Dear Ayurveda friends,

dear guests and patients of the Matha Ayurveda Hospital, it’s is our highest priority to treat you in the best possible way, ensure you to have a most pleasant stay and that way guarantee the best medical treatment. For this reason we would like to
ask you to attentively read, sign and submit this document upon your arrival, together with your travel voucher/coupon.

If you are open and can get into the ancient medical concept of Ayurveda, it is very effective on many levels. Success is based on your cooperation and support together with the compliance of guidelines. There are no commands or prohibitions, it is entirely up to you what probability you are allowing the treatment to take into effect for you. Of course, this does take a certain amount of trust. Trust in your doctor, her competence, her goodwill and – most importantly – your trust in yourself to be able to get well and be convinced that your body’s goal is to approach a healthy and vital state. So we would like to ask you to try and show some trust in Dr. James decisions and opinions if she deems it advisable to follow her instructions regarding things negatively impacting your curative stay. If you may, any openness towards at least possible compromises would be highly appreciated!

In the beginning the doctor will consult you. If you did fill out our health questionnaire priorly, this remote diagnosis will be taken into account. Think about what current ailments and health issues you are currently suffering from. The treatment usually starts the day subsequent to your arrival. However, only some applications can be administered if you are having a cold or are menstruating! In the morning time you can find your itinerary at the bulletin board on the 1rst floor of the main building. If you wish for any changes, please arrange in compliance with your therapists or doctor. During her visits and in the morning time Dr. Darly James will gladly be available for conversations or answer any questions you may have. We thank you for your understanding that Dr. Darly James may have to meet other duties and obligations during daytime where she should be
requested for emergencies only.

Upon arrival a bath robe with thongs to wear after treatments will be at your disposal. Any Ayurvedic treatments include oil massages and the application of essences on your skin, which naturally leads to oily residues and stains on bath robes, towels, pillows and sheets. Unfortunately, these remain even after intensive washing as in India laundry is only done using cold water.
Nevertheless, we assure you that all textiles are being cleaned hygienically. Should these possibly remaining stains discomfort
you, feel free to bring your own towels and bathrobes. Laundry can get done anytime, a laundry box in your room is at your disposal; please ask for prices on location.

07.00-08.00 Yoga
08.30+ Breakfast
13.00+ Lunch
19.00+ Dinner

In between these times, we’ll be more than happy to provide you with snacks, tea and fruit juices as far as your indication allows it. Yoga in the evenings is available upon request. Internet and telephone are available at the reception; please inform yourself about the current fees locally. Also do please note down the times you used either in the related book, both to your own and our information. An informative brochure in German language is also availabe at the reception that includes all important advice – just ask for it. The dial-through extension to the reception desk is 21, by the way.

Please do not leave the house without noticing to the staff as to where you are going or about when you intend to return.

We expect you to have personal/liability insurance; herein we explicitly decline any liability for accidents or damage occurring outside of the hospital premises. Avoid eating or drinking outside of the hospital premises! Water in closed bottles, teas and coffee can generally be considered harmless. Here, too, we decline any liability to intolerance of drinks or food consumed outside of the premises. Warm water in the bathroom will come with a delay after turning on faucet.

Meals served during your treatment are based on Ayurvedic guidelines, compatible with all Dosha types and are a substantial part of the treatment. Should you have any questions, wish for an explanation, are allergic to any type of food, or have
any personal preferences or dislikes, please advise one of the doctors in order to make arrangements accordingly. Please be advised there smoking is prohibited both in the house and on premises. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

Possibly bring with you to India existing examination results, x-rays and medicine you are taking currently, or have been taking recently. The doctor will locally decide whether more tests might be necessary. During a Panchakarma treatment it is not advisable to travel, excessively exercise and engage in exhausting sports or any other strenuous, physical or mental activity. Swimming or sun bathing are inopportune for the duration of the treatments. Shortly after the begin of the therapy, you’ll be feeling quite exhausted, both mentally and physically due to the surfacing sensations that now are brought to the daylight. Things that you have swallowed over the years, be it malnutrition, oppressed emptions, etc, mean hard work for your body that is confronted with it again. During Shirodhara treatment your eyes should not get overly strained – therefore, excessive reading or watching TV should be avoided. Also, it is not beneficial to sleep during the day. You’d be welladvised to go to bed between 9:30 and 10:00pm. Please do not shower prior to, during or after treatments. Our personal will wash you during times of treatment (of course, please feel free to wash intimate areas at any time).

