A Hungarian pharmacist's tryst with ayurveda

Dr Tunde Paulo from Budapest, a pharmacist in her early 50s, runs a pharmaceutical firm - Ahimsa Cosmetic Company - in Budapest, producing a range of eco-friendly, skin-friendly and 100 per cent vegetarian cosmetic products under the brand name Tulasi.

Of an array of products, the only ayurvedic product the company produces in Budapest is a hugely popular toothpaste named ‘Prabhupad Ayurvedic toothpaste’ as a tribute to Prabhupad.

Speaking to Deccan herald,  Dr Paulo, who was in Mangalore as a part of a study team to the Mangalore Centre of the Brahmakumaris, said after having finished her university course, she worked in many well-known pharmaceutical companies.

In the late 1980s, she went through a family crisis which compelled her to take refuge in spiritualism. She thus joined Iskcon and it was in this organisation that her guru Shivaramaswamy (head of the Hungary branch of Iskcon) noticing her creativity, suggested to her to start a pharmaceutical company of her own.

“I didn’t realise it initially but I was emerging as a new person who had left all the baggage of the past behind me. I started the company, which is said to be the first in Hungary to produce 100 per cent vegetarian products,” she said adding that after a personal experience, she realised the healing power of ayurveda and thus felt the need to introduce a small product using the recipe of ayurveda.

“I chose the safest product. This toothpaste has a mixture of black mustard, glycerin, winter green oil, camphor and some other herbs,” she said, recalling how the product made a start by being circulated just among the Iskcon devotees.

It was by the word of mouth. Local people started enquiring about the product and soon it crossed the boundaries of Iskcon centre. Today the company produces soaps, shampoos, shower gel, oil, cream, lip balm, pain balm named Shakti, essential oils, etc.

With dreams of popularising her 100 per cent bio-degradable washing agent, Dr  Paulo says she has a lot to return to the planet, to her country, and most importantly “to this great civilisation called India for gifting the world with such treasure of wisdom”.