Ayurveda
FIVE THOUSAND YEARS AGO in the magnifi cent Himalayas, one of the greatest sages of India, Srila Vyasadeva wrote down the Vedas for the fi rst time, this included a branch which is called Ayurveda: “Th e science of Life” (Ayur means life and Veda means science). As far as the science of life was concerned – Ayurveda – volumes of wisdom poured forth like the rains during the monsoon season. Beside Vyasadeva’s information about hundreds of herbal drugs in the Vedas, there were descriptions later on, by other sages like Sushruta, Charaka, etc. on how to perform prosthetic surgery to replace limbs, cosmetic surgery on the nose and elsewhere, caesarean section, and even brain surgery!
Prakruti
Th e Unique Genetic Code of an Individual
EVERYONE KNOWS THAT THERE are no two fi ngerprints alike. No two voice modulations and no two genetic codes are exactly alike. What makes anyone think we all have the same liver, lungs, kidneys, or anything else the same as the next person. Th erefore to propose that we all eat the same foods, take the same drugs when we are ill, or perform the same exercise is more than ludicrous. It is unscientifi c! Ayurveda uses a system of historical analysis and physical examination done almost entirely by observation (with the exception of pulse reading), to ascertain one’s original nature and current imbalances. A diet and health plan are given to the individual according to the needs to correct the imbalance. Th e basis for all other concepts in Ayurveda is Sankhya (the analytical study of the elements that comprise the universe). Although the modern physicist would delineate well over one hundred elements, Sankhya states there are twenty-four, of which fi ve are the foundation of the gross world: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. Dr. Robert Svoboda compares earth to everything which is solid in the table of the elements. Water is everything liquid, and air is everything gaseous. Ether is the fi eld in quantum mechanics upon which everything rests, and fi re is the transformer of one thing to another. Th ese fi ve elements, when joined in diff erent combinations, make up the three “doshas” or “biological modes” which are the “Prakruti” or nature of an individual and the nature of all things. Th e combination of air and ether gives us Vata or the Kinetic Biological Mode. Vata is that which is electric in the body and causes all movement in and out of the system (breathing, urination, defecation, menstruation, etc.)