Please report any intolerances or discomfort to treatments or medication to therapists or Dr. Darly James immediately – or any other sign of change you might notice on your physical or mental state during treatment.

In general, it’s considered to be extremely beneficial to the healing process to communicate during your curative treatment, be it with the staff, the doctor, or even other patients, as this allow you to share both negative and positive aspects, showing you that you’re not left on your own and don’t have to carry all the burden all by yourself. Just try opening up for
a change!

In case you’re experiencing personal issues during your stay or just feel the need to talk to someone other than your fellow patients in your native language, a local priest who used to live in Germany for many years will be more than happy to be there for you; both for conversation and translations, of course.

You might notice the doctor to be a bit less explaining than German doctors and also prefers to give more general information instead of detailed one. Don’t let that cause you discomfort or scepticism. These are the reasons for the reservation uncommon in Europe.

The Ayurveda patient isn’t supposed to be brooding too much. With many European patients, a worrying brooding way of dealing with things is actually part of the problem, and thus avoiding this part of the therapy.

Dr. Darly James often observed Western patients often react to explanations and answers by even more brooding and questioning. She’d love to see them evolve a letting-go stance and granting their mind a break.

We of course advise you to monitor health issues and changes closely and inform the doctor about them, but you might find yourself benefitting from just giving your mind a rest and stopping to brood over these things overly much.

Unfortunately, this soothing effect won’t be found with certain patients that instead of letting the brooding go may find themselves confused and insecure during the therapy, confronted with unfamiliar surroundings, and actually would love to
have more orientation and guidance. Unfortunately, in this case Dr. Darly James will have trouble to approach the patient accordingly due to cultural differences, the traditional patient-doctor-relation in India and her personality. Dr. Darly James isn’t the only doctor in this regard. It’s hard to find Indian doctors who are able to approach their Western
patients in this regard; mostly, it’s those that used to live in the Western world for some time. But this goes both ways: Often, Western patients find it hard to fully understand the Indian attitude towards Ayurveda. We come from fairly different worlds, after all. Because of those differences, we’d love to ask you take it as a cultural challenge to adjust to a
foreign culture and, although in unfamiliar surroundings, try to let go and develop some confidence that things will be alright and those people around you will be taking good care of you.

Anyone confronted with a foreign culture and even more these embarking on a journey to a foreign world to find treatment for an ailment will inform themselves beforehand what they will be confronted with. Naturally, anything they experience will be
measured by this information. A typical topic among Western patients then usually are deviations from what they read and heard before. This may lead to concerns, bad mood during the stay or even to conflicts with the doctors that might be challenged in
regards to their professionalism and competence. Indian doctors aren’t used to that kind of criticism and attitude and will find it hard to understand, especially given the language barrier that can make it almost impossible to communicate about those
issues in a comforting manner.

Western books about Ayurveda haven’t usually been written by doctors from India (who have absolved 5 years of studies plus 2 years as medical assistent), let alone professors and trainers. Even if they’re somewhat correct, they’re usually written in a very general style and unable to show the variety of possibilities and styles to treat individual patients. Please don’t trust other patients to be able to assess the quality of your therapy based on this knowledge. Indian doctors usually won’t even be able to begin to understand what you’re talking about when quoting information provided by those books – that’s how far these differ from Indian practice.

