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Creating a new tradition - establishing programmes for health and wholeness in Serbia
by Global Good News staff writer

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26 February 2014

For the past 12 years Branko Cicic, director of the Transcendental Meditation programme in Serbia, has been dynamically opening up a series of new programmes to improve the health, well-being, and overall quality of life of the Serbian population. In a recent interview he recounted some of his experiences.

In 2002 planning began to establish a Maharishi Ayur-Veda* health clinic in Belgrade. At the time Dr Cicic knew only a little about Ayurveda, and nothing about medicine. The clinic was intended to offer Panchakarma (Ayurvedic purification and rejuvenation therapy) treatments, and he did not have the needed herbs, equipment, or building. Although he started with nothing, within three months a clinic with 18 trained technicians had been set up and was in full operation. Recently the successful clinic relocated to downtown Belgrade, in a building with perfect orientation according Maharishi Vastu (Vedic architecture) principles.

In 2006 Dr Cicic and his wife were inspired to learn about and implement organic farming practices in Serbia. They knew nothing at the time about agricultural methods or organic farming. To educate themselves they read books, visited farms, talked to farmers, and especially came to appreciate the unique value of Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture even in organic farming. In the years since they established their own farm, began marketing their produce, and started encouraging others to switch to organic practices, the Cicics' efforts to promote organic farming have contributed substantially to its spread throughout the Balkan peninsula, with the demand for organic produce continuing to increase.

The BioBalkan Expo was created in 2009 by the Serbian Organic Foundation (Organska Srbija), of which Dr Cicic is president. It is an annual fair that attracts businesspeople who produce organic products or services in the Balkans and beyond, and serves as a venue for producers to exchange ideas.

About ten years ago they also set out to market Maharishi Ayur-Veda health care products in Serbia. It took some time for the project to move ahead through official channels, but about two years ago several products were approved for sale, and more are in the pipeline.

Two years ago the course to train doctors in Maharishi's Vedic Approach to Health was offered. The first two blocks, of four blocks total, are now completed. The third will commence in May 2014.

In 2013 the idea arose to hold a large international conference on 'mind-body medicine in Maharishi Ayur-Veda'. Once again, many people stepped forward to help bring the project to fruition, for example donating the use of a suitable hall and the printing of materials.

The First International Symposium on Mind-Body Medicine in Ayurveda was held in Belgrade last May. The event was organized by the Serbian Association for Ayurveda—Maharishi College of Perfect Health, Serbia. Over 500 medical doctors and health professionals who had never been exposed to Maharishi Ayur-Veda attended. This group plus many others will be invited to an upcoming doctors' conference to learn about Maharishi Ayur-Veda.

Through all these experiences, Dr Cicic commented, it often seemed as if 'everything came out of nothing,' with great support from many people—mirroring the dynamics of natural law identified by modern physics and described fully in Maharishi's Vedic Science—in which everything in the physical world arises from the unified field of all the laws of nature, the silent, unbounded field of pure intelligence at the basis of the universe and of human consciousness and physiology. Maharishi explained that regular direct experience of this field through the practice of Transcendental Meditation enlivens the support of natural law to spontaneously fulfil life-supporting desires.

See other articles in this series:
∙ Organic farming takes root in Serbia
∙ Serbia: For fifth year, BioBalkan Expo brings organic farmers, businesses together
∙ 'Organic Serbia' show airing weekly on 15 television stations throughout the country
∙ Serbia: Health professionals learn about Maharishi's Vedic Approach to Health

* Ayurveda is the world's oldest, most comprehensive system of natural medicine, which originated in the Vedic civilization of ancient India and is now officially recognized by the World Health Organization. Maharishi Ayur-Veda is the modern restoration by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of the complete and authentic practice of Ayurveda as recorded in the Vedic texts.

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