AYURVEDIC PRINCIPLES
What are the Basic Principles of Ayurveda
Although its history can be traced back thousands of years, the holistic principles of Ayurveda are very relevant in today’s world. Ayurveda may seem exotic, mystical, and complicated to some people, but it is actually very simple.
Millions of people have turned to this ‘the science of life,’ for its holistic principles in the diagnosis and management of diseases. The beauty of Ayurveda is that it approaches health in the context of a delicate balance between mind, body, and spirit. They are all intertwined and intrinsically linked with one another. If one factor performs poorly, it will have a direct impact on the others.
In the Ayurvedic system of medicine, there are three main causes of diseases:
• Excessive rajas and tamas in the mind, lack of sattva.
• Imbalance of Doshas, either by a constitution or by external factors.
• Karmic actions from past lives.
To counter these, the Ayurvedic line of treatment is threefold:
• Sattvic therapy to counter rajas and tamas
• Rational therapy to counter the doshas
• Spiritual methods to reduce karma
Let’s understand these basic principles of Ayurveda in more detail:
1. The Big Picture
According to Ayurveda, the universe and everything in it are made up of five fundamental elements: fire, air, water, earth, and ether. The Panch Mahabhutas, or Five Elements, are what they’re called. The combination of these five elements along with the spirit is called the world. Every living thing in the world, be it a stone, a tree, an animal, or a person, is a sum of these five parts, with each person having a unique combination and balance within them.
According to Ayurveda, a person is healthy when all five of these elements are in complete harmony with one another. When any of these elements fall out of balance, it can have a negative impact on both your mental and physical well-being.
2. Three Attributes of the Mind
The three influential principles which regulate and govern our deeper consciousness functions are Sattva (purity), Rajas (activity), and Tamas (darkness, destruction). These three qualities are present in all objects in various degrees; one quality is always more predominant than the others. According to principles of Ayurveda, sattva is the quality of nature that represents balance, harmony, purity, and clarity. It is one of the three subtle qualities or ‘gunas’ that is present in everything; humans, food, animate and innate objects. The remaining two Gunas are rajas and tamas, rajas being the quality movements, distractions, turbulences, or temptations that create a life imbalance, while tamas being the quality of dullness, darkness, and inertia.
When the three Gunas are in perfect balance and harmony, they keep the mind and, the body healthy. However, an imbalance can have mental and physical manifestations. The goal of Ayurveda is to identify your guna, get rid of the lower guna from your thoughts, actions, and habits, and improve it to the higher one till you become completely sattvic.
3. Three Metabolic Body Types
Ayurveda is that it takes a holistic approach to health and illnesses. The Ayurvedic system divides the causation of diseases into three Doshas or life forces. The word “Dosha” means “that which most likely can go out of balance.” The three Doshas are Vata, Kaf, and Pitta. The Vaayu/air factor is referred to as Vaat. Pitt is Agni, the fire element, and Kaf is Prithvi, the earth element, Jal, the water element, and Akash, the ether element. A person’s physical, mental, and emotional characteristics are typically determined by one or two dominant doshas. The dominant dosha is responsible for why one person might be unable to tolerate humidity or oily foods while another has no adverse reaction to them.
Any Dosha that gets out of balance in a disproportionate ratio can disturb the functions of the other Doshas and cause physical and emotional distress. This disturbs the state of harmony and has a direct effect on health.
4. The Doctrine of Karma
It also discusses diseases as a product of karma. Karma or sinful acts from a past life and accumulated karmas from previous lives cause the manifestation of diseases. It goes on to discuss that genetic disorders and mental ailments, congenital deformities, and deficiencies in physical and mental make-up are the causative effects of past karma.
Diseases arising out of (past) actions are not amenable to any therapeutic measures and not even the ablest physician is capable of curing them. They can be cured only after the results of past actions are exhausted.
5. Three Elements of Treatment of Diseases
Ayurveda has a systemic diagnosis, as well as basic treatment principles for managing certain stages of diseases. It affirms that certain diseases are easily curable within a short span of time (Sadhya), some are just manageable which are curable with difficulty (Yapya) and a few others are incurable (Asadhya).
Ether means space that permits for the existence of everything including communication between one a part of the body and another as an example, synaptic space, intracellular space, abdominal space as well as self-expression.
Air is gaseous and has airy qualities. it’s light, clean, dry, and dispersing. It governs all movements direction and
change, stirring all of creation into life. Air is present within the lungs and abdomen, for instance, and its quality of movement is often seen altogether movement within the body, particularly those of messages throughout the systema nervosum.
Fire has light and warmth, dry and upward moving governs perception and every one transformation within the body. liable for the temperature and color of the body, for the luster on the cheeks, the sheen of the hair, the sunshine within the eyes.
Water for liquidity & flowing motion, cohesiveness and holds everything together cool and downward flowing and has
no shape of its own. It governess all the body’s fluids, blood, urine, stools, saliva, and mucus.
Earth means matter, solidity & stability, heavy & hard governs body form and substance, body and organs muscles and bones, teeth, and tendons.
The Three Doshas – Ayurveda Basics
As we have seen there are three types of forces derived from the five elements known as doshas – Vata, Pitta, and Kapha- “-which are responsible for all functions in the body both physical and psychological.
The three doshas, or biological humours that govern our constitution – Vata, Pitta, Kapha. The doshas provide the physiological & physical structure and organs muscles and bones, teeth, and tendons of the whole body
VATA – The body which has Vata finds difficulty in waking up fresh. they are talkative and love to move about. The five types of Vata allow for the coordination of the five sense organs and the five organs of action, meaning that sensory input can be responded to by action.
PITTA – The body witch has PITTA they despise heat and all things hot. hair is fine and thin. Their hunger and thirst are intense. The age is quicker than all other Prakriti They are quick to anger and impatience. Pittas are good teachers They are good at debates, politics. They often enjoy cooking and patronizing.
KAPHA – Arise primarily through Rasjas, as they are kinds of mobile or vital energies, and they each have five different forms The body witch have KAPHAS have big bodies well covered with fat. Kaphas move with great difficulty, mentally and physically. They have lack intense hunger and thirst. They are slow but firm. Kaphas make excellent researchers and thinkers.
Relation between panchmahabhoot and tridosha:
vatta – vayu + akash mahabhoot
pitta – agni + jala mahabhoot
kapha – jala + prithvi mahabhoot
1200 years ago Chinese copy of Ayurveda – Principles of Ayurveda
In closing, when we think of Ayurveda, we must take into consideration the basic principles of doshas, gunas, and karmas so that a comprehensive personality picture can be generated, which can have implications for health, and all other dimensions of life.
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