By Dr.Prasanth.K.P.
Ayurveda is an Indian contribution towards the medical science and like every traditional healing systems such as the Traditional chinese Medicine, its way of out look towards healing is in a different way to that of what we now call as the Modern medicine or Allopathy which is actually a westernised product adopted universally. Since traditional healing systems existed 2000 or 3000 years ago, much before the advent of Christ or Buddha, in an era where there were no MRI's or CT's or X-RAY's, the only possible way of any progress in what is called science was by three processes of pratyaksha(observation), anumana(inference) and aaptopadesa(whatever the scholar says!) .More than viewing through a naked eye , intution was depended on more frequently, with the doctors then being saints or sages, with lots of experience in spirituality and meditation, and the drugs available being raw and processed natural products, with heat being the only processing element. Since such is the history of traditional healing systems many of its philosophies and theories are controversial much like a blind person describing an elephant by touching its limb, tail, trunk and tusk. For example , charaka, susrutha and vagbhata all differ in their opinion about number of bones, arteries, nerves etc. But modern science has been succesful in developing a universal model of health system I say, that serves its purpose , in emergency life or death situations, whatever the critics , the ignorant ones , of the allopathic system may say. The ayurvedics especially the purist ones keep on stressing the essence of vedas and ayurvedic sayings, in an awfully freakish manner, that the patieny would consider the vaidya or the doctor as a control freak or maniac ! Apart from ayurveda depending on herbs for procuring medicines for diseases, its approach in treating a disease is holistic and entire, not like the particulate and separatist approach of allopathic stream. The treatment is given based on assessing ten factors called the "ten examinations" or the "dasa vidha pareeksha" which are the patients vitiated tissue, place of residence and place of affected part in body, immunity and persons strength, time and seasons, nature of mind, allergies and that which is congenial to him/her, digestive capacity, age, genetic nature, etc...inorder so that treatment be done considering or uniting several factors, yukti or logic is to be used, and for it to be applied all these numerous factors must be expressed in a same language, inculding disease and drugs ! So that element or factor that is missing may be added and that which is excess may be eliminated ! Pretty simple arithmetic isn't it ? But the failure of ayurveda is in the inherent impossibility in quantifying such factors or elements like a bio chemical report .It was this unifying concept of "advaita" philosophy that gave rise to the phenomena of "pancha bhoota theory" and "tri dosa theory", the former one for all that exists and the latter one for the living matter alone !
Certain set of qualities have been identified to distinguish the five elements of a panchabhoota and the three elements of a tri dosa, for example :
Ayurveda is an Indian contribution towards the medical science and like every traditional healing systems such as the Traditional chinese Medicine, its way of out look towards healing is in a different way to that of what we now call as the Modern medicine or Allopathy which is actually a westernised product adopted universally. Since traditional healing systems existed 2000 or 3000 years ago, much before the advent of Christ or Buddha, in an era where there were no MRI's or CT's or X-RAY's, the only possible way of any progress in what is called science was by three processes of pratyaksha(observation), anumana(inference) and aaptopadesa(whatever the scholar says!) .More than viewing through a naked eye , intution was depended on more frequently, with the doctors then being saints or sages, with lots of experience in spirituality and meditation, and the drugs available being raw and processed natural products, with heat being the only processing element. Since such is the history of traditional healing systems many of its philosophies and theories are controversial much like a blind person describing an elephant by touching its limb, tail, trunk and tusk. For example , charaka, susrutha and vagbhata all differ in their opinion about number of bones, arteries, nerves etc. But modern science has been succesful in developing a universal model of health system I say, that serves its purpose , in emergency life or death situations, whatever the critics , the ignorant ones , of the allopathic system may say. The ayurvedics especially the purist ones keep on stressing the essence of vedas and ayurvedic sayings, in an awfully freakish manner, that the patieny would consider the vaidya or the doctor as a control freak or maniac ! Apart from ayurveda depending on herbs for procuring medicines for diseases, its approach in treating a disease is holistic and entire, not like the particulate and separatist approach of allopathic stream. The treatment is given based on assessing ten factors called the "ten examinations" or the "dasa vidha pareeksha" which are the patients vitiated tissue, place of residence and place of affected part in body, immunity and persons strength, time and seasons, nature of mind, allergies and that which is congenial to him/her, digestive capacity, age, genetic nature, etc...inorder so that treatment be done considering or uniting several factors, yukti or logic is to be used, and for it to be applied all these numerous factors must be expressed in a same language, inculding disease and drugs ! So that element or factor that is missing may be added and that which is excess may be eliminated ! Pretty simple arithmetic isn't it ? But the failure of ayurveda is in the inherent impossibility in quantifying such factors or elements like a bio chemical report .It was this unifying concept of "advaita" philosophy that gave rise to the phenomena of "pancha bhoota theory" and "tri dosa theory", the former one for all that exists and the latter one for the living matter alone !
