Why Ayurveda?

Why ayurveda? The answer of this question lies in the question.

Ayu means life, Veda means knowledge.  So the knowledge of leading healthy  life is called Ayurveda. 

We all know how precious human life is and to live a good quality life we need to have healthy body and mind.  Ayurveda astutely describes things one should do to keep our mind and body healthy.

In this modern age our lives have become fast , stressful and filled with all kind of pollutants. By leading this lifestyle we are definitely earning money than ever but at the cost of our valuable health. As Dalai lama once said “He sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health”.

How many of us spend an hour or even 5 minutes for daily exercise or hobbies or to relax? I am sure that only few of us do this. Most of us will argue that we have no time for all these. The lifestyle we have today is the root cause for most of our health issues. It certainly has created ill effects on our body and ultimately affecting our mind.

In corporate world, working style is very stressful. That is why at a very young age our generation is facing health problems like spondylitis, obesity, diabetes, anxiety and in some cases heart attack. Further, in women we are seeing problems like dysmenorrhoea and problems with menstrual cycle, depression, PCOD, thyroid problem, and in extreme cases suffering from early menopause, breast cancers and cervical cancer. This is not limited to this only the condition worsens when this work style is accompanied with wrong eating habits. Drinking and smoking intensifies the scenario.

We stay away from home for education or job. Irregular and late working hours are a trend and all these reason affects the timing of eating, so to save time or to adjust to this hectic schedule most of us eat junk food or ready to prepare food or the last option is hitting a restaurant. Thus we open the gate for many illnesses. There are many recipes which we can prepare at home, are nutritious & don’t even take much time.

In my coming articles I will definitely share them with you. So the point is by leading such a lifestyle and erratic eating habits we are making our body weak and sick.

We have been told prevention is better than cure which translates to the fact that if we take care of ourselves from the start we can avoid medicines for life.Through  Ayurveda our sages have made it easy for us. 

Yes,you heard it , Ayurveda is the only science that not only describes treatments of all illnesses in detail but also provides measures to prevent these illnesses. Only ayurveda outlines our Dincharya which means how we should start our day, what activities should be done and the most importantly what is the science behind it and Rutucharya, means knowledge of do’ s and dont’s that should be done in every season for e.g. in winter we should do abyanga by oils as in this season dryness is increase.

Ayurveda considers each and every part of body internally and externally. It divides it in Ashtang Ayurveda which is as follows-

1.        Kaya-chikitsa:- Internal medicine

2.        Shalya-chikitsa:-  Surgery

3.        Bala- chikitsa :- Pediatrics

4.        Graha-chikitsa :- Psychiatry

5.        Urdhvanga-chikitsa:- Ear, Eyes, Nose & Throat

6.        Danstra-chikitsa:-Toxicology

7.        Jara-chikitsa/Rasayana:- Gerentorology

8.        Vrishya/Vajikaran-chikitsa:-Aphrodisiacs

  Below we share some basic Principles of Ayurveda -

• Saptadhatu – Basic structure of body ,fundamental elements which nourish body are called dhatu in ayurveda.they are Rasa(lymph) , Rakta (Blood),mansa (Muscles/Flesh), Meda (Fat) , Asthi(Bones) , Majja(bone marrow) , and shukra(semen).
• Mala – Waste products of body which includes urine,stool and sweat. Effective elimination of malas keeps body healthy.
• Tridosha Sindhanta - Ayurveda says our universe consists of five elements namely air,water,fire,earth and ether(Sky) and our body physiology consists of three elements called Tri Doshas – Vata(Air), Pitta(fire and water) & Kapha(Earth and water).Ayurveda calls it TRI-DOSHA  sidhanta.It controls all physiologyical functions of body for e.g vata controls all movements, pitta controls digestion, n strengthing of body is done by kapha dosha.
• Trayostambha - in this importance of Aahar( Diet ), Nidra(sleep) & Brahmacharya(Celibacy) for a healthy body and mind is described. Ayurveda calls it Trayostambha  which means 3 pillers of life.
• Shadrasa in diet- rasa means taste and shada means six ,only ayurveda has put a concept of diet with six tastes which include sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter,astringent tastes.These shadrasa have direct effect on digestion and influences vata pitta and kapha.
• Ayurveda also has told about Rajaswala Parichrya , this talks about things that should be done during menstruation.
• Panchakarma -  is one of the most important therapy described in ayurveda.When tridosha are in imbalanced state , either we can treat them with medicines to keep them in normal state or if they can not be treated with medicines , we use panchakarma to bring balance to all the doshas. It includes

              a.  Vamana- (vomiting)used to remove excess kapha dosha. 

              b.  Virechana-(purgation)used to remove excess pitta dosha.    

              c.  Basti- (enema)used to remove excess vata dosha 

              d.  Raktamokshan-(leech therapy) used to remove toxins in blood. 

              e.  Nasya-( treatment of drug through nostrils)- cures diseases of head and
                   nose.

• Garbhasanskar- for mental and physical development of faetus ayurveda told us a specific schedule called “masanumasik garbhini parichrya”, in which they have written a details of do’s and dont’s that should be followed in preganancy.
• Suvarna Prashan - The process in which suvarna bhasma(purified ash of gold)is given with fortified ghee prepared with herbal extracts and honey.It can be given to age group of 0-16 yrs on pushya nakshtra.It increases immunity power, physical strength, intellect, sharpness grasping power. Increases appetite, tone of skin etc.

We can see the horizon of Ayurveda where it explains the science behind each and every activity of our life

There are some mis conceptions in our society about Ayurveda like, it is only limited to panchakarma or detoxification (spa ) or Ayurvedic medicines with heavy metals causes side effect . Also some people think that Ayurvedic treatment had complicated do’s and don’ts. The fact is ayurveda is not limited by this. Miraculous results have been seen if followed in a proper manner. It is an ocean and we have not even taken a single drop.So let’s take dive in an ocean of our ancient science.

Let’s start from the ABCD... of Ayurveda.