III.5. Ayurveda, the World�s Medicine for the Next Millennium
Part III.5
Ayurveda, the World�s Medicine for the Next Millennium
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Ayurveda
Today
������ In 1989 I attended a conference on medical applications of
Yoga in Mumbai.� There were a number of
Indian medical doctors on the panel but, strangely as a westerner, I was the
only Ayurvedic speaker. After my talk promoting Ayurveda, someone in the
audience remarked, �We in India believe in something only once it has been
reimported.� While most Indian medical minds are busy pursuing modern medicine,
Americans are increasingly looking into alternative medicine including
Ayurveda, and see India as the homeland of Ayurveda and yogic spirituality.
������ India�s cultural medical genius has recently gone into modern
medicine. Families traditionally devoted to Ayurveda have switched over to
modern medicine and forgotten their roots. Indian allopathic doctors are often
opposed to Ayurveda which, with their western education, they consider to be
primitive. I have found doctors in America to be more interested in Ayurveda
than doctors in India who have a na�ve faith in modern medicine such as was
typical during the fifties and sixties in the West.
������ Unfortunately, Ayurveda is not adequately funded in India
today, receiving only a small percentage of the medical budget. This amount is
only enough to pay a low wage for Ayurvedic teachers. While the government
funds allopathic treatment, people generally have to pay out of their own
pockets for Ayurveda. This poor funding of Ayurveda is responsible for the
backward state that occurs for Ayurvedic schools and hospitals, not anything
necessarily inferior about the medicine itself.
Today
there are several hundred Ayurvedic schools in India and thousands of practitioners.
Ayurveda remains popular in the villages and has its place in urban life as
well. Ayurvedic herb stores can be found in most communities, offering a wide
variety of health care products from soaps to special formulas for boosting the
immune system or improving memory and concentration. Modern Ayurvedic schools
teach Ayurveda along with allopathy and the average Ayurvedic doctor knows a
lot about modern medicine, including many of its diagnostic methods. Ayurveda
is recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and is the subject of much
modern medical research. Therefore, in spite of poor funding, Ayurveda is still
flourishing and spreading anew.
������ A new modern Ayurveda is starting in India and in the West
with Ayurvedic health spas that can be quite upscale in terms of facilities and
treatment. This is not confined to the TM (Transcendental Meditation) movement,
which first emphasized it, but includes hotels in South India and other
Ayurvedic centers throughout the world sponsored by various groups and
organizations. There is nothing necessarily archaic or poverty-based about
Ayurveda. The new Ayurveda, like Yoga, is attended by those in pursuit of the
spiritual life and many affluent people from the West. The western interest in
Ayurveda is helping to revive Ayurveda in India and makes it more respectable,
showing it as an important medical system in its own right, not just a poor
alternative for those who do not have access to modern medicine.
History of
Ayurveda
������ Ayurveda has a long and glorious history in India, going back
to Vedic or Indus-Sarasvati times over five thousand years ago. The Vedas mention the healing, rejuvenative
and consciousness-boosting power of special plant preparations called Somas
that were made from a variety of mountain plants prepared in ghee, milk, yogurt
and other natural substances. Classical Ayurveda includes the three great
classics of Charaka Samhita, Sushruta
Samhita and Ashtanga Hridaya. No
other culture in the world, not Europe or China has preserved such extensive
medical texts of great antiquity that are still used today. They cover all
aspects of health and life-style including foods, herbs, mantra, massage,
meditation, daily and seasonal health regimens and clinical methods like Pancha
Karma and surgery.
Ayurveda is
mentioned in the Vedas, Upanishads,
Mahabharata, Puranas, Tantras and
Yoga Shastras, sometimes in great
detail as the complementary medical system to Hindu culture and yogic
spirituality.� It was used by the
Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs as well as Hindus, and forms the basis of Tibetan
medicine. For example, the great Buddhist teacher Nagarjuna, to whom was
attributed the Shunyavada or Voidness school of Buddhist philosophy, was also a
great Ayurvedic teacher. Many great modern Yogis like Sri Aurobindo, Swami
Shivananda of Rishikesh and Paramahansa Yogananda spoke highly of Ayurveda and
used it with their students. Most Yoga centers in India and the West now offer
Ayurvedic classes or treatments.
Ayurveda and Modern Medicine
������ Modern medicine is recognizing that we must consider the
nature of the individual in health and disease. It is not enough to give the
same treatment to everyone suffering from the same disease. Their individual
makeup should be considered because it causes the symptoms and development of
the disease to vary considerably.
