As a child, I was never very healthy. I used to get cold and flu with season and location change, suffered from dust and pollen allergies, always carrying an antihistamine in my pocket. I spent most of my college days in the hospital living on paracetamols.

I have always been a vegetarian, nonsmoker, but occasionally and socially consumed alcohol. I also hated fruits and salads and believed that exercise is only for bodybuilders or retired people.

Then around 5 years ago, work stress and other nutritional deficiencies started showing up. I was diagnosed as pre diabetic, with thyroid issues and sleep apnea. My blood neutrophil numbers dropped to non existent levels, scaring me to death. To top it all up, I got a serious flare-up of scalp and facial psoriasis, making me lose hair in chunks and making my skin all red and flaky. It made it almost impossible for me to meet anyone socially. 

 

I met a lot of doctors and tried many prescriptions of medicines and lotions. But it was clear, they were at best suppressing the symptoms and not really curing them.

 

That made me take my health into my own hands. I spent days researching how to heal myself completely and whether this was even possible. I read scores of books and attended many offline and online health workshops on alternate healing.

Ultimately I found out that true health can only be achieved when all 3, your body, your mind and your soul is in good health.

I got rid of all kinds of processed food, switched to a primarily raw plant based diet, started exercising and deep breathing, practiced mindfulness and focused more on my spiritual practice. I supplemented the above with Ayurvedic herbs like Turmeric, Neem, Tulsi and Coconut Oil to apply topically as well as cosuming them orally.

All the above efforts didn’t go to waste and over a period of few months, all my health issues disappeared completely. My energy levels, which were never the best before I started all this, improved dramatically and I hardly get tired anymore. For the last 4 years, I have not taken a single medicinal pill, nor have I faced any health issue.

 

I also started suggesting these lifestyle changes and Ayurvedic herbs to my family and friends. My father cured his heart blockages with a herb called Arjun Chhal, my wife cured her endometriosis with Ganoderma mushrooms and my daughter cured her chronic constipation and low immunity with a mix of herbs and honey.

This remarkable health transformation made me look at life in a whole different way. I decided to pivot from my already hugely successful e-Commerce business to something more meaningful for myself and helpful to humanity as a whole.

So, I started my journey looking for herbs that can heal people. What I also realised during my own healing journey that potency, purity and freshness of the herb make a whole lot of difference in whether it will work for someone or not. So, I decided to source organic, Non-GMO herbs from the farms that grew medicinal plants. But as I researched more and more, I found out that the best quality food and herbs are not grown on farms but in forests. In ancient times, that’s what humans used to eat and never get chronic diseases. Even in recent times, we have seen and heard of sages living in forests with minimal food and herbs growing naturally. 

I also learned that there are farmers all over the world who are waking up to this reality and converting their farms into forests. In fact, forest farming is not only healthy, it is the only sustainable way of growing food while not destroying the environment. I quickly realised that however difficult it might seem as of now, this is the only way to move forward from here.

 

So, this is how Forest Raga was born. We decided to source all our products from these forest farms and also process them minimally using natural methods like Sun and shade drying, low temperature grinding and packaging them at the source, so as to retain maximum nutrition.

At Forest Raga, we work with a vision of making this world a healthy and happy place where all living beings can coexist in harmony, and humans, in particular, can live a long and fulfilling life. I sincerely hope you will join us in this endeavour.

 

Rohit Goel, 

Co-founder, 

Forest Raga