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Ayurveda, meaning Knowledge of Life comprises all aspects of Mankind with respect to Maintenance of Health and the management of Diseases.
History
Ayurveda, the Upaveda of Rigveda, has its origin from Lord Brahma, the creator of this universe. Brahma then imparted the knowledge to his disciple Daksha Prajapati , who passed it on the Aswini Kumaras, the twin Gods , who in turn conferred it to Indra , the King of Gods. Till this time, The knowledge of Ayurveda remained in the divine level.
During Dwapara yuga (After Sathya yuga), humans began to get diseases of mind and body hindering their path to Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha (The Four Purusharathas). Following this, The Great Sages assembled at The Himalayas to find a solution to this problem. Sage Bharadwaja was sent to Lord Indra It was decided that Bharadwaja be deputed with the task of going to heaven and learning to the Divine Science of healing from Indra. This is how the Divine Knowledge of Ayurveda descended to the World as an solution for Human sufferings. Later, Sage Bharadwaja passed the knowledge to Atreya Punarvasu who inturn taught it to his disciples. Agnivesa who was the foremost disciple of Atreya wrote Agnivesa Tantra, this book was later reorganized by his disciple Charaka and became to be known as Charaka Samhita.
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Basic Principles
Every human being is unique in terms of mental attitude and physical character. This uniqueness of each individual is determined at the time of conception according to the physical and meta-physical conditions at that point in time. This is termed as The Prakriti of that person.
This Prakriti is in constant interaction with the outer world according to Seasonal Variations, Regional Variations, Lifestyle Variations and Dietary Variations. When these variations are not counter balancing each other, then those unbalanced variations would cause the increase of their respective doshas beyond normal physiological limits and if left unopposed, they will proceed further in the order of Shad Kriyakalas and give rise to condition that is identified as a disease.
This idea of counter balance such that the net effect being nullified is not something strange, we do observe it in our day to day life in many objects. For example, a piece of iron is static not because all of its atomic components are static, in fact its unpaired electrons are moving randomly in different directions generating a magnetic field trying to move the iron piece in that respective direction. Fortunately, the magnetic field created by the random movement of each unpaired electron is such that each one nullifies the other and hence forth the iron piece apparently seems to be static and remains in the same place where we had kept it.
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The Same Iron piece when placed in a strong magnetic field, then the spin of all the unpaired electrons is oriented to a particular direction, which makes the iron piece to move in a particular direction (towards the magnet).
Similarily, when all the majority of the factors are oriented towards a particular dosha (or Panchamaha Bhoota), then we observe the lakshanas of that Dosha or Roga. When the tendencies of the factors are such that, they are opposing one another and getting nullified, we observe an apparent dosha samya avastha (Equilibrium of Doshas) which is considered as Swastha (Healthy state). |
What is the purpose of a medicine in maintenance of this equilibrium ?
This Counter balance, when it does not happen by itself within the system, then we have to counter balance it from outside in the name of chikitsa (Medicines). |
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