This May 19th 2024 will be Vital Veda’s Ten Year Anniversary as an Ayurveda clinic, education platform and business.
From starting a clinic in my parents bedroom, to working with various therapists, touring different countries, to now, working with an amazing team to help spread potent authentic Ayurveda internationally.
Some of you reading this have been with me from early on. Some, recently we have freshly united in the name of natural health.
Whenever you joined, I am genuinely so grateful to be on this journey with you.
Enjoy this more personal brief photo-timeline of the journey so far…
Dylan, founder and director.
2014
May 2014
After graduating from the Australasian Institute of Ayurvedic Studies (AIAS) early 2014, Dylan registered the business Vital Veda, got insurance, and started practicing with clients from his old bedroom in his parents house.
I started with a lot of Abhyangas in 2014. Giving the client this tactile experience of bliss and rejuvenation was one way to inspire them to deepen practices of Ayurveda diet and lifestyle for themselves.
Early ghee labels, created by my our first graphic designer, a friend’s sister who helped us out, Pia Wolanski (Mrs Ink)/
Every lecture I would take with me two “Ayurvedic essentials” to sell: ghee and copper tongue scrapers. Only a few years later did I have the confidence and knowledge to add another essential: nasika (nose drops).
Dylan’s first business card.
2015
Vital Veda Logo
I designed the logo in 2014, which we still use today. My cartoonist friend Adam Toonfeld drew it up.
The logo are the leaves of Tulsi, Aloe Vera and Neem in a śirodhara pot.
Dylan’s first lecture at Lauren Godfrey Meditation in Coogee, Sydney, 2015.
This lecture is where I met a patient, Rachel, who soon after became one of my best friends.
I also met Lora Villanueva, who also became a very good friend and later, was our graphic designer, and was instrumental in creating some of the branding we still have today.
Through the early instagram success of Vital Veda, our branding supported Lora’s early design portfolio, allowing her get more wellness clients and launch RNR Creative.
Dylan’s first international tour, in NYC. A couple lectures and many consultations and abhyangas were provided in Manhattan.
2016
Dr Rajus First Australia Tour
Teaching self-pulse at a lecture in St. Kilda, Melbourne, May 2016.
In Hyderabad India, October 2015, on the night of Dhanvantari Jayanti (“annual Ayurveda day”), after our evening Dhanvantari puja, I had an auspicious dream that I was hosting Vaidya J.R. in Australia and we were touring.
Next year it happened, except with Vaidya J.R.’s younger brother, Vaidya A.V. Raju.
We learnt a lot on our first tour around Australia with Vaidya A.V. Raju. How to communicate with people who are new to Ayurveda and not as committed to fly to India for it. How to host 100 women for banana treatment in silence (still learning), and more.
Welcome to Country for Dr. A.V. (Krishna) Raju’s first visit to Australia in 2016. This prompted regular visits to Australia and USA annually.
Narissa Moeller, who was studying Ayurveda joined us on tour, then worked at the VV clinic, and now treats in Adelaide.
Narissa and Dylan preparing herbs for Patra Poultice treatment.
But I kept the my old bedroom in my parents house and turnt it into a herbal dispensary and apothecary.
Eden packing herbs in North Bondi. September 2017
2017
I was spending half the year in Sydney establishing the clinic, getting momentum with patients, then would go live in India for half the year, mostly in Hyderabad at the Raju clinic, and somewhat break that momentum and go into self-development and self-healing mode. It was a strong fundamental approach by my mentor Dr. A.V. Raju, to really purify myself before treating others.
Although sometimes my mother encouraged me to “get another job” in addition to Ayurveda to fund my life, thankfully, with the support of my parents and other factors, I was able to continue Ayurveda full time all these years.
In 2017, a friend and I house-sitted a lovely sandstone house in South Bondi, which we operated the VV clinic for a short time. Then late 2017/2018 set up the clinic again at my parents house in the same room (the location was just too good).
2018
Launched the Vital Veda podcast show. Still going, 133 episodes later.
New clinic beach front at Bronte Beach (Finally moved out of the Bondi bubble).
2x Raju Australia & NZ tours in 2018.
Banana Treatment in Bondi, Sydney in April 2018.
With Vaidya Krishna Raju and Ramya Raju in Melbourne, 2018.
Big thanks to our teams of Volunteers across Australia who always help with the Raju tours.
Daniel Tucker and Emma Burrell (practitioner in Melbourne) consitently there each year in the early years, Susana came from Canberra to help, and as always, Laura and Alex from Mahasoma.
Dylan tours in UK and Iceland.
Dylan lectures at Port Eliot Festival, Cornwall, UK. – This was my first lecture at a big festival, and the festival was absolutely gorgeous.
Dani Escobar practiced Ayurveda across USA before moving to Sydney, Australia in 2019. Soon after, she reached out to Dylan and they collaborated and Dani offered body treatments at VV in 2020. Dani later collaborated with Sole in Soma Shakti – Ayurvedic Maternal Care, and continues to work with women.
2019
Dylan lectures and consults for the first time in India.
