Ayurveda ™

Ayurveda, also called Ayurvedic medicine, traditional system of Indian medicine. Ayurvedic medicine is an example of a well-organized system of traditional health care, both preventive and curative, that is widely practiced in parts of Asia. Ayurveda has a long tradition behind it, having originated in India perhaps as much as 3,000 years ago. Today it remains a favoured form of health care in large parts of the Eastern world, especially in India, where a large percentage of the population uses this system exclusively or combined with modern medicine.

The practice of Ayurveda

The Indian Medical Council was set up in 1971 by the Indian government to establish maintenance of standards for undergraduate and postgraduate education. It establishes suitable qualifications in Indian medicine and recognizes various forms of traditional practice including Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha. Projects have been undertaken to integrate the indigenous Indian and Western forms of medicine. Most Ayurvedic practitioners work in rural areas, providing health care to at least 500 million people in India alone. They therefore represent a major force for primary health care, and their training and deployment are important to the government of India.

Like scientific medicine, Ayurveda has both preventive and curative aspects. The preventive component emphasizes the need for a strict code of personal and social hygiene, the details of which depend upon individual, climatic, and environmental needs. Bodily exercises, the use of herbal preparations, and Yoga form a part of the remedial measures. The curative aspects of Ayurveda involve the use of herbal medicines, external preparations, physiotherapy, and diet. It is a principle of Ayurveda that the preventive and therapeutic measures be adapted to the personal requirements of each patient. Ayurveda calls for complete harmony of the human body with the elements of nature and the surrounding environment for a stress-free and healthy life. Ayurvedic science does not merely deal with medical science but its scope goes much beyond the universe of conventional science. It also includes factors like herbal medicine, body works, and surgery apart from the social, psychological, ethical, spiritual, and intellectual life of human beings. Ayurveda is also known as the science of living a healthy and illness free life. It is built on the premise that in the olden days, man used to live close to nature, and whenever he got exposed to some disease, he used to cure himself using resources and material provided by Mother Nature. It therefore would not be wrong to say that Ayurveda charts out a health patter based on nature and its natural resources.Ayurveda places great emphasis on prevention and encourages the maintenance of health through close attention to balance in one’s life, right thinking, diet, lifestyle and the use of herbs. Knowledge of Ayurveda enables one to understand how to create this balance of body, mind and consciousness according to one’s own individual constitution and how to make lifestyle changes to bring about and maintain this balance.Ayurveda is a way of life, of living in harmony with nature. By learning Ayurveda, you know your constitution and your prakruti. When you know your vikruti, the present altered state of the doshas, then you can establish the balance between vata, pitta, kapha, seven dhatus, and the three malas and create a beautiful balance between the body, mind and consciousness.