Certain set of qualities have been identified to distinguish the five elements of a panchabhoota and the three elements of a tri dosa, for example :
Qualities of solid substances – (Parthiva Dravya Laksana)-Earth has – Guru (heaviness, heavy to digest), Sthula (bulky), Sthira (stable) and Gandha (smell) qualities.Hence, substances that have Earth as the predominant element (Parthiva Dravya) have Gaurava (heaviness), Sthairya (stability), Samghata (compactness) and well nourished qualities – 5Qualities of liquid substances (Apya Dravya Laksana) –Liquid element has Drava (liquidity), Sheeta (cold), Guru (Heavy to digest), Snigdha (unctuous, oily, moisture), Manda (dull), Sandra (thickness, dense) and rasa (taste) qualities.Substances containing liquid as predominant element (Apya Dravya) have Snehana (lubrication, moistness), Avishyanda (secretion, moisture, production), Kleda (wetness), Prahlada (satiation, contentment, satisfaction) and Bandhakrut (cohesion, binding, holding together) qualities. 6.Agneya Dravya Laksana – (qualities of Agneya substances) :-Agni has qualities such as Ruksa (dry), Teekshna (penetrating, sharp), Ushna (hot), Vishada (non-slimy), Sookshma (minute) and Rupa (appearance, showing, from)Substances that have fire as the main element causes Daha (burning sensation), Bha (luster), Varna (expression of colour) and Pachana ( digestion, process of transformation, putrefaction etc.) 7.Qualities of airy substances – Vayaviya Dravya Laksana –Air has Rooksha (dry), Visada (non-slimy, clear), Laghu (lightness) and Sparsha (touch tactile sensation) qualitiesAiry substances posses qualities such as Ruksa (dry), it produces dryness, Laghava (lightness), Vaishadya (transparency, clarity), Vichara ( movements, different kinds of activities) and exhaustion 8.Qualities of ether dominant substances – Nabhasa Dravya Laksana:-Ether has Sukshma (minuteness), Vishada (transparence, clarity), Laghu (lightness) and Shabda (sound, hearing) qualities.Substances with ether dominance produce cavitation (hollowness) and lightness (weightlessness) 9
The above are the qualities of the substances containing a dominant element. Similarly the three basic elements of life the vata, pitta and kapha has been assigned certain qualities or gunas by which we can identify their function in body.
So pancha bhoota and tri dosas are unifying factor of non living and living matter. How do they co relate ?Rasa or blood plasma contains more of kapha dosa and jala element, so any deficiency of rasa tissue would be treated with substances containing more of that particular element, jala in this case, for which the identifying qualities are given above. How do you express a persons place in terms of health ? That is a tricky question for ann allopath, he does not consider it all ! But according to ayurvedic principles, since tropical places are hot and dry, they are mainly vata pitta predominant, and hot is agni, dry is vayu and akasha so naturally subsatances from that land would be dry, hot , pungent, so vata pitta aggravaters or kapha pacifiers according to opposite qualities !So the treatment module is pretty much simple to express everything around in terms of life so that we can take what is necessary and avoid the harmful. That is the reason why our acharya says there is nothing present in this world that is not medicine, jagatyevam anoushadham naati jagathi kinjith !!! What an idea sir ji !!!Since the above process of elucidating a process and disease is as a result of long term careful onservations on a macroscopical plane, it is ought to be imperfect in its diagnosis though it may treat a disease and cure it. So at all times modern and ayurveda are going to be at logger heads and modern medicine is going to find out the loop holes in our understanding of the body and diseases, but ayurveda has survived the modern tsunami and is gaining certification world wide ! Since researches are ever increasing and ever productive about the better under standing of human body and process in the modern medical arena, it being progressed from the aspect of cells to genes to molecules, and since more of modernised researches are being carried out by pharma companies in the area of herbal medicine, it is not far away, the allopathic system of medicine gets a new arm of herbal medicine not as a part of graduation curricula but as an entire speciality branch for rehabilitation and palliative care ! Ayuvedics are too lazy and too ignorant for this system to see the sun rise, they were not trained so ! If you take a person of same IQ an ayurvedic one will be much lazier and igmorant than the allopathic one ! We like things to stay as such, not takin gmuch of an effort to develop our rudimentary system, we take pride in being an ayurvedic but seldom practise it in our lives, we are worse than our patients in obeying ayurvedic restrictions , ayurveda is not a treatment its a life style, its a religion very much backed by philosophy, a sect, a culture for health, science may go deeper and deeper but upon touching the soul it gets reflected , then all tiny droplets unite into one whole ocean called Ayurveda !
