About
Ayurveda
Ayurveda
is the oldest surviving complete medical system in the world. Derived from its
ancient Sanskrit roots - 'ayus' (life) and 'ved' (knowledge) - and offering
a rich, comprehensive outlook to a healthy life, its origins go back nearly
5000 years. To when it was expounded and practiced by the same spiritual rishis,
who laid the foundations of the Vedic civilisation in India, by organising the
fundamentals of life into proper systems.
The main source of knowledge in this field therefore remain the Vedas, the divine
books of knowledge they propounded, and more specifically the fourth of the
series, namely Atharvaveda that dates back to around 1000 BC. Of the few other
treatises on Ayurveda that have survived from around the same time, the most
famous are Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita which concentrate on internal
medicine and surgery respectively. The Astanga Hridayam is a more concise compilation
of earlier texts that was created about a thousand years ago. These between
them forming a greater part of the knowledge base on Ayurveda as it is practiced
today.
The art of Ayurveda had spread around in the 6th century BC to Tibet, China,
Mongolia, Korea and Sri Lanka, carried over by the Buddhist monks travelling
to those lands. Although not much of it survives in original form, its effects
can be seen in the various new age concepts that have originated from there.
No philosophy has had greater influence on Ayurveda than Sankhaya's philosophy
of creation and manifestation. Which professes that behind all creation there
is a state of pure existence or awareness, which is beyond time and space, has
no beginning or end, and no qualities. Within pure existence, there arises a
desire to experience itself, which results in disequilibrium and causes the
manifestation of the primordial physical energy. And the two unite to make the
"dance of creation" come alive.
Imponderable, indescribable and extremely subtle, this primordial energy - which
and all that flows from it existing only in pure existence - is the creative
force of all action, a source of form that has qualities. Matter and energy
are so closely related that when e
nergy
takes form, we tend to think of it in terms of matter only. And much modified,
it ultimately leads to the manifestation of our familiar mental and physical
worlds.
It also gives rise to cosmic consciousness, which is the universal order that
prevades all life. Individual intelligence, as distinct from the everyday intellectual
mind, is derived from and is part of this consciousness. It is the inner wisdom,
the part of individuality that remains unswayed by the demands of daily life,
or by Ahamkara, the sense of `I-ness'.
A Sanskrit word with no exact translation, Ahamkara, is a concept not quite
understood by everyone as it is often misleadingly equated to `ego'. Embracing
much more than just that, it is in essence that part of 'me' which knows which
parts of the universal creation are 'me'. Since 'I' am not separate from the
universal consciousness, but 'I' has an identity that differentiates and defines
the boundaries of `me'. All creations therefore have Ahamkara, not just human
beings.
There arises from Ahamkara a two-fold creation. The first is Satwa, the subjective
world, which is able to perceive and manipulate matter. It comprises the subtle
body (the mind), the capacity of the five sense organs to hear, feel, see, taste
and smell, and for the five organs of action to speak, grasp, move, procreate
and excrete. The mind and the subtle organs providing the bridge between the
body, the Ahamkara and the inner wisdom, which three together is considered
the essential nature of humans.
The second is Tamas, the objective world of the five elements of sound, touch,
vision, taste and smell - the five subtle elements that give rise to the dense
elements of ether or space, air, fire, water and the earth - from which all
matter of the physical world is derived. And it is Rajas, the force or the energy
of movement, which brings together parts of these two worlds.
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