������ Ayurveda contains perhaps the world�s best system of
constitutional types that helps us treat each individual appropriately. It
classifies people according to the three doshas or biological humors of Vata,
Pitta and Kapha, (which correspond roughly to the air, fire and water elements
energized by the life-force). From these three main types derive many subtypes
and conditions, resulting in a unique analysis of each individual�s specific
health condition. This typology is not the product of any single factor like
the current popular blood types in naturopathic medicine, but reflects the
whole range of biological manifestations including body frame and weight,
facial features, digestive tendencies, disease tendencies and psychological
indications of emotional temperament and mental acuity. Ayurvedic books contain
such typology tests and Ayurvedic doctors spend much time determining the
individual nature and needs of each patient based upon these considerations.
������ Ayurveda treats the individual more so than the disease, which
it sees as a by product of imbalances within the person. It makes the
individual important and strengthening his or her vitality the goal, regarding
the disease manifestation as secondary and derivative. It says that the same
individual will be prone to various diseases that reflect their individual
make-up and energies. Therefore, Ayurveda can provide treatment that covers not
only a specific illness but all the potential diseases that the individual is
likely to fall prey to over time.
������ Modern medicine is realizing the importance of disease
prevention. It is not enough to treat diseases after they arise. This is like trying
to put out a fire after it has already started and done some damage. Real
treatment consists of preventing the disease from arising in the first place.
And many diseases that are difficult to treat once they are fully developed can
be prevented, if caught early enough.
������ Ayurveda is based upon a firm foundation of disease
prevention, which is not simply a matter of regular medical check-ups but
requires a healthy lifestyle in harmony with one�s own individual constitution
and unique life-circumstances. Disease arises mainly from a breakdown of the
balance of internal energies in a person, not merely from external pathogens,
however powerful these may be. Ayurveda�s main method of long term treatment is
to strengthen our internal energy (ojas). This is similar to modern medicine�s
effort to strengthen the immune system, which is the energy of our body to
defend itself from outside attacks. But Ayurveda has a better understanding of
this internal energy and its connections with mind and consciousness. It views
our vital energy not merely as a biochemical phenomenon but as a product of the
mind and prana and includes how we think, breathe and use our senses in its
methods of healing.
Ayurveda
and Consciousness
������ In the modern world we are gradually discovering the
importance of the mind and emotions in the disease process. Ayurveda is
inherently a mind-body medicine. Its doshas or biological humors are not simply
physical pathogens, elemental imbalances or dietary indiscretions but include
the effects of impressions, emotions and thoughts. The doshas reflect the
consequences of emotional toxins like anxiety, anger and attachment on our
physiology.
What junk food
does to the body, junk impressions, such as our mental diet of violent movies,
does to the mind, rendering it dull and heavy. Negative emotions impact our
health by adversely disturbing our internal organs, weakening the liver and
heart which carry emotions. Disturbed thoughts impact our health through
unbalancing the flow of energy through the nervous system. Disease always has a
psychological component, and psychological disorders impact our vitality in a
negative way.
Ayurveda
emphasizes the role of consciousness in health and disease. It understands the
workings of the mind on an organic and energetic basis just as it does the
workings of the body, so that we can provide proper nutrition and exercise for
the mind as well. It teaches us to be conscious how we live, what we eat, how
we move and how we think so that we can bring the healing power and insight of
consciousness into our existence. Whatever we give consciousness to, we help
improve, just as exposure to sunlight helps plants grow. This spiritual side of
Ayurveda is not a matter of religious dogma, occult hocus pocus or New Age
fantasy but part of the sophisticated spiritual sciences of Yoga and Vedanta,
with which Ayurveda is intimately connected.
Ayurvedic
Treatment Methods
������ Ayurveda prescribes individual life-style health regimens
designed with regard to age, sex, climate, vocation and other factors. We
cannot expect to be healthy if we don�t have a good diet, if we lack proper
exercise or if we are filling our minds with disturbing influences. We create
our own health or disease by our daily actions. So too, without changing these habitual
activities, we cannot improve our health in a lasting manner.
������ Ayurveda shows the health benefits of the Indian style of
cooking, like how the right spices can help us digest food. It teaches us the
dynamic effects of each food article for health and disease. While modern
medicine is only now beginning to accept the role of food and disease through
an examination of phytochemicals, Ayurveda has long regarded diet as the basis
of health. We are not only what we eat but also how we eat and with whom we
eat. Food preparation is as important as food types.
