Something that we feel or think about continuously, consciously or unconsciously becomes our aim or the focus. The thought makes a deep impression in our mind. Ayurveda calls this impression a Sanskar. All energy naturally flows towards whatever we focus on and all future emerges from it. This is the Law of attraction!
Law of attraction is all about attracting the things that you think about. The law of attraction says that we attract what we focus on, whatever we think about, consciously or unconsciously. Whatever we are thinking about get attracted towards us whether we like it or not. It might not be something that we like or desire. If I am a negative person, I might be thinking or rather, worrying about getting sick with an unforeseen disease, or an expecting a financial problem. My fear is bound to attract more problems to me. According to the law of attraction, if I am scared of being sick, I might actually contact some disease even if I actually never wanted to! And all this happens naturally. So we should be very careful what we think about and what we focus on.
What Ayurveda Attracts
The word Ayurveda means Ayu (life) + Veda (knowledge). It is not the science of curing diseases, but it is the science of life and everything that comes with it. It is not focused on prevention or even cure of diseases; it is not focused on preventing death. Exclusive focus of Ayurveda is life and all its aspects!
Hitahitam Sukham Duhkhamayustasya Hitahitam |
Mananca Tacca Yatroktamayurvedah Sa Ucyate ||
The one that defines the righteous and sinful, happy and miserable life, their duration and what all is good for each of them is the science of Ayurveda.
Ayurveda respects, preserves and improves life in all its forms, where it is a happy or miserable, virtuous or sinful! Ayurveda does not talk primarily about the prevention and cure of diseases or death. The law of attraction says when you focus on life, you get life, when you focus on diseases or death, guess what you will get?
What is the Aim of Ayurveda?
Swasthyas swasthya rakshanam |
Aturasya vikar prashamanamcha ||
Protect the health of the healthy
And heal the disorders of the ailing
The sequence of statement or sutra is really important in traditional Indian Sciences. Whatever comes first is the more important and encapsulates the comprehensive meaning of the successive statement!
So the primary aim of Ayurveda is to protect the health of the healthy. Obviously, if the health is protected then people will rarely fall sick. Therefore, to cure the disease of the suffering naturally becomes the secondary aim.
It is important and interesting that the primary aim of Ayurveda is to focus not even on disease prevention, which a very passive aim, a little negative too since we will be thinking about the diseases all the time. Ayurveda has a very positive, fearless and aggressive aim. With this approach, ideally, there should be almost no sick person in the first place!
If we focus on disease, we will try to prevent all of them which is next to impossible. There is a lot of unnecessary and fruitless effort involved in this. It is like trying to wipe away the darkness, not possible. The only way out of darkness is to light a lamp. The point is, we fall sick because we are weak from the inside because there is a loophole in the system. The solution is not to focus on the loopholes, but to focus on an overall strengthening of the system so that the loopholes are not created in the first place. It is a very forceful and positive aim.
Ayurveda attracts health because it focuses on health and only health!
Health is Inside
Our body is like a fortress. It has multiple complicated lines of defense and attack. It is a complete marvel with intricate systems of self-preservation.
In Ayurveda, we do not think of the disease, exclusively in terms of pathogens or any of the external factors. These pathogens or disease-causing factors are always present everywhere. But some people fall sick, others do not. If the presence of bacteria or virus is the only factor for disease, everyone exposed to them should invariably fall sick! However, fortunately, it is not so.
We fall sick only when our body succumbs to the external disease-causing factors or when the mind or the control system gives the body away, and not primarily because of the presence of disease-causing factors. The kingdom is never lost just because of an enemy attack, but because the defense was not up to the mark! So, basically an invincible kingdom is not the one that never gets attacked, but the one that never gets captured! Even if the kingdom doesn’t fight back, but just stays put to an attack, the enemy forces die away after some time on their own. That’s an important military law. So it is important to stay put, it is important to stay healthy!
Ayurvedic texts do not start with treatment of the diseases or even basic anatomy and physiology of the body.
The very first chapter in Charak Samhita is called “Dirghajivitam” which means Chapter on Longevity of life. Next 3 chapters describe herbs essential for good health. The 5th chapter describes an ideal daily routine for perfect health. Seasonal change is considered to be one of the factors that trigger aging. The 6th chapter describes the ideal healthy seasonal regimen, to prevent any harmful effects from changing seasons and to retard the process of aging. The 7th chapter describes the diseases that can be caused because of controlling natural urges like urination, defecation, sneezing, coughing etc. This chapter advices us against interfering with body’s natural processes. Did you know that forcefully controlling yawning might cause convulsions in the long run?
Even in Chikitsa Sthana(Medical Treatment Section) of Charak Samhita the first 4 chapters called Rasayana 1/2/3/4 focus exclusively on anti-aging procedures, assuming that you are already healthy! Next 4 chapters Vajikaran 1/2/34 focus on increasing potency and maintaining the health of the reproductive organs for a longer duration, assuming that you are going to have a long and active sex life. That’s how the treatment starts!
So Ayurveda starts with life, a long healthy life and everything good follows.
So, basically, the aim should be to preserve the health under all circumstances. Ayurveda has health as one invariable factor and the exclusive aim because disease-causing factors and circumstances can be in numerous. Besides, if we focus on disease, according to the law of attraction, it is what we will be attracting!
Keep watching this space for the next part of this blog!
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