Chapter 1
Introducing Ayurveda: The Science of Life
In This Chapter
Discovering the history of the Vedas
Accessing the aims of Ayurveda
Learning about the Sanskrit language
Surveying the scope of Ayurveda
Mentioning the main texts and where to find the evidence
Welcome to the world of Ayurveda – a vast treasure house of knowledge of natural healthcare given to us by holy men called rishis. Literally meaning ‘science of life’, Ayurveda encompasses all aspects of your well-being, from breathing to digestion.
In this chapter, I introduce you to the ancient art of Ayurveda.
Living Well and Maintaining Health
Ayurveda is a truly holistic health system which supports you from the cradle to the end of your life. The Ayurvedic mode of living aims to maximise your lifespan by optimising your health through interventions that care for your body, mind, spirit and environment. Ayurveda places a great emphasis on the prevention of disease and on health promotion, as well as on a comprehensive approach to treatment.
Looking into Ayurveda’s origins
The genealogy of Ayurveda traces back to about 5,000 years ago in the Indus valley, where the Vedas, or oldest Ayurvedic scriptures, originated. Legend has it that the knowledge within the Vedas was downloaded, so to speak, to a number of sages in deep meditation. This was experienced as an act of divine love to help us manage and maximise our lives on earth. For centuries, this knowledge was passed down from one generation to the next in the form of memorised chants known as sutras.
There are four Vedas, the oldest of which is the Rig Veda, which refers to three great beings governing the universe, in the form of Agni, Soma and Indra, which are personifications of the sun, moon and wind. These in turn become what are known as the doshas, which govern all activities in your body and are called pitta, kapha and vata respectively. (You can become acquainted with your own unique balance of these forces by referring to Chapter 4.)
Known as the fourth veda, the Atharvaveda (meaning ‘no vibration’, or how to make the mind stable), contains the knowledge of Ayurveda. Two systems of medicine are described. The first is a compilation of drugs used on an empirical, rational basis, while the other describes a type of magical spiritual medicine.
Yet another version of the origins of Ayurveda is given by Sushruta, considered the founder of surgical medicine. Sushruta and other sages approached Dhanvantari, the god of Ayurveda. Dhanvantari imparted to them the wisdom of Ayurveda for the betterment of mankind and to help rid it of the suffering of disease.
These legends aren’t so far away from the divine origins of the healing arts in contemporary cultures closer to home in the West that Apollo gave us from Greece and Thoth from Egypt.
If you want to delve deeper into the origins of Ayurveda, the three very important texts that all scholars of Ayurveda can’t manage without are: the Charaka Samhita, Sushruta Samhita, and Ashtanga Hrdayam by Vagbhata.
Unlike some other systems of medicine, Ayurveda is not just concerned with the absence of disease. As Sushruta, a physician in the sixth century BC informs us, you are only considered healthy when your appetite is strong, your tissues (dhatus) are functioning normally, your humours (the doshas: vata, pitta and kapha) are in balance, bodily wastes are eliminated well, and your mind and senses experience joy. If these Sanskrit terms pique your interest, head to Chapter 3 for an explanation of the dhatus and Chapter 2 for the basics about the doshas.
An extensive body of knowledge describes the therapeutic use of minerals and plants in Ayurveda. Throughout this book, I recommend different herbal remedies for different ailments or as rejuvenating tonics. If you can’t find the particular herbs or spices in your grocers, you can find suppliers in Appendix C.
Ayurveda places great emphasis on the effects of the different seasons and your diet on the equilibrium of the body. Different doshas, or attributes, are prevalent at different times of the day, and during the seasons these cause physiological changes in your body. Ayurveda understands that moving with the times and climate is a mainstay of good health because you are a microcosm of what’s going on in your environment. I discuss these cadences of time and what you can do to ensure optimum health throughout the seasons in Chapter 9.
Talking of the environment, Ayurveda recognises the importance of the environment to your health: in Ayurveda, everything is part of the same consciousness. How can we be truly healthy when the environment is being brutalised by development, forests are being cleared on a massive scale and farming practices are employed that disrespect the lives of sentient beings?
The food that we eat has often been packaged, chilled and reheated until it contains very little vital force. Your immune system operates at top capacity when your fuel is so poor. Immunity, known as vyadhishamatva, or ‘disease forgiveness’, is the starting point for good health, and Chapter 12 addresses eating the best food to improve your immune system.
