Ayurveda – World’s Most Ancient HealthCare System
Ayurveda essentially stands for the “Veda for Healing”. Ayurvedic healing system has its origin from India. It doesn’t come up with specialized treatment for a particular ailment or disease. An Ayurvedic practitioner actually has to examine each patient separately before he can offer his treatments that can range from dietary techniques to herbal treatments, and certain exercises which can be practiced on the levels of both body and mind. Ayurvedic Healing system basically uses the inbuilt and self-sustaining properties and principles of the nature to assist you in maintaining good health and balance in mind, body and spirit. In addition to providing healing to the body system, Ayurveda also offers spiritual healing of wide ranges in order to attain balance in life.
Meaning of Ayurveda:
Ayurveda is actually a Sanskrit word, which is a union of two separate words - “Ayus” which means “Long Life” and “Veda” which means science or knowledge. In combination, the two words in “Ayurveda” become “The science of Life”. The word “Ayu” is also said to be a joint representation of body, mind and soul, as per ‘Charaka’ - an ancient scholar in Ayurveda.
Birth of Ayurveda:
Ayurveda is considered as the oldest and most ancient healing practice in the world. It has a complex medical design that got its roots in India around thousands of years ago. Many of Hindu scriptures such as Vedas and other ancient writings have the basics of Ayurveda written in them. The Rig Veda, a scripture which was written some 6000 years ago has varied number of prescriptions, which can help humans in getting rid of many ailments and diseases.
How can Ayurveda Help you?
The basic motive of Ayurvedic Healing System is to
facilitate the healing of sick persons, prevent any further illness and take
care of life. The whole system can be summarized in following important points:
- Swasthyas swasthya rakshanam - which means protect(rakshanam) and lead a healthy(swasthya) life.
- Aturasya Vikar Prashamanamcha - which means to get rid of diseases and malfunctions of the body.
Fundamentals of Ayurveda:
Aurveda is established on the theory that this whole universe is constructed and built up of five elements:
Air
Water
Fire
Earth and
Ether
A human body is also comprised of these elements and they are represented by three energies also called “doshas” named - Vata, Kapha and Pitta. Whenever any of these bio-energies gets accumulated in the body beyond its balanced limit, it can cause energy blockages within the body meaning the follow of regular vital energy gets disrupted and the body tends to loose its balance.
Each individual comes up with his own distinct equilibrium or balance state and his health depends entirely on how appropriately his body is balanced of these three energies or doshas (“tridoshas” – tri means three + doshas means bio-energies). Because of this distinct nature, Ayurveda’s prescription and design for every individual is different and doesn’t come up with a normal or regular system which could be used commonly. Ayurveda helps in healing a person by suggesting a particular lifestyle and certain guidelines which the individual would follow to reduce the energy accumulation or “excess of doshas”. An ancient scripture called “Sushrut Samhita” defines a healthy person as follows:
“He, whose doshas have been balanced, who enjoys a good appetite, whose all body tissues and natural urges are functioning appropriately, and who has a happy mind, body and soul…”
Theory of Bio-Energies in detail:
The three “doshas” or bio-energies are explained as follows:
1)Vata: It represents the elements of “air and ether”. This energy is usually the one which takes care of nerve impulses, respiration, circulation and elimination.
2) Kapha: It represents the elements of “water and earth”. It is basically responsible to take care of growth and protection. Examples of Kapha are: the cerebral-spinal fluid that protects the brain and spinal area, the mucosal lining of the stomach, etc.
3) Pitta: It represents the elements of “fire and water”. It is responsible to take care of the metabolism i.e. the conversion of food into nutrition, as well as for the metabolism of organs and tissue systems.
PanchKarma
Panchkarma -The Therapy of Purification:
Panchkarma is a very important and vital practice in Ayurveda. It is basically a cleansing procedure, which is used when the body gets too much of toxins in it. Panchkarma is a five fold purification process which is used to purify and cleanse the body of all the overloaded toxins. The five techniques involved in this process are:
1) Nasya – Getting rid of the toxins through the cleansing process of nose.
2) Basti- Enema
3) Vaman – Therapeutic Emesis
4) Virechan - Purging the body by the use of a cathartic to stimulate evacuation of the bowels
5) Rakta moksha – Blood Detoxification
There exist various unknown and unexplored benefits of such practices like Ayurveda from our ancient and historical collection of knowledge. Ayurveda is getting quite popular amongst the western medical sciences too, but still there are many things yet to be explored and adopted, for the benefits of mankind. As rightly said:
"Anyone who believes that anything can be suited to everyone is a great fool, because medicine is practiced not on mankind in general, but on every individual in particular. " ~Henri de Mondeville
"When diet is wrong
medicine is of no use.
When diet is correct medicine is of no need."
~Ayurvedic Proverb
Photo References:
