Written by Pavan Kanwar
Ayurveda is a natural and comprehensive system of medicine dating back several thousands of years to the Vedic period associated with India. It is the oldest known system of healing, and is therefore often referred to as the mother of all systems of medicine.
In addition to a system of medicine for the physical body, Ayurveda is also a system of medicine for the mind and the spirit. It is based on the principles of nature, not just in the sense of the forests, mountains and rivers, but the wider nature of the cosmos. In this sense it aims to utilise the creative power or intelligence, as well as substances, forces and energies that have shaped the entire universe, by harmonising with them. The intelligence in nature indeed is great as it includes all the highly sophisticated phenomena we can see, including humanity, the laws of science etc. Here Ayurveda uses the principle that when used harmoniously any thing can become healing. Conversely, when used in an imbalanced manner, it is possible to make the most powerful medicine into a poison.
A key way to achieve the above harmony is to understand the factors that are at play in nature at the highest level. To this extent Ayurveda recognised from very ancient times five key elements that comprise the Universe as Solid, Liquid, Gas (these 3 commonly make up Matter), Energy and Space. This last element only started being appreciated by modern science since the 20th Century, in addition to the more common Matter and Energy view. These five elements are said to correspond to the sense of fiveness prevalent in the human such as the five senses and the five fingers.
The five elements then are reduced into a trinity that can also be seen to occur naturally. For example it is possible to visualise catabolism (down), anabolism (up) and metabolism (balance between up and down) as a triple state of completeness. The trinity is also common across cultures in humanity whether it is the Father, Son and Holy Ghost of Christianity, or Yin, Yang and Chi from China, or the Indian Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. In Ayurveda this trinity is referred to as Vata (biological humour of Air or down), Pitta (biological humour of fire or balance between up and down) and Kapha (the biological humour of water or up), collectively known as the Doshas.
As no two humans are alike, we are all said to be made up of a unique ratio of the three Doshas. The definition of health is maintaining our individual ratio, and illness is defined as a departure from it. Thus Ayurvedic medicine is an individualised form of medicine (in keeping with our uniqueness), as opposed to the more formulaic approach of modern medicine. Maintaining our ratio depends upon keeping an appropriate diet and life-style, mentally and physically, for us. This leads to a positive definition of health by focussing on factors of health, rather than the more negative approach taken by modern medicine which focuses more on disease. Obviously Ayurveda employs this latter approach too, but as a subsequent step, rather than as a primary one.
Ayurveda works closely with its sister science of Yoga, and indeed can be considered to be a part of the wider system of Yoga. They both define health ultimately to be an optimum spiritual state rather than just a physical state. Spiritual in this perspective is not meant particularly in a religious sense, but in the sense of the peace and happiness that is felt when the creative intelligence leading to the truth is satisfied. However in this intensely physical and material age, the popular aspects of Ayurveda and Yoga have become more physical such as massgaes and physical exercises (Asanas). When working with the physical and instinctual bodies Ayurveda does use therapies such as diet and life-style, Asanas, herbalism (it has unparalleled knowledge in this area of several thousands of herbs), massages and detoxification techniques. With the mental and spiritual bodies Ayurveda moves more into the main field of Yoga and its techniques of mental concentration and meditation.
