Ayurveda – God’s manual for healing

Having practiced as a vaidya for over thirty years, I often look back at my personal experiences with this science and I wonder whether it is adequate to call Ayurveda, “Indian System of Medicine”. Surely it is “Indian’, but is it merely a “system of medicine’? As years have passed, I have become fairly convinced that it is rather myopic to simply think of Ayurveda as just another “system of medicine’. Ayurveda, as the name suggests, is a body of knowledge about life itself. In my opinion, no other contemporary system of health amelioration manages to deliver the world health organization definition of health which is:

“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmit”

Ayurveda not only delivers this promise of health, it does more. It expands it further and promises an even more extensive state of good health where besides the physical, social and mental, a human being finds spiritual health as well. A student of Ayurveda can, at best, only be modest about the limits of one’s knowledge of this great science and philosophy which has evolved through thousands of years of experimentation and deliberation by great ancient Indian rishis (or seers). He can only marvel at the scope of this vast body of knowledge and humbly attend to those who seek alleviation of their physical, mental, spiritual and social pains. After thirty years of devoted effort in this field, I am overcome with a somewhat Newtonian modesty and feel as if I am just a mere child collecting pebbles near an ocean of knowledge and occasionally finding smoother pebbles compared to others and feeling delighted about it. In fact, I would say I haven’t even managed to reach out to pick these pebbles up and have simply felt gratified by being associated with this ocean and having spotted the pebbles. Hence, when Dr. Vikram Chauhan asked me to write the foreword for his book, I was overwhelmed by the honor as well as humbled by my own inadequacies in doing justice to such a great science.

I laud Dr. Vikram Chauhan for making an effort to bring this knowledge – albeit a very small portion of it – to the common man. The intention of this book is certainly not to bring out every aspect of Ayurveda and I am sure Dr. Vikram would agree with me. That would certainly be a Herculean task. In fact, the modest aim of this book is to provide glimpses of the brilliance of this science to the common man so that he becomes interested in this ocean of knowledge and discovers true good health. The book is simple, easy to read and concise. It introduces the

reader to the basics of Ayurveda. It gives some insights into an Ayurvedic perspective of how certain ailments may be cured. It pays a fair bit of attention to an Ayurvedic response to the prevalent life-style diseases like hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes mellitus etc.

I congratulate Dr. Vikram Chauhan for taking the initiative to write this book. I am very sure that this is just the beginning of a long journey. As a life-time student of Ayurveda, I wish my fellow student all the best in his learning.

– Vaidya Madan Gulati

By Dr. Madan Gulati

MD (Ayurveda)

Deputy Director,

Department of AYUSH, Chandigarh, India

PREFACE

Stress is the root cause of most of the ailments. The world is changing at it’s fastest pace. Everyone seems to be in hurry and newer things are being discovered everyday. Every new discovery is to make life more comfortable. How far is it true? We are becoming accustomed to live and work with so called comforts to such an extent that it seems impossible to live without them. No doubt that the new discoveries and devices are for our comfort, but our dependency upon them and the desire to acquire them has given rise to many health problems. The stress of day to day life is at its peak.

According to Ayurveda-Our intelligence is called “Pragya” in Sanskrit. The reason for all the diseases and problems is misdoings by our Pragya.

Our Pragya (Intelligence) is befooled by our false ego and logics given by the mind. Our mind has become slave of our senses and we behave just like a puppet in the hands of our senses. People suffering from Diabetes know that sugar is not right for them, but still they eat sweets, as they can not control their sense of taste. People suffering from obesity know eating fast food is not good for them but still they eat it. People know alcohol damages their liver and heart but still they can’t control their desire.

The obsession to posses materialistic things has created chaos everywhere. Everyone is running for materialistic gains and all the hard earned money is spent on sensual gratification rather than self realization. People are working day and night to satisfy false ego by maintaining financial status, buying new machines rather than maintaining their health.

Sound, Touch, Sight, Taste and Smell are five senses which spoil the mind’s decisive power and befool the intelligence by exploiting false ego of the intelligence.

Many industries are running just to fulfill the demands of the senses which are never under the control of our mind. People are working hard under so much stressful conditions just to feed their senses.

Fast food industry, five star hotels, restaurants are all growing because we do not have control on our tongue.

Everyone wants to buy television, mobile phones, DVD players, see movies or music concerts because it gives pleasure to their ears and eyes.

The pornography industry is running because we don’t have control over sensation of sight and touch.