What an absolute honour it is to teach Ayurveda in the land of the Ved. Thanks to my hosts The Vedary and Highfield in Mumbai, and the other venues I collaborated with.
Another big Raju Tour in Australia and NZ, 2019, this time, with two Vaidyas: Krishna Raju & Vaidya Nayaniji.
Vaidya Nayani Padma Raju and Michalle Smith run a few intimate cooking classes in 2019.
Dedicated group of women brave the Sydney winter to wait for their Banana Medicine in Bondi, June 2019.
July 2019 – Dylan tours USA, lecturing, consulting and treating in NYC in collaboration with Spring Meditation and Boulder Colorado in collaboration with Yashoda Devi Ma.
Dylan lectures in NYC, interviewed by Roya Pourshalchi.
Vital Veda Staff in 2019
After advertising for a “herb packer” on our Instagram, Jordan Epstein joined our team for a brief moment, for 6-12 months or so, managing our herb orders. Jordan was amazing and highly capable. He was instrumental for us switching from manual herb orders via email, to an automated online shop, and put other systems in place for us.
Felicia Robey joined VV as a therapist and brought with her a good level of experience (dṛṣṭkarma), particularly in the field of counselling, which was valuable for our mentally vulnerable patients. With a massage background and initially studying Ayurveda with Shaun Mathews, she learnt Ayurveda body-treatments with us, and quickly became refined in her treatments.
Between other jobs like teaching yoga, running her own practice, and always studying, she works with full-time devotion and compassion for all.
I met Sole in 2019 and we soon after became a couple. She started working with VV packing and sending herbs. It wasn’t long until she learnt treatments and became our main therapist. She became highly refined and compassionate at recognising and attending to particular needs of clients. Her healing capacity flowed swiftly with power, and continues to develop. When she became pregnant early 2023, she stopped body-treatments, reduced her work as our manager. Now with a baby, she is working very minimally with VV as she enjoys full-time motherhood.
2020
Missed going to India this year, and the next.
Before online courses got popular around covid time, I had an intuitive feeling to launch an online live course on Ayurveda.
The Essence of Ayurveda was born. It happened effortlessly. We did one intake with about 108 people.
I emphasised that those who wanted to join this course had to be ready to dive deep. This wasn’t a course you listen to while driving or multi-tasing. We covered a lot of areas of Ayurveda, as well as it’s relationship with the four Vedas.
It consisted of 8x 2-3 hour lectures, with the last one being a live celebratory yañja (vedic fire ceremony) in Sydney, where about 10 people joined us in person, with the rest on zoom.
I may release the recordings in the future.
Our herb dispensary was busier than ever during Covid, just like other Ayurveda and natural health clinics during the pandemic. People paid more attention to their health, and this silver lining shined a bright light on Ayurveda world wide.
Dhatus Online Course
As the Essence of Ayurveda online course was a big success, the next course we were going to go even deeper, and more concentrated on one topic.
Initially, we were going to cover Dhatus (7 Tissues) and Srotas (Body Channels), with Vaidya Harsha Raju as a guest lecturer to correlate between the 7 Dhatus and 7 Planets.
We ended up focusing only on Dhatus on the 7 week course, as that took up a lot of time. Vaidya Harsha also ended up lecturing half the time.
This course was a bit ahead of it’s time.
The knowledge from Vaidya Harsha was supreme and sophisticated as he astonishingly connected jyotiṣ (vedic astrology) with Ayurveda.
This course recording will definitely be released in the future. Stay tuned via our newsletter.
New Clinic in Bronte Beach
We moved our clinic and herb dispensary from South Bronte Beach to North Bronte.
We had one room as the treatment room, the sun-room was the herb dispensary, and had some Ayurvedic herbs growing in the garden – pictured is Dylan with uśīra/vetiver, as sweet hydrating cooling and very aromatic grass root.
Pedro, Sole’s brother joined our team late 2020 as Vital Veda’s media manager.
Pedro does so much more than that. He manages the podcast, social media, newsletters, website tech side of things and many more. Pedro basically runs Vital Veda. However, since moving to south India in 2021, he balances Vital Veda work with serving his guru, Sri Shakti Amma, and her ashram, as well as enjoying time with his wife.
If you appreciate our podcast, social media, and any technical service we provide, thank Pedro.
2021
Still covid… and draconian restrictions for the public deepen.
It was more challenging to get herbs from India, and people could not go to India for their annual pañcakarma cleanse.
So, our patients were getting a bit more stressed and health anxious.
When I expressed this to Vaidya J.R. Raju, he confidently shared the solution:
“We will teach self-pulse. We will teach it and give some special techniques.”
We have had over 250 people attend the Introductory Self-Pulse Course with expert pulse diagnosis physician, Vaidya J.R. Raju and his son, Vaidya Harsha Raju. People continue to watch the recording to learn self-pulse.
Self-pulse is a self-referral healing technique.
A few months later, 54 students from the Introductory Pulse Course advanced to Level 2 Pulse Course after passing an assessment interview.
This course was more then one level up. We split into groups according to country and did more in-person sessions, while the Vaidyas were online. It really allowed the students to progress in their pulse practice.
