Ayurveda is holistic medical system for healthy living: President

New Delhi: Ayurveda is a holistic medical system for healthy living and it takes an integrated approach to physical, mental, spiritual and social aspects of the human body, President Ram Nath Kovind said.

Presenting the Ramnarayan Sharma National Ayurved Award for the years 2008 to 2014 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, he said the idea of a healthy body being connected to a healthy mind or vice-versa is a powerful one.

"Ayurveda is a holistic medical system for healthy living. It takes an integrated approach to the physical, mental, spiritual and social aspects of the human body, and their inter-linkages," Kovind said.

The president said ayurveda and yoga are based on exploration of the relationship between the mind and the body.

"We should motivate future generations to focus on both aspects of human personality mental and physical," he said.

According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan press release, Kovind said India's forests, mountains and villages are its main source of medicinal plants and herbs.

"Ninety percent of the country's medicinal plants and herbs are obtained from forests. More than 5,000 types of herbs are found in our forests. There is a need to preserve and protect this priceless resource. People should be sensitive to the protection of medicinal plants and herbs," he said at the function attended by ayurveda specialists.

The president said modern lifestyle-related diseases are affecting people rapidly and the world is looking to alternative medicines from India, and here Ayurveda can play an important role.

Kovind said specialists have a huge responsibility in establishing Ayurveda as a powerful medium for the prevention, treatment, and management of such diseases.

The Ramnarayan Sharma National Ayurved Award was instituted by the Ramnarayan Vaidya Ayurved Research Trust in 1982. It honours an eminent Ayurvedic scholar every year. The award consists of a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh, a silver idol of Lord Dhanwantari and a citation, the release said.