Also called Sleshma, it is the formative, cohesive, cementing and cooling component lending firmness, stability, flexibility and calmness to the body. It aids anabolism and builds up tissues. Enabling mental strength, endurance and bodily resistance to diseases, kapha most strongly relates to the physical structure of the body. Kapha is the cooling element that keeps vata and pitta confined to their normal limits, in…
It corresponds to metabolism of western physiology and is roughly synonymous to bodily fire. All metabolic processes in the organism are pitta mediated. Thereby it governs all metabolic transformation in the body involving digestion, absorption, assimilation, nutrition, temperature, skin colour, lustre of the eye, intelligence and understanding. Through it are aroused anger, hate and jealousy. Energy being…
According to Charaka Samhita, vata is the grossest manifestation of the Panchabhautic vayu or air element and is the motivating force which keeps everything going (read as moving). This subtle influence pervading everywhere governs all biological movement – breathing, blinking, muscle and joint movement, heart beat and all nerve and membrane contractions and expansions, as well as tremors and spasms.…
Health is defined in Ayurveda as the soundness of body (sharira), mind (manas) and soul (atma). Each part of this tripod of life should receive equal attention as psychic influences strongly affect the body in health as well as in disease, a fact that is only recently being acknowledged in modern medical science. Modern medicine takes…
Table 2.2 Gurvadi gunas – the 10 opposing pairs of qualities Guru (heavy) Laghu (light) Manda (slow) Tiksna (fast) Sita (cold) Usna (hot) Snigdha (greasy) Ruksa (dry) Slaksna (smooth) Khara (rough) Sandra (solid) Drava (fluid) Mrdu (soft) Kathina (hard) Sthira (stable) Cala (moving) Suksma (subtle) Sthula (obvious) Visada (friction) Picchila (slimy) Italics – upakarmas Table 2.3 Pancha Mahabhootas, Tanmatras and Gurvadi gunas…
Matter is a mixture of five universal elements containing one or the other in a predominant ratio. According to Sushruta, all substances are derived from a combination of the five bhootas and a predominance of any one of them in a particular substance determines its character and this is at the heart of Ayurvedic pharmacology. Apart from…
The human body is thus a microcosm of nature and is essentially composed of the five basic elements (see box). In the context of perceptivity, while the Mahabhootas and thus the totality of corporeal existence by itself cannot be perceived objectively, their presence can be inferred by the manifestation of certain qualities. In other words…
With an intuitive insight into the complexity of our origin, Ayurveda understands that the knowledge of the body is never complete, a truth that is painfully obvious to anyone who tries to keep abreast of the myriad developments and contradictory opinions of today’s medical science. This merry-go-round of shifting phenomenon and perceptions is identified as…
Among the scores of modern theories that attempt to explain the origin of the universe, the popular big bang theory based on Sir Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and proposed by George Gamow conceives the universe as having started out as a very hot gas. Made up of neutrons it decayed into protons, electron and…
According to Ayurveda everything in the universe is contained within the five elements. The first step down from consciousness into the world of matter from the subtlest energy particles to the bulk of our flesh is composed of these elements. It is incorrect to consider the five primal elements – space, air, fire, water and…