About Me.
Geetanjali Chakraborty
Advance Ayurveda Practitioner (NAMA-Certified)
What draws me to Ayurveda is that food is our first line of defense. This science gives us a therapeutic understanding of food and its role in healing — turning the humble kitchen into a powerful force for our families' health. Ayurveda empowers us to become self-reliant: to understand our own constitution, notice when we're out of balance, and know how to restore it. It's a revolutionary, democratized language for health.
My relationship with plants has deepened the same way. I've gone from struggling to keep a cactus alive to helping orchids thrive year-round — and along the way, I've come to see plants less as tools and more as beloved family members.
BIO
Geetanjali Chakraborty is a NAMA-certified Advanced Ayurveda Practitioner and the President of the California Association of Ayurvedic Medicine (CAAM), where she advocates for Ayurveda's integration into Western healthcare and works toward licensure recognition in California.
She completed her five-year Ayurveda Clinical Specialist training at Vedika Global under teachers including Acharya Shunya, Dr. Mahesh Sabade and Abhijeet Jinde and later served as Vedika Global's Dean of Ayurveda Studies. She has taught Ayurveda since 2014, and in 2015 became the first Ayurveda instructor in Stanford University's Health Improvement Program, where she continues to teach.
Before Ayurveda, Geetanjali worked as a molecular biologist at Georgetown University and Stanford University. She holds an MS in Biochemistry from Georgetown and an MBA from Maharishi University of Management. That scientific training now shapes how she practices — bringing clinical rigor to a holistic approach.
Geetanjali has consulted with many clients, and established a donation-based Ayurveda clinic at the India Community Center (ICC) in Milpitas — a vision inspired by her teacher, making holistic wellness accessible regardless of financial means. She has spoken at NAMA conferences, the International Herb Symposium, Samuel Merritt University, Silicon Valley's Health Technology Forum, and CIIS public programs, and moderated a panel at the One International Festival in Suzhou, China.
The Swakitch Story
In the late 19th century, a man decided to undertake a strange pilgrimage, not to temples, but to villages, where he would give a curious gift to the women of the village. The gift was of nine seeds of plants that would aid the women in protecting the health of their families. This man would explain to them how to use these plants, and his claim was ambitious: “Respect and nurture these plants in your homes, and you will never be overpowered by sickness in your home.”
As a pilgrim, he did not charge any money for these seeds or for his teaching. Instead, he relied on the generosity of the villagers, and they responded by taking care of him wherever he went. In his own humble way, without any fundraising or grants, he had undertaken to transform the health of his land.
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Beyond the seeds and the teachings left in the hands of the village women, this man laid the foundation for a new model of health. One that is not held captive in ivory towers of learning, but made accessible to those of humble means.
This story is immensely inspiring to me, and the word Swakitch is made up of 'Swa' + 'Kitchen.' Swa is the Sanskrit root for self-reliance (swadheen), swadisht (delicious) and swasthya (good health). Swakitch is dedicated to promoting self-reliance through the Ayurvedic kitchen where you can manage your health and lifestyle through a delicious diet made with healing spices. Swakitch is a modern pilgrimage inspired by all my Ayurveda teachers, with the tools of our time.
