Basics of Ayurveda
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Basics of Ayurveda
Ayurveda is the science of life, made up of two words Ayu and veda. Ayu means Age and Ved means Knowledge. It is an ancient system of Indian Medicine. Now it is globally accepted and people are taking help to improve their health with Ayurveda. Ayurveda is not only the science of medicine, but also very useful in maintaining lifestyle.
Ayurveda considers that the world is made up of five elements namely, Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Ether. In these five elements two things never change. They are Earth and Ether, but air, fire and water are changing according to geology.
If anyone of these five elements is absent, there is no possibility of the existence of this world. Because if you think about air, our life is running on Oxygen taken by our lungs from the environment, similarly our body is containing 70% of water. Our food is digested because of Fire in the stomach and spaces between our bones tissues and hearing functions are related to the Ether. Our muscles, bones and organs are having weight which is considered as the part of the Earth element.
In Ayurveda Basic concept is related to Dosha’s theory. These 3 doshas are Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Vata means air, Pitta means fire and Kapha means Water. If there is an imbalance of these three doshas then it will cause disturbances in our health. So primarily it is suggested that we should maintain the balance between these 3 doshas. Because it is said in one of the sutras that, “Dushyate Iti dosha”, means if any one of the dosha gets imbalance then we lose our immunity and get deceases.
So Ayurveda suggests daily routine and food according to the seasonal changes to maintain a balance of the doshas. Our constitution is decided by these doshas only, therefore it is called Prakriti. Prakriti means pre-decided kriti that is decided when we are in the mother’s womb. In the same way if you want to maintain the balance of our nature then also we need to focus on our environment, water conservation, plantation of trees to save our earth and balance nature’s elements.
According to environmental changes if there is an imbalance of air we find tornadoes, if heavy rain falls it disturbs our life, if forest-fire is there it burns large forests. The same thing happens with our health also because of the imbalance of all three doshas.
Ayurveda considers human beings as a collection of body, mind, and soul together. Whenever your body gets a disease your mind gets disturbed, and when your mind gets disturbed you lose harmony of your body. So it is necessary to keep yourself healthy to be happy and joyful. The main principles of Ayurveda are deeply connected with mind and body. Mind has more power to heal and transform the body than anything else.
Thousands of years before modern medicine Ayurveda provided scientific evidences for the mind-body connection. The sages of India developed Ayurveda, which continues to be one of the worlds most sophisticated and powerful mind-body health systems. Freedom from illness will mostly depend on level of awareness for balancing body and mind. Ayurveda teaches us good health that is dependent upon our capability to fully metabolize the nutritional, emotional, and sensory information that we ingest. When our digestive energy, known as agni (fire), is robust, we create healthy tissues, produce a subtle essence called Ojas, means life energy and eliminate waste products efficiently.
So the basics of treating diseases are maintaining lifestyle, keeping yourself away from stress, getting rid of day to day small health issues and maintaining immunity. Ayurveda is the best preventive science in the world.