess dairy or carbs if you have a kapha in your family, or avoiding excess raw foods if you have a vata in your family. So it's all centered really on how to make something tri dosha and how to create little shifts to make it customized for each dosha. So my book Eat Feel Fresh is available now for pre order wherever books are sold. You can find it, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Walmart, Target, hopefully Anthropology as well. Super excited about that. But as a special gift for pre ordering the book, I'm going to send you 10 bonus recipes that are not available anywhere else. I will also be sending you in the mail a signed book plate for me as well as an inspirational card. So I highly recommend pre ordering it. You're going to save $10 off the book right now on Amazon's $10 less than it's going to be when the book comes out. And you will be able to head over to my my website on iamsaharrose.com you'll see where it says pre order the book. You can send in the screenshot of your receipt and I will send you over the information. And if you loved this episode I would love to offer you a free gift. And that is the first half of my unreleased book Eat Right for your Mind Body Type, which is different from my book Eat Feel Fresh, the plant based Ayurvedic cookbook. But to get Eat Right for your mind body type, all you got to do is leave a review for me in the itunes store, take a screenshot before you hit submit and send it to me on email to saharaatfieldfresh.com and I will send you back the first half of my unreleased book, Eat Right for your mind body type. So honored to have you here. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I'm looking forward to seeing you on the next one. Namaste.