Fashion industry is in full bloom because we want to look good to exhibit our physical body. We express desire to buy expensive clothes and jewelry to satisfy our false ego. So we buy costly clothes, cosmetics and jewelry to feel more confident in society and that depicts how much empty our society is at the mental level.

Deodorants, perfume industries are also flourishing because we want to feed our sense of smell.

Cause of all Imbalance

Intelligence

False Ego Mind Senses

Excessive indulgence in providing material pleasure to senses and misuse of our resources by our Intelligence (“Pragya”) is the root cause of all Diseases. Our mind gives excuses to do wrong with the help of false ego and acts like a puppet in the hands of senses to cause disease.

Although the earning capacity of everyone is increasing day by day, we still have to work more and more to over feed our senses. Just to buy bigger houses, expensive cars and other expensive useless items, but in this whole process we ignore our health altogether.

My above statements do not mean we should not strive for the best things in the world, neither do I mean that we should avoid hard work. What I intend to say is that we should try to adopt a positive attitude towards life rather than leading a stressful life and should live in harmony with nature. The feelings of jealousy, anger, wrong desires, excessive indulgence in sexual activities, extremism leads to a catastrophe inside the mind and body. All these thoughts and emotions lead to release of the hormones by the hypothalamus which create indiscipline within body’s biochemistry. These feelings generate harmful chemicals inside the body which eat up the vital force or “the Prana’ according to Ayurveda.

This indiscipline within the body’s biochemistry produces diseases like Diabetes, blood pressure, cancers and many other diseases.

Another concept in Ayurvedic healing is its approach to fortify the immune system rather than

fighting the germs. With the advent of microscope and antibiotics the world’s intellectual thoughts tilted over killing the germs and treat the diseases. That started a chain reaction to discover more and more anti-biotics to kills germs. It started an endless war between the germs and the humans. With the passage of time, humans became habitual to fight with the germs only with the help of antibiotics. The human resistance to infections lowered. As more time elapsed, the germs adapted to most of the antibiotic arsenal developed by humans. There was not much effort to improve human resistance to germs. It is not foolish to kill the enemy by extraordinary weapons, but it is foolish when you are killing yourself along with the enemy.

Our ancient sages (Sushruta 1000 BC-an ancient Ayurveda surgery scholar and still known as father of modern plastic surgery) had deep knowledge about the existence of germs, even then they emphasize the importance of balance within the internal energies i.e. vata, pitta and kapha. Germs can harm and produce infection only if the inner balance is disturbed. A seed can not grow into a tree unless all supportive factors are there. It can’t grow unless the soil is fertile and other conditions are favorable.

Similarly germs can not infect our bodies unless our immune system is weak enough. This weakness or imbalance is all due to imbalance in these tri energies of Vata, Pitta and Kapha. The imbalance in trienergies is due to many reasons which include sedentary life style, lack of nutrition, high consumption of packaged or processed food, stressful lifestyle. We know all this but still we are very much ignorant about these things.

“Ignorance is the cause of all disease, knowledge is the way to live at ease”

Even the renowned microbiologist, Louis Pasteur who discovered germs, said before his death “Microbes are nothing, everything is soil”.

Ayurveda lays more stress on fortifying the vital force “The Prana’. It can only be done if we change our lifestyle, our dietary habits and our attitude towards various life events.

Nature has offered us the treasure of herbs and minerals, which nature’s very own weapons. They attack the disease at the root and helps the body to regain it’s lost strength. Herbs and other natural methods improve our body’s defense or “Ojus-The Vital Energy’. Natural sources of vitamins and minerals are much more effective than synthetic vitamin pills. An Amla berry or 3 tablespoonfuls of Ama berry juice is much better than chewing a vitamin C tablet. 1 tablespoonful of natural amla juice contains 50 to 90 mg of Vitamin C.

There may be thousands of other vitamins, micronutrients which may be there in the herbs and required by the body, but still yet to be discovered by modern science.

Not only herbs and minerals increase body’s vital force but thoughts have a very positive influence on it. Laughter, love, peace, sharing, happiness, forgiveness, charity leads to release of positive and anti-stress hormones within our body, which restores the disturbed chemicals within the body, whereas anger, jealousy, hatred, revenge, greed, grudges release gush of stress promoting hormones within the body.

So this book is intended to bring awareness about nature’s power to heal. This is for intellectuals and laymen as well. It emphasizes the role of diet, nutrition, herbs and healthy life style in the prevention and treatment of diseases.

