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The term ‘Ayurveda’ refers to life and health, not death and disease. ‘Ayushyani anayushyani cha dravyagunakaramani vedayathi ithayayaurveda’, says Charaka. Ayus refers to the life from birth to death. Life is in fact, synonymous with ayus. That which facilitates ayus is ayushayam; anayushyam is what interferes with it.
‘Dravyas’ means food and medicine. The properties and application of these articles enable us to use them judiciously. Vedas refer to knowledge. Accepting what is desirable and refusing the undesirable is knowledge. Ayurveda is an appreciation of life. It teaches how you should live. You, everybody and I want to enjoy life. To enjoy life we have to be healthy. What makes you healthy and how you can be healthy constitutes the content of ayurveda. The guiding principle of Ayurveda is that the mind exerts the deepest influence on the body. This state of balanced awareness creates a higher state of health. Ayurvedic medicine stresses a holistic approach to health. It defines disease as the result of climatic variations, bacterial attack, nutritional deviance, and stress as well as other forms of emotional imbalance; in short, life-style as a whole. Optimal health is achieved by cultivating mental and physical habits that are conducive to physical and spiritual well-being, and treatment often includes diet and the development of positive attitudes.
Q. What prompted you to learn Ayurveda?
personal experience inspired me to learn more about Ayurveda.
Q. How does it look at health?
A Actually, health is something natural. Disease is unnatural. There cannot be any disease if you live a natural life and health comes to you naturally. Ayurveda aims at attaining health, not fighting disease. Ayurveda is just like a candle. Just as light dispels darkness, ayurveda gets rid of ill health.
Q. Can Ayurveda claims superiority over other systems of medicine?
A. When we think of modern medicine it has negative signs because it gives more importance to disease and treatment with drugs. Each system has got its own part to do offer in the field of health. So I cannot make any comparison.
Q. In what way does it differ from allopathy?
A. For the treatment, Ayurvedic physicians, at least the old generation people, emphasis pathya
Modern medicine, as the name indicates, deals with medicine. The ‘cure’ in nature cure also refers to this. The emphasis is laid on diseases and their remedial measures. Health is referred to accidentally. Ayurveda on the other hand, does not lay emphasis on ‘somehow remedying the disease’. The effort is to attain health to remedy ailments. You cannot evaluate health apart from the patient. (regimen). In the modern medical colleges, most of the time they teach about the disease. But, in Ayurveda colleges all the diseases are explained from the point of view of health. They emphasise the positive aspects of life. Medicine does not cure any disease. But medicine will assist the regimen in curing the disease.
Q. Panchabhutas and Tridhosha principles are central to ayurveda. Please explain these principles?
A. We evaluate the world around us through five senses. How you understand all these things around you is through panchabhutas.
Human body is composed of the five basic elements (bhutas) namely solid, liquid, gas, energy and space. Tridosha theory explains the functional aspect of the human body. Actually human body is miniature form of the universe. Whatever is there in the universe, it is in our body also in a condensed form. Actually, it cannot be apart from the universe. The structural aspect of body is explained by panchabhutha theory.
Pathogenic factors in the body are vata, pitta and kapha (tridoshas) while those of the mind are rajas and tamas. All these pathogenic factors have their actions in the body both jointly and individually. It is not that the pathogenic factors are only to vata, pitta and kapha. By permutation and combination, these factors take in numerable forms.
I think ayurveda and modern medicine differ here. Modern medicine gives more importance to structure through x-ray, scanning and other things. But ayurveda gives importance to function. When everything functions properly, it is health. When there is some difference or difficulty in the function, ill-health is caused. That is why symptoms are given more importance in ayurveda. Actually, symptoms are the language through which the body explains its condition.
The body expresses its condition through various symptoms. If you understand the symptoms you can actually understand the function/condition of the body.
Q. How does Ayurveda create immunity in an individual?
A. You cannot create immunity. Ayurveda assists in strengthening immunity through various systems of the body. In Ayurveda, the immune system is denoted by the term bala and ojas. Here the term bala does not stand for mere bodily strength. It denotes vitality and stamina. It is the net result of healthy life and healthy circumstances where all the systems of he body work efficiently and the tissues of the body are pure and properly nourished.
Healthy thoughts and conditions of the mind such as love, equanimity, generosity, truthfulness and controlled sex life sustain it.
There are certain medicines in ayurveda, which give immunity against diseases.
Suppose there is a disease/condition that can be temporarily replaced by giving certain medicine. You can prevent the disease condition by making the system alert against disease attack. Through medicine alone you cannot create immunity. Everything depends on lifestyle. That is the main thing. Suppose a man is dying, you cannot revive him by giving medicine.
Q. Ayurveda has lots of myths in it? What are your comments?
A. There is no myth at all in ayurveda. In fact, ayurvedas is a science - science of life and longevity. There is no need to make it more scientific. They give a definition to science from the standpoint of modern medicine and they want to assess ayurveda accordingly. That is difficult. Can you assess English language from the standpoint of Sanskrit grammar?
http://www.sreepathy.com
www.sreepathy.com
The term ‘Ayurveda’ refers to life and health, not death and disease. ‘Ayushyani anayushyani cha dravyagunakaramani vedayathi ithayayaurveda’, says Charaka. Ayus refers to the life from birth to death. Life is in fact, synonymous with ayus. That which facilitates ayus is ayushayam; anayushyam is what interferes with it.
