AN INTRODUCTORY PERSPECTIVE ON THE MILLENARY SYSTEM OF AYURVEDA
The Ayurveda system is Traditional Indian Knowledge of Life. Ayurveda is more than a science, it is more than a traditional medicine, it is a genuine system of knowledge that offers all human beings the opportunity to improve their existential condition through natural means and wisdom.
If we ask ourselves what Ayurveda can do for us, we can say that it can do absolutely everything. Ayurveda can help us in our daily lives, in the way we eat, the way we live, the way we think, the way we interact with other people, the way we think and especially the way we think about the life we lead in its many aspects.
Ayurveda can greatly improve relationships between people. The in-depth study of Ayurveda is based on the premise that every human being who studies Ayurveda thoroughly can come to know how to recognise and identify his or her constitutional type (dosha-prakriti) as accurately as possible.
After this first step, which is elementary in the knowledge of Ayurveda, every human being who studies Ayurveda can discover and understand what his specific make-up is and also how other human beings are structured, thus discovering how human beings interact from the perspective of universal aspects which, in Ayurveda, are described as precisely the structuring forces of the three doshas, namely vata-dosha, pitta-dosha and kapha-dosha.
Through Ayurveda, every human being can better understand the subtle-energetic, psycho-mental and spiritual nature of his or her interactions with others.
Once human beings come to know the nature of their interactions in this way, they can then greatly improve the way they interact with other people, the way they see others, and the way they can respond to others. By doing this based on the traditional knowledge of Ayurveda, an Ayurvedic practitioner can harness the knowledge of the three primary subtle life forces called doshas in many ways. Through Ayurveda every human being can greatly improve both his personal existence and his relationships with other people, which can then become increasingly harmonious and truly beneficial.
Ayurveda can be taught beautifully even by children. Children often prefer natural foods, they prefer beautiful, fresh fruit and they prefer vegetables. When children feel the authentic natural taste of fruits, they discover that they are in fact created in a kind of Nature's play and that they can be the subject of a wonderful way of playing, in a teaching, meaningful and in a deeply beneficial way, with their own being.
A mother who has a large family can also make a life plan in which she not only survives the daily rhythm, but learns to live healthily and, moreover, to stay healthy and happy, precisely because Ayurveda offers us natural means that are not expensive, it offers us means to accommodate to the frenetic pace of life, means that allow us to stay in optimal shape. For a woman who loves her family to prepare food is a good habit, but it is very important that she knows what each member of the family needs so that everyone is both healthy and well fed.
For a father, for example, it is important for him to learn what the child's constitutional structure is, because then he will know how he can educate him in such a way as to exert a beneficial influence on him as a parent, while taking into account the specificity of that child, so that the child develops harmoniously and cultivates the abilities that are present in his being and that will then, through proper education, give him value in life.
At the same time a man can learn how to keep his tenderness, how to keep his virility and vital power in his environment and at the same time constantly improve his specific life condition.
For those who have not yet had access to traditional Ayurvedic teachings, it is possible that years or decades may have gone by without knowing some very simple things that may have been helpful in ensuring good health or helping to regain health. Ayurveda offers us all valuable support from teaching us how to eat healthily to teaching us how to think healthily. Ayurveda teaches us that it is necessary to choose all these essential aspects of life correctly. Ayurveda teaches us that the human body responds very well when given what it really needs in the right way.
The basic view in Ayurveda is that human beings need to form a unity, so that interactions between the young, the old and the middle-aged can take place in the most appropriate manner, and they learn how to make these human interactions fruitful. A person who is older and who also has access to the vastness of the science of Ayurveda, really can be an absolutely necessary support for others, because if for example physical strength is not as great and we can practically say that help from this point of view of an older person has some limits, his knowledge and life experience can often be much more valuable than any kind of help, whether financial or of the nature of physical help.
This traditional knowledge, Ayurveda, is often the saviour of human beings, because in reality for a member of a family who has a dilemma or for a human being who is going through a crisis of the soul, such knowledge can be a reliable support when human beings come to face a difficulty or an illness.
Ayurveda can offer us not only good and appropriate solutions, but also unparalleled soul relief. When this comes from someone who is near and dear to our soul and who is a wise man with a thorough knowledge of life, then the transfer of life experience greatly enriches the being.
Today, Ayurveda is a basic necessity that people need in families and human groups large and small.
We can ask ourselves whether "Is Ayurveda intended both as a study and as a practice only for medical personnel or is it for everyone?".
The correct answer is that Ayurveda is by no means only for medical personnel, but for all human beings. This is why Ayurveda is traditionally called the 'Science of Life'. Ayurveda is a vast science of natural healing, but in reality the full meaning of this age-old science is that Ayurveda provides healthy rules of life, and these are not just for medical personnel, but for all people. Of course, if we look objectively at medical personnel as human beings, we realise that every human being who is a doctor is also a human being in need of health, just like everyone else.
Ayurveda can be seen as offering two major directions of understanding and action.
A first direction is that the aspects contained in Ayurveda help us not to become ill. From this perspective, a body that becomes free of illness has much more power and vital force than a body that has been ill and has healed. That is why the set of aspects that are part of what is now called prevention in Ayurveda is particularly important.
From an Ayurvedic perspective it is much more important that people live in a way that allows them not to become ill.
Ayurveda helps us to become happier ourselves and others, helps us to be happy with others and most of all helps us to be happy with the whole natural environment in which we live. Ayurveda brings us closer to real, objective life and also brings us closer to Nature.
Ayurveda helps us enormously to understand the innermost springs of the physical, mental and spiritual existence of each of us.
Ayurveda is a veritable treasure trove of knowledge that can, when known and applied correctly, bring great well-being and therefore great happiness.
Ayurveda is a science that offers untold resources of knowledge. Even if Ayurveda is applied in a simple way in the most seemingly innocuous situations, it provides answers that are tailor-made, improving the existential condition.
Ayurveda offers unsurpassed support precisely because of its specialized forms of knowledge in the areas of the most complicated disorders, ailments or diseases (roga), especially since the means of healing that Ayurveda offers are natural and very accessible.
Precisely because they are not yet sufficiently well known, let alone understood, these natural Ayurvedic means of healing can offer the extraordinary help they can in fact give.
Ayurveda can provide unsurpassed support even in difficult situations. From this perspective we can say that learning Ayurveda without being ill is a basic act of human wisdom.