Ayurveda Introduction

Dr kavita vyas [ayurveda specialist] email- vyaskavita007@gmail.com

Food therapy in Ayurveda

I am giving a brief information of ayurveda, because many people has questions in mind is Ayurveda is safe? Why it works so late?
To clear different doubts you can even send your questions to me by email, I will try to give answers in next blogs.

Origin of ayurveda

Vedas are the well known oldest and authentic literature of the world. Ayurveda originated as part of Vedic science. Ayurveda is considered as upveda (sub branch) of Atharvaveda. We also get information about herbs in Rigveda. Like knowledge of Vedas is eternal, so knowledge of Ayurveda is also eternal.

Ayurveda introduction

Definition of ayurveda

The word ‘Ayu’ means life and ‘veda’ means knowledge. So ayurveda means knowledge of life. It is said in Charak samhita (One of the authentic scripture of Ayurveda) that” life is combination of body, senses, mind and spirit.”
So we can not consider health as only physical fitness. Health also means the tranquility of mind, control of senses and smile of spirit.” Ayurveda gives us knowledge about factors causing healthy life and unhealthy life. Ayurveda says about factors responsible for happy life and unhappy life. Ayurveda also says about one’s life span and usefulness of one’s life for the society.

Aims of Ayurveda

There are two aims of ayurveda.

1) To maintain the health of a healthy person.
2) To cure the disease.

The primary aim of ayurveda is to maintain the health of a healthy person. For this purpose ayurveda describes in detail, about eating habits like what one should eat and what one should not eat. Also it gives detail about what should be person’s daily routine and what should be person’s seasonal life style. (Different routine in different seasons like separate routine for winter,summe etc.)
In ayurveda under Rasayan prakarana different rejuvenation methods and medicines are prescribed which acts as antioxidants
and increases person’s healthy life span. Ayurveda recommends herbal medicines which has no side effects on the body, while modern medicine uses chemicals, which has so many side effects. In allopathic medicine-if a person takes medicine for liver his kidney get damaged, if person takes medicine for heart problem, his liver may get damage by the use of those medicines. There is no holistic approach in modern medicine, they treat only specific organ not the individual. A cardiologist will treat the heart disease of the patient but a person is the combination of body, mind and soul. So we can not forget the role of mind. The root cause of heart disease may be connected with the anxiety or worry of the patients. In such condition ayurveda suggest some relaxation techniques like yoga and meditation with the prescription of medicine.
As I told primary aim of ayurveda is to maintain the health of the healthy person and if because of some wrong food habits and climatic reason person suffer from any disease then there are many special diagnostic methods in ayurveda, one of them is Nadipariksha (Pulse diagnosis). This is not just observing the pulse, but after seeing the pulse in special way, an ayurvedic doctor can tell you about your present body condition, what diseases you are suffering from and how long treatment you require etc. and many more things about your self.

Pulse Diagnosis in Ayurveda

Specialities of Ayurveda

One of the specialty of Ayurveda is that we got the wisdom of Ayurveda from our ancient rishis. Ayurveda is a sub branch of Atharvaveda. Vedas are not only the cultural wealth of India, but they belong to the whole world, because Vedas are the most ancient literature available in the world.
Principles of Ayurveda are equally useful and effective for thousands of years, in all period of time. While modern medicine is still in a developing stage. Initially penicillin was considered to be most effective medicine, and then they found out some reactionsof penicillin in body. Later on sulpha-drugs got invented, after some year’s scientist told that antibiotics are more effective than sulpha drugs. Now scientists are saying that antibiotic medicines have so many side effects on the body. That’s why now people are turning towards traditional medicines like yoga, naturopathy and Ayurveda.

The main specialty of ayurveda is that it considers each individual unique. For example if three fever patients go to an allopathic doctor, he will give a common medicine paracetamol to every patient. But if same three patients go to an ayurvrdic doctor, he /she will not give same medicine to all three patients, because from ayurvedic point of view every individual has its unique body type. Like every individual has its unique finger prints, in the same way every individual has a unique basic constituent called as body type (Prakruti).
Ayurveda treat the disease from the root. Ayurvedic treatment is not only the symptomatic treatment. A qualified Ayurvedic doctor searches the root cause of disease and then he prescribes the medicine to remove the root cause.To eliminate the aggravated doshas or toxins from the body there are different purification methods are prescribed under Panchakarma therapy.
Ayurveda is not only a treatment system but it tells us about a unique way of living. It also gives details about psychological factors behind diseases.Ayurveda believes in healing through consciousness (By being aware of one self) not merely through medicine. It also gives us details about person’s social behavior. Our relations in society depends on social behavior and our relations govern our health. If our relations are good then our health will also be good.

See related youtube video above and also below

Ayurveda Introduction