‘Dravyas’ means food and medicine. The properties and application of these articles enable us to use them judiciously. Vedas refer to knowledge. Accepting what is desirable and refusing the undesirable is knowledge. Ayurveda is an appreciation of life. It teaches how you should live. You, everybody and I want to enjoy life. To enjoy life we have to be healthy. What makes you healthy and how you can be healthy constitutes the content of ayurveda. The guiding principle of Ayurveda is that the mind exerts the deepest influence on the body. This state of balanced awareness creates a higher state of health. Ayurvedic medicine stresses a holistic approach to health. It defines disease as the result of climatic variations, bacterial attack, nutritional deviance, and stress as well as other forms of emotional imbalance; in short, life-style as a whole. Optimal health is achieved by cultivating mental and physical habits that are conducive to physical and spiritual well-being, and treatment often includes diet and the development of positive attitudes.
Q. What prompted you to learn Ayurveda?
personal experience inspired me to learn more about Ayurveda.
Q. How does it look at health?
A Actually, health is something natural. Disease is unnatural. There cannot be any disease if you live a natural life and health comes to you naturally. Ayurveda aims at attaining health, not fighting disease. Ayurveda is just like a candle. Just as light dispels darkness, ayurveda gets rid of ill health.
Q. Can Ayurveda claims superiority over other systems of medicine?
A. When we think of modern medicine it has negative signs because it gives more importance to disease and treatment with drugs. Each system has got its own part to do offer in the field of health. So I cannot make any comparison.
Q. In what way does it differ from allopathy?
A. For the treatment, Ayurvedic physicians, at least the old generation people, emphasis pathya
Modern medicine, as the name indicates, deals with medicine. The ‘cure’ in nature cure also refers to this. The emphasis is laid on diseases and their remedial measures. Health is referred to accidentally. Ayurveda on the other hand, does not lay emphasis on ‘somehow remedying the disease’. The effort is to attain health to remedy ailments. You cannot evaluate health apart from the patient. (regimen). In the modern medical colleges, most of the time they teach about the disease. But, in Ayurveda colleges all the diseases are explained from the point of view of health. They emphasise the positive aspects of life. Medicine does not cure any disease. But medicine will assist the regimen in curing the disease.
Q. Panchabhutas and Tridhosha principles are central to ayurveda. Please explain these principles?
A. We evaluate the world around us through five senses. How you understand all these things around you is through panchabhutas.
Human body is composed of the five basic elements (bhutas) namely solid, liquid, gas, energy and space. Tridosha theory explains the functional aspect of the human body. Actually human body is miniature form of the universe. Whatever is there in the universe, it is in our body also in a condensed form. Actually, it cannot be apart from the universe. The structural aspect of body is explained by panchabhutha theory.
Pathogenic factors in the body are vata, pitta and kapha (tridoshas) while those of the mind are rajas and tamas. All these pathogenic factors have their actions in the body both jointly and individually. It is not that the pathogenic factors are only to vata, pitta and kapha. By permutation and combination, these factors take in numerable forms.
I think ayurveda and modern medicine differ here. Modern medicine gives more importance to structure through x-ray, scanning and other things. But ayurveda gives importance to function. When everything functions properly, it is health. When there is some difference or difficulty in the function, ill-health is caused. That is why symptoms are given more importance in ayurveda. Actually, symptoms are the language through which the body explains its condition.
The body expresses its condition through various symptoms. If you understand the symptoms you can actually understand the function/condition of the body.
Q. How does Ayurveda create immunity in an individual?
A. You cannot create immunity. Ayurveda assists in strengthening immunity through various systems of the body. In Ayurveda, the immune system is denoted by the term bala and ojas. Here the term bala does not stand for mere bodily strength. It denotes vitality and stamina. It is the net result of healthy life and healthy circumstances where all the systems of he body work efficiently and the tissues of the body are pure and properly nourished.
Healthy thoughts and conditions of the mind such as love, equanimity, generosity, truthfulness and controlled sex life sustain it.
There are certain medicines in ayurveda, which give immunity against diseases.
Suppose there is a disease/condition that can be temporarily replaced by giving certain medicine. You can prevent the disease condition by making the system alert against disease attack. Through medicine alone you cannot create immunity. Everything depends on lifestyle. That is the main thing. Suppose a man is dying, you cannot revive him by giving medicine.
Q. Ayurveda has lots of myths in it? What are your comments?
A. There is no myth at all in ayurveda. In fact, ayurvedas is a science - science of life and longevity. There is no need to make it more scientific. They give a definition to science from the standpoint of modern medicine and they want to assess ayurveda accordingly. That is difficult. Can you assess English language from the standpoint of Sanskrit grammar?
http://www.sreepathy.com
www.sreepathy.com
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