Ayurved: The science of life

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Yogi Ashwini [1]

The four Vedas: Rigved, Samved, Yajurved and Atharvaved are the rivers of the knowledge, which cover every aspect of Creation. Out of these rivers, a tributary of Atharvaved is Ayurved. Vedas were not documented in the earlier yugs when the Creation began. It was in dwaparyug that rishi Vyas documented this knowledge which existed as shrotras in the earlier yugs and was passed on by the guru to the shishya as gyan.

Also, in the time when this great knowledge or science of life was given by Lord Brahma to Daksh Prajapati, diseases had not manifested in the physical world. The level of purity was so high in the earlier yugs that though diseases did exist at that time, they were unable to manifest themselves. As the level of selfishness increased in every yug, the calamities and diseases also increased as a result of the environment, the heavy thoughts, and karmas of people. Satyug was the age of the ultimate level of purity, selflessness and compassion for the whole Creation, not just mankind.
The sages of yesteryears asked for this knowledge or the science of life even when it was not needed in those times when there were no diseases. Lord Brahma was the original propounder of Ayurved. It was first given to Daksh Prajapati from whom it was given to Asvins, and then from Asvins to Indra. Till this time this science was confined to heaven only. Close to the end of satyug, the sages including Angiras, Vashishtha, Kashyap, Bhrigu, Atreya, Gautam, Bharadwaj, Agastya, Vishwamitra, Chyawan and many more, anticipating the onslaught of the diseases in forthcoming ages, collected in the valley of Himalayas to discuss this sacred topic.
And it was decided by mutual consent that rishi Bharadwaj would go up to Lord Indra and ask for this knowledge for the benefit of everyone. Thus, Lord Indra expounded to rishi Bharadwaj the immortal and sacred science of life consisting of three principles — etiology, i.e., the cause, symptomatology, and the knowledge of therapeutics as a means to well being par excellence, to the healthy as well as diseased.
Gradual decay (ageing) is the very nature of the body. This process is intensified by the onslaught of diseases. By means of yog and Ayurved one learns to slow down this process of ageing and to achieve a state of balance. The causes of the diseases relating to both mind and body are wrong utilisation, non-utilisation and excessive utilisation of time, mental faculties, and objects of the sense organs.
Diseases are categorised into two categories — mental and physical. In the physical, the three factors which are pillars of the body are vat, pitta and kapha. A balance of these three doshas is a healthy body and imbalance is disease. Factors that affect the mind are rajas and tamas, which are of psychological importance. These are the pathogenic factors of the mind and can only be reconciled by the practices of yog.
Out of the physical factors, i.e, tridosh; vat which means vayu, is of greatest importance because of its acuteness, varieties and seriousness of disease caused by it. Also, it is the carrier of any imbalance in the body, because out of all the three doshas, vat is the only one which is mobile.
Then comes pitta, which is the root of digestion and metabolism, and the last one is kapha, which is the root cause of the least number of diseases. Vat is said to cause 80 kinds of diseases, pitta 40 and kapha 20, but in various permutations and combinations they can take innumerable shapes.
A disease manifests in the body when any of these doshas increases or decreases from its state of balance. The state of balance of every individual is different from another depending on the prakriti of the individual; for example, ginger is a poison for people with high pitta but a digestive tonic for others. Ayurved preaches prakriti (nature) to be balance and vikriti (against nature) to be disease. So, the aim is to keep the body in a state of balance to maintain youth, health and glow.
Ayurved is in todays day and age being prescribed as “off the shelf remedy”, anything which carries the name Ayurved with it, sells like hot cakes. We need to understand that Ayurved does not work like this. It very gradually over a period of time changes the composition of the body from its roots, thus removing the imbalance which caused the disease. It would be safe to say that Ayurved does not cure diseases, it removes the imbalances of the body.

— Yogi Ashwini is an authority on yoga, tantra and the Vedic sciences. He is the guiding light of Dhyan Foundation. He has recently written a book, Sanatan Kriya: 51 Miracles... And a Haunting. Contact him at dhyan@dhyanfoundation.com