Most times, patients are highly disappointed by Indian doctors not merely giving as much weight to the assessment of their Dosha type as Western guides do. It’s much more important to the doctors the assess, which Doshas are out of balance in which of the particular organs in order to dampen or heighten them than what the theoretical basic constitution of the individual is. This also leads to the assumption that one’s Dosha constitution isn’t as invariable as a lot of books claim, and can actually change during the course of one’s life.

Another disappointment usually surfaces in the fact of patients not getting a pulse or iris diagnosis, which often seems overly emphasized in books. Relating to Dr. Darly, pulse diagnosis isn’t fit for a long term therapy to discover and cure the underlying causes for an illness, but merely can offer a current-state diagnosis that might make sense for a short therapeutic stay, but not for longterm treatment.

Please note that a lot of what is offered under the Ayurveda label in the Western world not only cannot compete with Indian competence regarding that matter, but also often simply is marketed newly invented things. Best example being the well-selling Ayurveda teas by the brand Golden Temple or others. Even though Indian finesse is involved in the production process and the combination of herbal and spice infusions, all of those are newly invented and don’t exist in the core Ayurveda locations such as Kerala or its clinics and shops. If you’d ask hospital staff for those, you’d just earn helpless shrugs as they wouldn’t even know what you’re talking about.”

Your curative Panchakarma stay in India has now just started the treatment; the healing and regenerative processes will last a lot longer though. To support this, you’ll be treated with medication up until three to six months after your stay. While your body is busy finding a new, healthier balance, it’s also usually more prone to suffer from mental and physical exhaustion. The ongoing detoxication might also result in severe reactions of your organism. Rarely you’ll encounter dermal problems, rather common are drowsiness, infections, digestive issues and the likes, though. These reactions might be amplified the less you find yourself able to follow your doctor’s instructions and the more you exhaust yourself. According to Ayurveda knowledge, this is the root cause of your illness – and as long as you’re not able to change this, you won’t regain health (as fast) or might not even remain healthy for long. Traditional medicine oftentimes follows the pattern: Dear doctor, please give me some medication and make the disease go away, so that I won’t have to change my life. Here now with this Ayurveda treatment we want to enable you to really find true healing – and for this, your cooperation and willingness to change are the deciding factors. We usually advise people to go easy on themselves for about double the time of the therapy after they’ve finished their treatment. So if your curative stay lasted for 3 weeks, you should try to avoid any stress for the next following 6 weeks; not only to
support the healing process, but also to avoid any possible complications. During this time period, any physical or mental strain or stress might result in severe issues.

Should you choose to bring medication back with you, either on your own choosing or the doctor’s advice, this of course is possible. Please understand that any medication needs to be payed on location and other patients aren’t allowed to transport any of your own medicines. Please pay / weigh your medicine directly on location and certify the right amount / weight by signing the respective form. This excludes any further complaints.

During your curative stay, any medication (Kashaya/ tablets / oils) are entirely included, and both Dr. Darly James and GlobalVeda 100% guarantee the purity and integrity of any medication provided.

As we are not in possession of a legal license to sell medical supplies, it’s up to your preference how you wish to further proceed.

Da uns sehr daran gelegen ist, den Standard des Zentrums stetig zu verbessern, sind wir natürlich jeglichen Verbesserungsvorschlägen, Ideen, aber auch konstruktiver Kritik Ihrerseits offen. Hierzu liegt ein Gästebuch aus, in das Sie nicht nur Ihre Vorschläge, sondern auch Lob, Beschwerde oder Dank für wen oder was auch immer eintragen können. Fühlen Sie sich hierbei in keinster weise in Ihrer Ehrlichkeit beschnitten, jedoch wäre es wichtig hierbei immer konstruktiv zu leiben, Destruktivität ist keinem von nutzen. Dr. Darly und Ihre Team freuen sich über jeden Eintrag.

Und so freut sich Ihre Team des Matha Ayurveda Hospitals auf Ihr Kommen!

Mit den besten Wünschen für Ihren

Karin Drexler und ihr Team