INTRODUCTION TO AYURVEDA

"Ayurveda"is a holistic system of medicine that is indigenous to and widely practiced in India.It is the first life science. The word Ayurveda is a Sanskrit term meaning "science of life." Ayu" means "life" or "daily living." and "veda" is "knowing." This system of medicine has been practiced in daily life in India for more than 5,000 years.

Every human being has four biological and spiritual instincts, religious, financial, pro-creative and the instinct toward freedom. Balanced good health is the foundation for the fulfillment of these instincts. Ayurveda helps the healthy person to maintain health, and the diseased person to regain health. The practice of Ayurveda is designed to promote human happiness, health and creative growth (suprajanan)

Ayurveda is a truly holistic medicine whose great wealth is not merely a kind of folk medicine as it is sometimes considered to be. It is a science in its own right, with its own rationality and way of experimentation that is extraordinarily intricate and complete. It is based upon the observation of living beings and their actual reactions to their environment, not on mere laboratory experiments that seldom address the living being.

Ayurveda classifies all the factors of human life in an organic and energetic language that reflects the entire living biosphere around it. It shows how our individual constitution and disease tendencies reflect the forces of nature. It shows how foods, herbs, emotions, climates and lifestyles impact the dynamics of our own physiology and psychology that may differ for each person. It reflects a deep study not only of the body but also the mind and the spirit beyond the mind and the body. It describes the diet, medicines, and behaviors that are beneficial or harmful for life and consciousness.

Ayurveda is not only a system of medicine in the conventional sense of a methodology for treating disease but it is a way of life that teaches us how to maintain health and improve both our energy and our awareness, how to live life to our full human and spiritual potential.

Ayurveda shows us not only how to eliminate disease but how to promote longevity so that we can realize our goal of life, which is not just gaining material happiness but achieving profound spiritual realization. Ayurveda remains linked to a spiritual view of humanity and contains methods for connecting us to the greater universe that lies both within and around us. It treats the human being as a whole- a combination of body, mind and immortal soul.