My Healing Journey

By Lynn Pacifico

At the end of summer 2018, instead of packing summer away, I packed my suitcase. I filled it with natural fiber hot weather clothes that cover calves and shoulders. I heard that a new Ayurvedic hospital, SDJ Ayurvedalaya, had opened in the Western Ghats of India. It was reported to be run by idealistic doctors ─ authentic, clean and inexpensive. I signed up for three weeks in October.

I did my first cleanse at an ashram in the ‘80s, where I learned about internal hygiene and other wellness practices used in Ayurveda to keep the immune system strong. It stopped my acute neuralgic pain. I intended to do another cleanse, but the time was never right. In 2018, I was retired with chronic health problems ─ and forgetting words and keys. It was time.

I flew into Mumbai and then to the tropical industrial city of Coimbatore. SDJ sent a cab to the airport to drive me up into the mountains to the hospital. India can be hot and dry, but in the mountains the weather is perfect.

The Western Ghats, among the oldest ranges in the world, is even older than the Himalayas. It has a unique ecosystem: 145 bird species, 29 of them endemic; 137 mammal species, 16 endemic; and a portion of its amphibians, reptiles and plants found nowhere else. The crickets and birds sing all night and elephants visit at night to eat the breadfruit. The jungle fowl begin their wakeup calls early. On my last walk, I watched two large mammals with huge horns grazing and a herd of antelope pass through.

The off-grid hospital complex occupies 16 acres nestled on the side of a low mountain. The campus includes fields of vegetables, herbs and orchards within a lush forest. SDJ grows much of its food and keeps cows for ghee and buttermilk ─ the only animal products used. The organic freshly picked and prepared food is delicious.

Shoes are left outside the hospital as everyone, including the doctors, are barefoot. The terracotta tiled walkways that surround the lawn in the center of the open air hospital are mopped often. My bare feet never got dirty.

The treatment rooms use natural light from high windows. On overcast days the dim light provides an ethereal feeling. Each patient is assigned one main therapist and a second helper therapist. For each session there are two or more therapists who work in unison, one on either side, coordinatIng the massage.

While the treatment room is set up, my therapist, who began her career as a nurse, helps me into a small garment. She leads me to a wooden stool next to the treatment table and says “sit mum.” Treatment tables, cut from one piece of Indian Kino Tree, can be very old. One of the tables used here was the personal table of the venerated guru Swami Dayananda whose legacy includes this hospital, considered a healing temple.

As little is more sacred than easing suffering, healing is a spiritual path at SDJ. During treatments therapists speak with lowered voices as there is a serious reverence for the transformative cures that take place in these rooms. Holy days are observed and guests are welcome.

In the treatment room, a depiction of Lord Dhanvantari, revered for the gift of Ayurveda, is positioned in a carved wooden niche. Lord Dhanvantari is worshipped in India as the god of medicine and physician to the universe. A butter lamp and offerings of grain, water and flowers are placed before him.

My therapist says “prayer mum” and everyone in the room stops what they are doing, puts their hands in the prayer position, bows and then chants to Lord Dhanvantari. Patients are welcomed to join. You hear this chant throughout the day as patients begin their treatment. Women’s voices for women, men’s for men.

Next, backdropped with recorded soft chanting, the therapist massages oil into my scalp. Facial massage follows, then neck and shoulders. I receive treatments every day, starting with loosening joints. Treatments focus next on internal cleansing. Last come the nourishing treatments. Oils and herb bundles were made just before treatment, individually for me.

Although the doctors prescribe the treatments, it is the therapists who see that each treatment is accomplished correctly. My therapist stops to wipe my eye when I’ve gotten oil in it. She checks if I am cold. She wipes stray hair off my face as a mother would. Everyone is genuinely helpful including the doctors who take time to answer questions.

I am helped to sit on the side of the treatment table where my head, ears, shoulders, stomach, hands, knees and feet are anointed with oil. My therapist bows before me with hands in prayer position, then cleans the soles of my feet and begins the 45 minute oil massage. I close my eyes and relax.

The session ends with my therapist removing the oil from my hair and the toxins that have been released through my skin. A gritty powder made from crushed peas is used, along with a spray wand with warm water. Afterwards my skin is very soft and I am feeling very relaxed as I am escorted back to my room.

Too soon, it is my last day and I am melancholic about leaving. For three weeks I haven’t washed my own hair, worn shoes, a bra, makeup or jewelry, cooked, washed dishes, cleaned, watched news, tv or movies, used the phone and did little social media. I did sleep deeply and woke up early, living within the rhythm of nature. This continued after I left but I live in downtown Manhattan where there is no nature and I have since slipped back. I opened the window to enjoy the mountain breeze during my last session, a 5,000 year old Ayurvedic foot massage. I am in heaven.

My 2018 treatment at SDJ was successful and I left with a clear working mind. I returned in 2023 for hearing loss which was also resolved. People travel from all over the world to SDJ for healing and renewal. Total hospital and medical expenses were $1,040.

I am grateful to medical directors Dr. Parthasarathy and Dr. Saraniya for their knowledge, dedication, skill and kindness. Thank you to the hospital staff and a special thank you to my therapists. I have only forgotten my keys twice since.

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Lynn Pacifico is a fourth generation Villager who loves dogs, nature and New York City.