I started the Kaivalyadhama Online Ayurveda course some time in June 2020 – this was the COVID-19 lockdown time. A while back I had researched various online Ayurveda courses on the internet – and Kaivalyadhama looked to be the most reputed, reliable and affordable. I had been thinking of doing it for a while and the situation in the lockdown became conducive.
Earlier, the course was standalone and cost 15,000 INR. But later on, they merged the Ayurveda course with 3 other courses, Yoga Teacher Training + Hatha Yoga of Charandas + 5 Elements by a Ramakrishna monk short course. This was awesome. For the same value – we get 4 different courses!
Now when I check their online courses website, I see that you can do the Ayurveda course only for a lesser amount 10,000 INR & if you choose the Yoga Teacher Training course you get the entire package of 4 courses at 15,000 INR. I personally think getting the bundle of 4 courses makes a lot of sense, even if we are mostly interested only in one of the courses. One never know when our interests will deepen into the other topics too. As the topics are totally complimentary to each other.
The access to the course material is not LIFETIME. We get only 1 year access to the Ayurveda course material and 5 year access to the Yoga teacher training material. And if we want to extend the access, it is possible for a small fee – not sure what the fee would be but I think it would be reasonable. I do feel we need longer duration access because truly gaining mastery on this stuff would take years – and we would want to refer to specific sections every now and then.
Observations about the Kaivalyadhama Ayurveda course which I have completed in roughly 6 months
1) Proper Sanskrit Pronunciations
The course is in English language but naturally there are many Sanskrit words being spoken. “Ayurveda” itself is an Indian language word. Thus, I wanted an Indian teacher (who can speak Sanskrit well).
I respect and am very happy with the many international teachers for Ayurveda and Yoga but the accent and often very-weird Sanskrit pronunciations turn me off. After all, we believe the sounds of Sanskrit words have an impact on us, so constant mispronunciation by the teacher is a very problematic matter for me.
The ayurveda doctor who teaches this course is a Maharashtrian. The English language is pretty messy in many of the lessons 😀 but his sanskrit pronunciations are good. All in all, I prefer bad English over bad Sanskrit.
2) Get a Certificate by Doing Offline Practicals (for additional cost)
This course has a next step associated with it. If I submit the assignments of this online course and then do another short offline practical course then I get some kind of a certificate. And I thought that was really interesting. Cause getting any kind of certificate from Kaivalyadhama – which is a very old and respected institution – would be valuable (if we want to pursue Ayurveda in a serious way later on).
3) It Truly Builds for us an Ayurvedic framework of understanding health
In a proper and comprehensive way it has helped me understand how this “Ayurvedic medical framework” works. I now have a rough idea of how to go about caring about my health as per Ayurvedic system. And if I had to diagnose/help someone else, I would theoretically know the steps.
It lacks in providing the adequate detail. So while I know the overall framework and various aspects to consider while diagnosis – taking the next step is difficult because health has so many permutation and combinations – so I don’t know those from this course. But since I know the framework it is much easier to understand specific matters further – by either google searching them or taking advanced courses on the subject.
4) It Readies Us for Advanced Ayurveda Learning
There are some YT videos which are advanced level Ayurvedic talks given to Ayurveda professionals. Because of this basic Kaivalyadhama course that I did, I can understand the gist of what is being spoken in the advanced videos – and I quickly start picking up many more insights from those experts. And thus, I feel the Basic course has served its purpose. It has made me knowledgeable enough to move to the next advanced level class.
5) Advanced Level Learning: what’s the way ahead for us?
Kaivalyadhama hasn’t launched a second level course in Ayurveda yet. I hope they do soon. They also seem to be planning on it because the teacher mentions it in this course – but not sure where it is in its development cycle. So, I was left pondering on what next in my journey of learning Ayurveda (and managing my own health better).
As it happened, just when this course ended, I happened to find out about two Ayurveda teachers who I trust to some extent due to references from Sadhguru & Aghori Vimalananda of the Aghora books. Know more about them in my earlier blog post. Surprisingly, both are based in US now but thankfully, they have a decent Sanskrit pronunciation. Phew!
6) Does it help me manage my health better ? – the core reason for me to do this course.
Yes! It does. I now have a full medical framework to rely on when facing health issues. Usually, we only have home remedies – these work sometimes, they don’t work sometimes. Now I have a framework of diagnosis, understanding, reasoning and experimenting possible solutions. This is a very big deal for a 15000 INR , self paced, low effort online course.
So I have been recommending it to a lot of friends. And would recommend you also, if you wish to get a better understanding of Ayurveda, the medical system.
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