WHAT IS AYURVEDA?
‘Hitahitam Sukham Asystya Hitahitam Maanam Ch tachh yatroktam Ayurveda S Ucchayate’
This ancient verse defines Ayurveda as the science of life management, which explains about the principles of diet and lifestyles that are good or bad for life, what leads to a happy life or unhappy life and what is the exact life span which is known as Ayurveda.
‘Samdosha samagnish samdhatu malkriya Prassnatma indriya man ityabhidhiyate’
Health according to Ayurveda is the balance of tri-energies. Their imbalance is the cause of disease or ill health.
Ayuevedic System of Medicine Defined Health In The Following Verse As:-
Perfect balance between physical and mental bio energy, digestive and physiological fires, balanced anabolism, proper excretory functions, blissful soul, senses and mind is health and their imbalance is disease.
ABOUT AYURVEDA
Ayur – factually means life span, and Ayurveda is known as knowledge of life. It is God’s manual that tells us how to lead a happy, healthy, peaceful, prosperous lifestyle, preventing diseases and leading a respectful social life.
Veda – Vedic literature is the ancient treasure of knowledge which originated from God Himself. God created this world and has given us a manual in the form of Vedas (knowledge ) explaining how this world works. Ayurveda is a manual of life management given by God explaining how to lead a healthy and happy life in every aspect.
Ayurveda is in existence since the existence of life and the universe, as the principles of healing are based on laws of nature which are ageless and eternal. According to Ayurveda all physical matter as well as our body is made up of five elements-Earth, Water, Ether, Air, Fire. The only difference is that our body has a sixth element called Soul and non-living things have only five elements in different ratio and proportion. The working components of these five elements are represented by the three basic physiological humours or the biological ‘Tri-energies’ doing all the movement, metabolic reactions, providing support and nutrition. These biological tri-energies are called – Veta (Kinetic Energy), Pitta (Thermal Energy) and Kapha (Potential Energy).
Ancient Ayurveda Scholar Charaka Explains About What Is Ayurveda And Why It Is Important:-
Dharmartha- kama- moksanam arogyam uttamam rogastasyapahartarah sreyaso jivitasya ca
Goals of religion or karma, material world, sensual pleasure or liberation can be achieved only if one is healthy. Disease/Sickness destroys health, well being and the whole life.
(Charka Sutra Sthana 1-15)
This ancient verse clearly indicates the importance of health to lead a happy, prosperous and peaceful life.
Ayurveda techniques focus on achieving that balance of Veta, Pitta, Kapha – called the tri-energies.
The balance of these ‘Tri-energies’ can be maintained by our diet, lifestyle, different Ayurveda herbs, minerals and purification procedures.
Their balance is disturbed by irregular life style, prolonged physical stress, wrong dietary habits, incompatible food and misuse of senses.
Ayurveda is a way of living in harmony with nature and guides us to maintain a steady state. It explains details about body care, daily routine, diet and various foods to promote health and maintain the balance of the ‘Tri-energies’
If we do not sleep early in the night, the vata (Air element) increases leading to painful bones, cramps in the muscles, dark circles around the eyes or sleep bags, constipation, dry mouth and hastens ageing process. Condition and kept overnight foods also causes increased Vata. Excessive work, long travelling leads to fatigue, which is a symptom of increased Vata. All of this leads to diseases like joint pains, cervical pain, backache, nervousness, confusion, insomnia, constipation, etc.Similarly Pitta (Fire) is excessive heat. Consuming food, herbs and our behaviour similar to properties of Pitta leads to increase in pitta. Excessive consumtion of hot potency food, spices, alcohol, disturbs Pitta. The seat of Pitta is liver and stomach. Excessive aggression, anger, jealousy, hatred, etc leads to increase Pitta. This leads to diseases like peptic ulcers, liver diseases, blood pressure etc.Excessive consumption of fat rich food, sedentary lifestyle leads to vitiation of Kapha. Excessive Kapha blocks all the nutrition and elimination channels leading to obesity, diabetes. Diet and behaviour opposite the nature of Kapha leads to cleaning up the system and balancing the kapha. (Earth + Water) There are other concepts like Ojus, Aama, and Dhatus which the clarification is as follows.
According to Ayurveda – The ‘Ojus’ is the vital energy present in our body that is responsible for our physical and mental healthy outlook. It gives glow to our skin, strength to our heart and body. The toxins or free radicals deplete the ‘Ojus’ within our body which causes the feeling of fatigue and depression. The toxins create imbalances of the tri-energies which also has a great negative impact on ‘Ojus’. In Ayurveda, a lot of emphasis is laid on improving the vital energy or the resistance of the person called ‘Ojus’.
Aama – It is a kind of sticky substance that forms within the body due to excessive consumption of heavy greasy food on regular basis. Aama can be understand as disturbed form of ‘Kapha’ which coats the tongue, the entire length of intestine, blocks the entry and exit through micro channels of the cell, clogging of arteries. This leads to congestion within the system, leading to fermentation of the stale undigested food lying in the intestines. This leads to formation of endotoxins, which disturb the immunological system leading to all auto-immune diseases. Herbal remedies like Sanjeevani Vati, Arogyavardhni Vati, etc clear this “Aama” and offer an effective solution to such problems.
Similarly there are great chances of females getting ovarian cysts, breast cancer or uterine fibroids due to abortion or miscarriage. Abortion or miscarriage leads to accumulation of left over hormones/chemicals which are released from the hypothalamus and pituitary to help maintain a pregnancy. After abortion, those hormones that brought changes in female reproductive organs within the breasts are no longer useful. The changes they made was not completely done. God created woman to be pregnant and give birth to someone and that woman decided to abort the child. She suffers ultimately with the problems caused by “Aama”. These leftover hormones can also be understood as “Aama”. Other things which can be correlated with “Aama” are Rheumatoid factors, HLA B27 and other immunological factors responsible for autoimmune diseases. The digestive fire and individual tissues fire burns these factors and mediators if treated properly.
DHATUS (TISSUES) – THERE ARE SEVEN DHATUS WHICH SUPPORT OUR BODY. THEY ARE
- Rasa (Plasma)
- Rakta (Blood)
- Mamsa (Muscle)
- Meda (Fatty tissue)
- Asthi (Bones)
- Majja (Bone Marrow)
- Shukra (Semen and Reproductive tissue)
The “Dhatus” described in Ayurveda are the various organs and parts of our body.