Ayurveda for Inner Harmony: Nutrition, Sexual Energy and Healing (An Old and Rare Book)

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Ayurveda is now familiar to many people in West. In bringing the practical wisdom of Ayurveda to the West, and in the process of teaching in Europe over the years, I have learned the difficulties, confusion, and misconceptions that Western students experience because of the rapid spread of Ayurveda. Some Westerners still look at the Ayurvedic wisdom from the point of view of modern medicine, that is, with a non-holistic and fragmented approach. Part of the problem has been caused by the fact that Ayurvedic wisdom is being taught by non-professional people, and many a time in an inappropriate manner. Ordinary people who genuinely want to follow the path of Ayurveda for longevity and health are sometimes misled. Ayurveda (the science of life) does not deal with the human body exclusively at a physical level, but includes the mental and spiritual levels simultaneously. The Ayurvedic way of life plays a foremost role in maintaining health and curing ailments.

Ancient Ayurvedic literature incorporates an extensive study on nutritional balance that is not only dependent upon the basic value of the nutrients, but is also related to time, place, and the fundamental nature (or prakriti) of an individual. Prakriti denotes both the physiological and mental characteristics of a person. The aim of Ayurveda is to attain a high quality life, optimum energy, longevity, and management of the numerous ailments and diseases human beings face. For the comprehension and application of various aspects of this ancient wisdom, one needs philosophical, as well as scientific and medical understanding.

Ayurveda cannot be equated with simplistic herbal therapy, where one learns which herb is good for which ailment. In Ayurveda, medicine and nutrition changed with time and space, and its fundarnental scientific theories have stood the test of several thousand years. If we misinterpret or misrepresent this ancient theory, it can do us more harm than good. Following are a few examples of this in the context of nutrition. Several Ayurvedic books divide nutrients into three categories of the three energies, also called humours (vata, pitta, and kapha) and tell you to eat or avoid nutrients according to your body humours. For example, if you are a kapha dominant person, you should avoid all foods which are kapha-promoting. A student in Munich once told me of a bad experience she had from misunderstanding this information. Realizing that she was dominant in kapha, she started avoiding all dominant kapha foods in her diet. She ended up in an extremely imbalanced situation, and became very nervous. She started having sleep disturbances.

We must understand that the body energies are not like glasses full or half full of a liquid, and that we can create balance by pouring something in or out. They are dynamic forces of the body; they are our energy and vitality, and we need them constantly. We cannot mathematically avoid nutrients pertaining to one energy to "create an equilibrium." Ayurvedic nutrition is more profound than this, and students of Ayurveda should be aware that such a simplistic and naive approach would lead to ill health. We should be very critical and selective in choosing sources of information, as well as in choosing a teacher.

Another story which several students brought to my attention, both in Germany and Switzerland was that someone lecturing on Ayurveda in these countries was emphasizing that Ayurveda advises to boil drinking water for at least an hour because by doing so it "changes its molecular structure and becomes very healthy." This statement is ridiculous from any scientific standard, for who can change the molecular structure of water? Water boiled for that length of time would have a high concentration of minerals in it, and, in the areas where water is hard, it will be damaging to the health, in addition to tasting awful.

Ayurveda has been recently introduced to the West through the media and because of our new interest in alternative health care. Ayurveda is an ancient medical system from India. However, Ayurveda is more than just a medical system, as it does not only deal with medicines and the cure of ailments. Curing ailments is one aspect, but Ayurveda actually deals with all aspects of life, and can be literally translated as "the knowledge or science of life." The word Ayurveda is constituted of two words: ayus and veda. The word Veda literally means knowledge. The conjunction of body, sense organs, mind and soul is called ayur or "life." Caraka has defined Ayurveda as ".. it deals with good-bad, happy-unhappy (aspects of) life, promoters and non-promoters (of life) and their nature and measurements".

Ayurveda involves the totality of life: pain and pleasure both form important aspects of this knowledge. On the one hand, we learn methods of getting rid of pain and sorrow, and on the other hand, we learn various ways to enhance the pleasures of life. We learn about human conduct and behaviour, and the pain and pleasure originating from our conduct. Various environmental, nutritional, and behavioural aspects are taken into consideration in relation to their effect on our quality of life and longevity. Preventive health care methods are an important part of Ayurveda.

While learning about Ayurvedic methods of health care, there are two important factors to understand. First, Ayurveda views life as a totality; physiological, psychological, environmental, and spiritual aspects are interconnected, interrelated, and interdependent. Human beings, in their entirety, represent the miniature form of the cosmos, and changes in our environment (weather, climate, eclipses, tides, pollution, etc.) affect human life and health. Similarly, our actions affect our environment and bring changes to it. Life is considered in all its dimensions, and nothing is ignored. Because everything is interconnected and interdependent, food, sex, conduct, relationships, social behaviour, and environment are all just as important as instructions to get rid of digestive disorders, depression, madness, anger, and so on. Therefore, we can say that Ayurveda is holistic. However, I would like to explain why Ayurveda is holistic and what is meant when we use the word. In recent years, the term "holistic" has been very loosely used in the West. Under this name, many Oriental techniques and other exotic methods for health care have gained popularity. Herbal medicine, herbal hygiene products (such as toothpastes, shampoos, soaps, and cosmetics of natural origin) are advertised as being natural and "holistic.