Lord Dhanvantari

Lord Dhanvantari is the primal deity, the God of Ayurveda and of natural healing. He is credited with propagating the surgical aspect of Ayurveda as well as its philosophical aspects. He is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the preserver who has come to earth in his many forms to help humanity

An introduction to Ayurveda

• Ayurveda is one of the traditional ways of

healing various ailments, naturally, being

practiced in India since time immemorial.

• It is a gift by God for the well being

of humanity.

Veda – Vedic literature is the ancient treasure of knowledge which originated from God himself. God has created this world and has given us a manual in the form of Vedas explaining how this world works. Ayurveda is a manual of life management given by God explaining how to lead a healthy and happy life in every aspect.

Ayur— literally means life span and Ayurveda is knowledge of life. It’s God’s manual to tell us how to lead a happy, healthy, peaceful, prosperous lifestyle, preventing diseases and leading a respectful social life.

Ayurveda is in existence since the existence of life and the universe, as the principles of healing are based on laws of nature which are ageless and eternal. According to Ayurveda all physical matter as well as our body is made up of five elements-Earth, Water, Ether, Air, Fire. The only difference is that our body has a sixth element called Soul and non-living things have only five elements in different ratio and proportion. The working components of these five elements are represented by the three basic physiological humors or the biological “Tri-energies’ doing all the movement, metabolic reactions, providing support and nutrition. These biological tri-energies are called – Vata (Kinetic Energy), Pitta (Thermal Energy) and Kapha (Potential Energy).

Ancient Ayurveda scholar Charaka explains

Dharmartha- kama- moksanam arogyam uttamam rogastasyapahartarah sreyaso jivitasya ca

Goals of religion or Karma, material world, sensual pleasure or liberation can be achieved only if one is healthy. The disease destroys health, well being and whole life. (Charka Sutra Sthana 1- 15)

This ancient verse clearly indicates the importance of health to lead a happy, prosperous, and peaceful life.

“Hitahitam Sukham Dukham Aayustsya hitahitam

Maanam Ch tachh yatroktam Ayurved S Ucchayate”

This ancient verse defines Ayurveda as the science of life management in which are explained what principles, diet, lifestyles are good and bad for life, what leads to a happy or unhappy life, and what is the exact span of life, that is known as Ayurveda.

“Samdosha samagnisch samdhatu malkriya

Prassnatma indriya man swasth ityabhidhiyate”

Health according to Ayurveda is balance of these tri energies. Their imbalance is the cause of diseases or ill health.

Health is defined in Ayurveda in the following verse as

Perfect balance between physical and mental bio energies, digestive and physiological fires, balanced anabolism, proper excretory functions, blissful soul, senses and mind is health and their imbalance is disease.

Ayurvedic techniques focus on achieving that balance

The balance of these “Tri-energies’ can be maintained by our diet, lifestyle, different Ayurvedic herbs, minerals and purification procedures.

Their balance is disturbed by irregular life style, prolonged physical and mental stress, wrong dietary habits, incompatible foods, misuse of senses.

Ayurveda is a way of living in harmony with nature and guides us how to maintain a steady healthy state. It explains details about body care, daily routine, diet and various foods to promote health and maintain the balance of the “Tri-energies’

If we do not sleep early in the night, the vata (Air element) increases leading to painful bones, cramps in the muscles, dark circles around eyes or sleep bags, constipation, dry mouth and hastens ageing process. Stale and kept overnight food also causes increased Vata. Excessive work, long traveling leads to fatigue, which is a symptom of increased Vata. This all leads to diseases like joint pains, cervical pain, backache, nervousness, confusion, insomnia, constipation etc.

Similarly Pitta (Fire) is excessive heat. Consuming food, herbs and our behavior similar to properties of Pitta leads to increase in pitta. Excessive consumption of hot potency food, spices, alcohol, disturbs Pitta. The seat of Pitta is liver and stomach. Excessive aggression, anger, jealousy, hatred etc. leads to increased Pitta. This leads to diseases like peptic ulcers, liver diseases, blood pressure etc.

Excessive consumption of fat rich food, sedentary life style leads to vitiation of Kapha. Excessive Kapha blocks all the nutrition and elimination channels leading to obesity, diabetes. Diet and behaviour opposite to the nature of Kapha leads to cleaning up the system and balancing the kapha. (Earth + Water)

There are other concepts like Ojus, Aama, and Dhatus which need clarification here. According to Ayurveda- The “Ojus’ is the vital energy present in our body that is responsible

for our healthy physical and mental outlook. It gives glow to our skin, strength to our heart and body. The toxins or free radicals deplete the “Ojus’ within our body and there is a feeling of fatigue and depression. The toxins create imbalance of the tri-energies which also has a great negative impact on “Ojus’. In Ayurveda, a lot of emphasis is laid on improving the vital energy or the resistance of the person called “Ojus”.

