Any post on Medicine is incomplete if we don’t recognise the God of Ayurved, Dhanvantari. He arose from the Samudra Manthan, as one of the 14 gems/Ratna from the Sea of Ksheer (ksheer means milk/ water/ a nourishing liquid/ actually means pran). The story of Samudra manthan is a beautiful way of describing what really happens when you do dhyan. The inward breath/pran and outward apan are the dev and danav, the mount meru is your own geometry which is being churned on the support of the hexagonal kurma based of the granthi of the muladhar. (will write a separate post on this, this post is only about Dhanvantari!) But the point is that Dhanvantari is your own internal energy if you can access and activate it.
The preserver of the manifested Universe is the energy known as Vishnu. His energies are manifested in different forms which manage different aspects of this creation. Dhanvantari can be loosely understood as the guide/ferry-man/boat who helps cross the wasteland/desert. He is the form of Vishnu who is equipped with 4 things, Sudarshana chakra, Panchajanya conch, the kalash of Amrut/nectar and a Leech/Jaluka and has given us the knowledge of Ayurved. Shankh when blown is the sound of Om, sudarshan chakra is the cycle of Time, the kalash is immortality i.e. the knowledge of your reality and the Leech is the tool which removes impurities. There are several Dhanvantari Dhyan mantras, here is a beautiful one recited by Uma Mohan.
He is worshipped specifically by Ayurvedic Vaidyaraj-s (doctors) and followers of Sanatan Dharm on the 13th day of the dark half of the Ashwin month, on Dhanatrayodashi. If you can do any sincere mantra, jaap, homa of Dhanvantari on this day you will be blesssed with good health. I have seen some families worshipping Devi Laxmi on this day, its not correct, as She is worshipped on Diwali Kartik Amavasya, 2 days after Dhanatrayodashi.
Dhanvantari Mantras also have the same efficacy when it comes to health related things. Now the homa for Dhanvantari will work for anything and everything related to health. The preparatory phase and concluding phase remains the same (this post), for the mantra phase, the mantra you will use is this,
“Om namo Bhagawate Dhanvantaraye, Amrutkalasha hastaya, sarva aamaya vinashanaya, Trilokyanathaya, Shri Mahavishnave Swaha”
If you just want to recite the mantra, replace the ‘swaha’ by ‘namah’.
One might wonder why remedies are useful. Suppose you have some muddy water in a tank, you add clear water to it, so its muddiness will reduce. If you add even more clear water and also try to remove the muddiness, eventually your tank will be full of clear pure water. This is the same principle. You are the tank of muddy water, your karmas have turned it muddy. You add clear water by doing your spiritual practice. You remove the mud by experiencing the karmic payback related things. The intensity of the karmic payback depends on the muddiness. More mud, more intense. If you dilute the mud by adding lots of clear water, the karma you will experience will be lighter too. Eventually you will be full of only clear water. So do some spiritual activity regularly, it may be for just 2 mins, but just do it mindfully with full intention.
psychologically astrology 