Acharya Panchakarma — Preserving A 5000-Year-Old Treasure
Radhamony makes a small batch of Kanaka Prabha pain oil once a week, and it's sold out within the hour.
New Delhi (India), May 11: Radhamony, a 65-year-old Vaidya, runs a small ayurveda and panchakarma clinic in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The clinic is nothing out of the ordinary but unusually busy for its size. People are queuing up for a reason and one reason alone - to get a small bottle of world-renowned Kanaka Prabha pain oil. Radhamony makes a small batch of Kanaka Prabha pain oil once a week, and it's sold out within the hour.
“After covid, a lot of people, especially older people, started developing joint pain. Someone posted on social media about how magical Kanaka Prabha is for pain relief, and I got flooded with enquiries. Now I make a small batch for online customers too”, says Radhamony.
“Kanaka Prabha is really special. It's a 5000-year-old recipe passed down through generations in my Vaidya family. It has 52 herbs as ingredients and is super effective for pain management. All the herbs are grown on my own herb farm. Some herbs like ‘pathalamoori’, a crucial ingredient of Kanaka Prabha, are getting very hard to find. Growing my own herbs has become quite essential for preserving this ancient gift,” - says Radhamony.
Here’s the transcript of our conversation with Radhamony:
1. Why do you make the oils in small batches if there's a lot of demand?
Ans: Small batches ensure quality. Ayurveda products are not meant for mass factory production. If we check the ancient Ayurveda Samhitas, the formulations are always for small batches. Moreover, it's never run as a business. My forefathers always did it as a service to the community, and I want to do the same.
2. So, do you make everything yourself?
Ans: Yes, absolutely! All my products are handmade, and I believe in delivering the highest quality to my customers. So I personally get involved in each stage of the product-making process. I also make it a point for my customers to have a glimpse of the oil-making process in a way that's appealing to them. It brings such joy to get the younger generation interested in Ayurveda. I feel they need to know and appreciate the fact that Ayurveda is one of India’s greatest contributions to the world
3. What inspires you? 65 years is the retirement age for many.
Ans: Every day I wake up reading life-changing stories from my customers. The kind of feedback I receive from my customers is so special. They write about how Kanaka Prabha has healed and reduced the pain of their loved ones. Acharya is like family for my customers. Sometimes it also puts a lot of pressure seeing the level of trust they have in me. But, I surrender to the teachings and formulations of the ancient vaidyas and the gurus and follow them without any compromises. Follow the process with utmost respect and divinity, and the results will follow were the words of my father.
4. Is Kanaka Prabha pain oil your own formula?
Ans: No, no. It's not. One lifetime is not enough to come up with such a product. Kanaka Prabha is a result of the hard work and dedication of 1000s of vaidyas over many, many generations. I cannot take any credit for it. I just follow the recipe passed down to me. One can only imagine the iterations Kanaka Prabha had gone through over 1000s of years.
5. Tell us about an interesting story from a customer?
Ans: There are many stories, but one lingers in mind. A few months back, a customer sent me a message thanking me for making Kanaka Prabha. Her mom was scheduled for knee replacement surgery and used Kanaka Prabha as a last resort. Surprisingly, her knee replacement surgery was no longer needed. Even the doctor was quite astonished. The MRI showed a significant recovery when she took it after using Kanaka Prabha. I would say the miracle happened not just because of Kanaka Prabha, it's because she trusted Kanaka Prabha.
You can get in touch with Radhamony and her clinic Acharya Panchakarma through
Instagram (@acharyapanchakarma)