Food is the
first form of God, the Anna Brahma of the Upanishads.
Without honoring this form of divinity, the other forms may not be able to
manifest in our lives. In this regard Ayurveda recommends vegetarian foods to
promote higher (sattvic) qualities of compassion and understanding, under the
idea that food not only nourishes the body but also the mind and emotions.
������ Ayurveda contains many important herb and mineral preparations
that reflect the botanical wealth of the Indian subcontinent and thousands of
years of experience with plants. It has what is perhaps the most complex and
intricate herbal pharmaceutical industry in the world with pills, powders,
resins, extracts, confections, and oils not to mention Ayurvedic cosmetics,
toothpastes and soaps. Such Ayurvedic products can improve our lives in many
ways.
������ Ayurveda works along with Yoga to prescribe helpful asana,
pranayama, mantra and meditation methods for optimal health and spiritual
development. The asanas that are good for one person or good for one season,
just like the food articles, may not be good for another. Pranayama has its
energetic effects. By strengthening Prana or the life-force we can improve
perception and circulation and add more energy to counter all diseases. Indeed
Prana is the second form of God, the Prana Brahma of the Upanishads.
Mantra
and meditation practices have their energetics that should be adjusted according
to individual needs and capacities. Mantra helps us energize the mind and clear
the subconscious. Meditation helps us open our higher awareness potentials so
that we can deal with our lives with more insight and detachment.
������ Ayurveda has an extensive system of detoxification called
Pancha Karma. Pancha Karma includes a system of oil massage, sweating therapy,
and various internal cleansing processes to remove the doshas from the tissues,
which can effectively eliminate disease-causing toxins from the body so that
they can no longer promote the disease process.� A number of Pancha Karma centers are now functioning in the West
and most Ayurvedic clinics in India offer this service.
������ Ayurveda has a special science of rejuvenation or rasayana. It
recognizes that the body contains a secret potential to renew itself in old
age, just it does daily in the state of deep sleep. Ayurveda contains specific
exercise, diet, and meditation regimens to facilitate the rejuvenation of body
and mind. As the baby boomer generation gets older, which has been very active
physically and has pioneered the new interest in alternative medicine, this
rejuvenation approach is bound to become much more sought after.
Perhaps most
importantly, with its broad basis, Ayurveda provides a good model for
integrating all the worlds different medical systems in a harmonious manner. It
recognizes the importance of surgery, particularly for larger tumors, but also
its limitations, its weakening of our internal energy. It recognizes the importance
of drugs, particularly for acute pain relief, but also their limitations, their
tendency to dull the mind and depress our energy. It accepts the healing power
of food, herbs, massage and other natural healing methods and shows their
applicability and long term healing power.
Yet while
respecting all healing modalities Ayurveda also shows us how we can heal
ourselves. What we do for ourselves on a regular basis, through the food,
thoughts and lifestyle we choose creates who we are and shapes where we are
going in life. To think that an outside force, person or treatment can suddenly
heal what has taken perhaps years to create, is a delusion. It is an abdication
of responsibility for our choices moment by moment. In Ayurveda, the
practitioner can make recommendations, but it is up to the client to implement
them on a regular basis.�
The Future of Ayurveda
������
Ayurveda is one of the main
world systems of natural healing and mind-body medicine, with a popularity
spreading to America, Europe and East Asia, a trend that has been steadily
developing over the last fifteen years. However, in America Ayurveda is mainly
being taken up by the general population. Few Indians, particularly the many
medical doctors, are supporting it or even adequately informed about it.
The current
Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has mentioned the importance of
Ayurveda for proper medical care in India, particularly for disease prevention.
The same comments extend to the West where acute disease is no longer the main
issue but rather how to improve our vitality and awareness for more creative
and fulfilling lives.
������ As we move into a new millennium and a global age, Vedic
knowledge of all types, with its universal vision, is becoming increasingly
important. This includes Ayurveda, Yoga, Vedic Astrology, Vedanta and Sanskrit.
But as we are first of all physical creatures and as our health needs are
radically changing in the computer world, Ayurveda may be the main vehicle
through which Vedic knowledge expands again today. Through the Vedic approaches
of Ayurveda, Yoga and Jyotish (Vedic Astrology) we have an elaborate system for
self-healing, self-understanding, and self-realization. This marvelous heritage
should not be forgotten, particularly in India.
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