Health is described by the word swastha in Sanskrit, which means ‘to be established in the self’. Health is really moment-to-moment awareness, and this can be obtained through meditation. Details on how you can put this life-changing practice into action are provided in Chapter 6.
Surveying the Scope of Ayurveda
Within the practice of Ayurveda are specialities – just like in Western systems.
Here are the eight primary Ayurvedic specialities (I don’t cover all of these in this book – certainly not surgery, you’ll be relieved to know!):
Toxicology (agada tantra)
Childhood diseases or paediatrics (bala tantra)
General surgery (shalya tantra)
Internal medicine (kaya chikitsa)
Psychiatry and mental disorders (bhuta vidya)
Management of diseases of the head and the neck (salakya tantra)
Fertility treatment (vajikarana)
Rejuvenation and the treatment of geriatrics (rasayana)
The forte of the approach of mainstream medicine is in diagnosis and acute medical conditions such as trauma. If a bus knocks you down, you need to be in the accident and emergency room at your local hospital.
However, in the management of deep-seated chronic ailments, mainstream medicine sometimes lacks the sophistication of Ayurveda, which always takes the underlying causes of pathology into consideration. Ayurvedic interventions can deeply purify your body and eliminate toxins from your system.
Iatrogenic diseases – those that are unintentionally caused by medical treatment – are on the increase and were estimated as being the third-largest cause of death in a study by Starfield in 2000 in the United States. Ayurveda’s more subtle and individualised approach to treatment shows no such ill effects. However, I’m not suggesting you ditch your doctor for Ayurveda – far from it. But as long as your doctor is happy for you to follow the remedies in this book, Ayurvedic treatment can be very effective.
Primary healthcare is considered as very important in Ayurveda. This book gives you the tools to stay well throughout your life. In Chapter 6, I give you very simple lifestyle recommendations called dinacharya, which keep your diet, digestion and sleep – considered the pillars of your health – in good order.
Locating the Practice and the Evidence
Ayurveda has been the only system of medicine in some rural parts of India for thousands of years. Under the rule of the British, Ayurveda was undermined in the belief that the more mechanistic Western medicine was more efficacious. Thankfully for us, the poor continued to use the tried-and-tested native treatments for their ailments, and Ayurveda survived underground until 1947. This is when India became a free nation and Ayurveda received full recognition as a medical system.
In the past 20 years, Ayurveda has undergone a resurgence. It’s now practised all over the world and often works in harmony with a more modern approach. Qualified Ayurvedic physicians are medical practitioners, and many hospitals treat patients using solely Ayurvedic tenets, without causing any of the adverse reactions of modern treatment.
To find a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner near you, see Appendix C.
A wellspring of research is available for those of you who are interested in the science and efficacy of Ayurveda. Over and over again, studies have validated the efficacy of this system using the stringency of Western approaches to research and statistical analysis. To get you started, visit:
www.oxfordjournals.org (search for 'Ayurveda')
For the countless systemic reviews of Ayurveda, try:
www.systematicreviewinayurveda.org
To begin following the tenets of Ayurveda is to enter a realm that can be truly life-enhancing. Here’s to your personal journey.
You’re a star: Being at one with the universe
The philosophical system of Samkhya was originated by Kapila around the ninth century BC and laid the foundation for Ayurveda.
Samkhya philosophy is the backbone of Ayurveda and gives you a clear schema for how all things come into being. The word Samkhya literally means ‘number’, and is so-called for reckoning up the 25 entities (tattwas) that make up the universe. According to this understanding of reality, there’s a continual flow into ‘becoming’ in all life, from the finest essence to the corporeal world.
This idea was mirrored in the West by the Greek philosophers in the phrase panta re, which means ‘all things flow’. The early sages had the same notion, using the term samsara to mean the ‘world of becoming’.
Charaka, an Ayurvedic physician and one of the main commentators of Ayurveda, tells us that ‘Each individual is the unique expression of a recognisable finely tuned cosmic process occurring in space and time.’
Putting it in modern terms, Newton, in his first law of thermodynamics, states that the sum total of energy in the universe does not diminish or increase, but continuously transforms itself from one state or level of vibration to another as the flow of life manifests itself into many forms.
Because you are formed of the same substance as the creation, you are truly a microcosm of the universe.