Aama – It is a kind of sticky substance that forms within the body due to excessive consumption of heavy, greasy food on regular basis. Aama can be understood as disturbed form of “kapha’ which coats the tongue, the entire length of intestines, blocks entry and exit through micro channels of the cells, clogging of arteries. This leads to congestion within the system, leading to fermentation of the stale, undigested food lying in the intestines. This leads to formation of endotoxins, which disturb the immunological system leading to all auto-immune diseases. Herbal remedies like Sanjeevani Vati, Arogyavardhni Vati etc. clear this “Aama” and offer an effective solution to such problems.

Similarly there are great chances of females getting ovarian cysts, breast cancer or uterine fibroids due to abortion or a miscarriage. Abortion or miscarriage leads to accumulation of left over hormones/chemicals which are released from the hypothalamus and pituitary to help maintain a pregnancy. After abortion, those hormones which brought changes in female reproductive organs, within the breasts are no longer useful. The changes which they did are not completely undone. God decided for a woman to be pregnant and give life to someone and that woman decided to abort it. She suffers ultimately with problems caused by “Aama”.

These leftover hormones can also be understood as “Aama”. Other things which can be correlated with “Aama” are Rheumatoid factor, HLA B 27 and other immunological factors responsible for autoimmune diseases. The digestive fire and individual tissues fire burns these factors and mediators, if treated properly.

Dhatus (Tissues) – There are seven Dhatus which support our body. They are

Rasa (Plasma)

Rakta (Blood)

Mamsa (Muscles)

Meda (Fatty tissue)

Asthi (Bones)

Majja (Bone Marrow)

Shukra (Semen & Reproductive tissue)

The “Dhatus”described in Ayurveda are the various organs and parts of our body. Origin of Ayurveda

Vedas are the most ancient literature available in the history of human civilization. These ancient Indian texts were written in Sanskrit language. These texts explain the fundamentals of geometry, astronomy, astrology, life style, behavior sciences, metaphysics, economics and life sciences. There are four Vedas in all. Lord Brahma, when he created life also created a big compendium containing 100,000 verses about life and other principles which sustain it. This

whole knowledge was bestowed upon ancient sages by Lord Brahma himself. The sages blessed with the divine wisdom created these 4 Vedas. These are

Rig Veda

Sam Veda

Yajur Veda

Atharveda

All Vedas have separate appendices which are Ayurveda (health, medicine and life stlyle), Arthshastra (political science and economics), Dhanurveda (martial arts) and Gandharva veda (music). Ayurveda is an appendix of “Atharveda’

Ayurveda has eight branches

1. Internal medicine (Kaya Chikitsa)

2. Ear, nose, throat, eye (salakya tantra)

3. Toxicology (Agad tantra)

4. General surgery (Shalya tantra)

5. Pediatrics (Kumarbhritya)

6. Mental Health or Psychiatry (Bhut Vidya)

7. Geriatrics and Rejuvenative therapies (Rasayana)

8. Reproduction and Procreation therapy (Vajikarna)

Ayurveda is not only a medical system but also an art and philosophy of life. It was created by Lord “Brahma —the creator’ to sustain life in the universe. That’s why the book’s name is “God’s manual for healing”. The ancient Vedic literature explains that Lord Brahma imparted the knowledge of Ayurveda to Daksh Prajapati, who in turn forwarded his knowledge to twin brothers-Ashwanikumara. Ashwanikumara were bestowed with exceptional understanding of healing sciences. They are also known as the “magical’ physicians of the Gods in heaven. They cured many incurable diseases and performed remarkable surgeries.

Lord Indra- The king of all angels in heaven, gained the knowledge from Ashwanikumara and propagated this science to Lord Dhanwantri and Maharishi Bhardwaj to spread the knowledge of Ayurveda among humans on earth.

Maharishi Atreya who learned Ayurveda from Maharishi Bhardwaj tought Ayurveda to his six disciples namely —Agnivesh, Bhela, Jatukarna, Prashar, Harit, and kshaarpani. Agnivesh, being most intelligent among other students created a treatise on Ayurvedic medicine-“The Agnivesh Samhita”, which was later on republished as “The Charka Samhita” (1500 BC). This was an excellent book explaining every basic principle of Ayurveda in detail and it helped a lot of scholars to write down their own books and learn Ayurveda more clearly.