SOMA - 100 Heritage Recipes for Self-Care, is an homage to the fragrant years of my childhood spent with my grandmother. It is an offering to her tender, yet strong hands that made those bitter, yet healing concoctions, pastes, and oils. It is in gratitude to my mother (and all those who mothered) whose nurturing and caring hands made those healing salves and healing soups. It is a collection of those secret recipes that are passed on from generation to generation.

It is so that those heritage formulas shared by my Guru, which have transformative and nourishing properties, benefit many. It is so that her Yogic revelations are not lost in the crease of time. It is to live by and open the doors to the heritage recipes of kitchen pharmacy and Yogic Wisdom. These are the fragrant flowers that I picked in my childhood and growing years, it is these drops of nectar that I still yearn to collect, live, and pass on.

Each of these 100 recipes is picked carefully for you, dear reader, to bring ease in pain, peace to an ailing heart, and rest to the tired bodies. May each recipe open the doors of healing, self-empowerment, peace, and rest for you. May you pass on this book as a heritage to the generations to come. May we never hoard the pearls of wisdom, but share them responsibly and tend to the eternal flame of life.

My humble bows to all those who mother, who insist on sharing, and those who keep this ancient healing wisdom alive.

SOMA means tender, soft, radiant rays of the moon. It is the nectar of the moon. When the mind is peaceful, it called saumya which means “moon-like. ” The tender, gentle, benevolent, kind love and nourishing care of someone who mothers is called saumyata.