Essence of Ayurvedic Nutrition Online Course
We launched the Essence of Ayurvedic Nutrition course. The most comprehensive and elegantly produced piece of content we have put together.
Thanks to Boaz Smith, my brother, who filmed our Essence of Ayurveda Nutrition course over a few big days, followed by lots of post production that produced highly-refined stunning videos.
Partnered with One Eleven Health to create and share premium Ayurveda herbal formulas to pacify and strengthen the health of the nervous system.
With the sankalpa (intention) of more people taking nitya rasāyanas (daily herbal longevity elixirs).
More from One Eleven Health coming soon!
Sabi started packing herbs with us in our Hewlett St, Bronte clinic. He was so interested in all the areas of Ayurveda he got to know, and we ended up teaching him quite a few body therapies, of which he grasped quickly. Sabi treated a bunch of our patients for about one year, including Sole and Dylan during a one-month long pañcakarma which was conducted at our house. He now offers catering and Ayurveda in Northern Rivers, NSW.
2022
Again we moved clinic space, this time to Tamarama Beach.
Abhyanga Course:
For years, clients have been asking Dylan to learn the unique techniques of Abhyanga that he uses when treating them.
Sole and Dylan ran their first Abhyanga Course in Sydney, June 2022. It was quite intensive, and we had some great abhyanga practitioners rise from it.
Vital Veda Staff
Giselle (left) developed a beautiful passion for herbs, particularly Raju and VV herbs. Coming from a background of making jewellery, her creative hands got to create herbal formulas and packages for our community.
Romi came from working at an Ayurveda clinic in West Sydney to our Tamarama clinic. She did our abhyanga course in 2023 and really took her treatments to the next level.
Romi now treats in Newtown, Sydney.
Instagram Video Gone Viral
In August 2022 we had an instagram video go viral with over 8 million views. This attracted a large Indian audience to Vital Veda’s education content, and since then, brings enthusiasm, controversy and joy to some of our social media posts, particularly those based on Vedas and India.
This video was actually not planned like our other videos, but quickly put together by Pedro using some excess footage.
The video was based around eating food mindfully with gratitude, and since that is such as universal principle amongst many cultures around the world, that is why we we feel it went viral.
2023
On the move…
We moved from Sydney to South Golden Beach, Northern Rivers NSW. We didn’t intend to set up a clinic in our home. Maybe just some consultations in person and online, but the demand for treatments also came, and we could not say no.
Raju Australia & NZ Tour 2023
After 4 years of no visits to Australia by my teachers, the Raju Family, Vaidya Harsha & Pavani Raju quenched the thirst of many people wanting Banana Treatment and other therapies. We had a successful tour treating and teaching.
Abhyanga Course 2023:
We learnt a lot from our intense abhyanga course in the previous year 2022. We changed it from a 4-day course to a 7 days course, with a 1 day break in the middle.
This abhyaṅga course was quite profound. There were more students who graduated and quite a lot of them are busy treating clients across Australia, NZ and Singapore.
Ruby packs and sends our herbs across the globe. As a student of naturopathy, she loves working with the herbs to bring grounding balance to her studies.
Alana also worked for VV in 2023, and even continues to occasionally visit the herbal dispensary to skilfully organise.
Ali Bailon – for bringing your sweet grounded energy to the herbal dispensary in Sydney.
Charlotte Ziff – for your loyalty and kinship to our Vital Veda team, always.
Siobhan Hudson for offering Abhyanga massage to our clients in our Tamarama, Sydney clinic with such intimate care and presence.
+ maha thanks to many others who worked with and supported VV over the years like Jes Chev, Linda Kugel (graphic design), Emma Burrell, Ben Chung, Emma Dunn, Mahasoma, LP, Limor Babai, Dylan & Sole’s many more!!
2024
Currently as you read this, May 2024, it is Vital Veda’s 10 year anniversary! May
Dylan is on tour across Australia with Vaidya Harsha Raju & Vaidya Pavani Raju.
pictured: course participants feel their pulse during a retreat knowledge session. Photo by Leeroy T.
April 2024, in Byron Shire NSW, we ran a very special week-long retreat on Marma (vital points) with Vaidyas Harsha & Pavani Raju.
Marma is gopya (secretive knowledge) because it’s healing potency is transmuted when the sense of touch and vedic vibrations administered are subtle on many levels.
This retreat/course was the beginning of a multiple year program, developing sūkṣma marma and specialised practitioner knowledge.
What's Coming Up... (so far)
Keep up to date with these offerings via our newsletter !
- Late May & June 2024 – Vaidya Raju consultations and Banana Treatments in Sydney
- Vaidya Krishna Raju visits Perth in June 2024
- Dylan consulting and lecturing in Morocco, December 2024
- Dylan and Sole consulting and lecturing in Argentina, January 2025
- Abhyanga Course with Vital Veda in Sydney, 2025
- Upcoming March 2025 is another Marma course with Vaidya Harshaji and Pavaniji – an opportunity for those to join the journey and this years group to learn marma and pulse in the years to come.
- Course on external bastis (Ayurveda therapy)
- + a lot more!
