The Need for Healing

The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies
by Vasant Lad, B.A.M.S., M.A.Sc.

Based on the ancient healing tradition from India that dates back thousands of years, The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies offers natural alternatives to conventional medicines and treatments with practical advice and easy-to-follow instructions. A leading authority in this field, Dr. Vasant Lad first explains the principles behind the science of Ayurveda, exploring the physical and psychological characteristics of each of the three doshas, or mind-body types - vata, pitta, and kapha. Once you have determined which type or combination of types you are, Dr. Lad helps you to begin your journey to the ultimate "state of balance" and well-being.

The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies is an invaluable guide to treating common ailments and chronic problems with strategies tailored to your personal needs based on your dosha. Dr. Lad explains why certain imbalances often result in illness and shows you how to restore your body to natural order. You'll learn which traditional Ayurvedic remedies - herbal teas and formulas, essential oils, meditation, yoga - offer relief from a variety of conditions, such as cold and flu symptoms, headaches, toothaches, sore throats, high cholesterol, vision problems, anxiety, and depression. Dr. Lad also shows you how to use diet and specific Ayurvedic techniques to prevent future illness and to promote body consciousness and healthy living.

The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies enables us all to experience the benefits of Ayurveda's healing properties that have been refined over thousands of years. All of the herbs, foods, and oils Dr. Lad recommends can be found in local health food stores or through mail-order catalogs. Complete with an extensive glossary and resource list, this is the definitive guide to natural, safe, and effective remedies, everyday keys to a lifetime of vitality and well-being.

Ayurveda is the art of daily living in harmony with the laws of nature. It is an ancient, natural wisdom of health and healing, a science of life. The aims and objectives of this science are to maintain the health of a healthy person and to heal the disease of an unhealthy person. Both prevention (maintenance of good health) and healing are carried out by entirely natural means.

According to Ayurveda, health is a perfect state of balance among the bodys three fundamental energies or doshas (vata, pitta, kapha) and an equally vital balance among body, mind, and the soul or consciousness.

Ayurveda is a profound science of living that encompasses the whole of life and relates the life of the individual to the life of the universe. It is a holistic system of healing in the truest sense. Body, mind, and consciousness are in constant interaction and relationship with other people and the environment. In working to create health, Ayurveda takes into consideration these different levels of life and their interconnectedness.

As a science of self-healing, Ayurveda encompasses diet and nutrition, lifestyle, exercise, rest, and relaxation, meditation, breathing exercises, and medicinal herbs, along with cleansing and rejuvenation programs for healing body, mind, and spirit. Numerous adjunct therapies such as sound, color, and aroma therapy may also be employed . The purpose of this book is to acquaint you with these natural methods, so you can make the lifestyle choices and learn the self-learning modalities that are right for you in order to create, maintain, or restore health and balance.

Ayurveda is a Sanskrit word that means the science of life and longevity. According to this science, every individual is both as creation of cosmic energies and a unique phenomenon, a unique personality. Ayurveda teaches that we all have a constitution, which is our individual psychobiological makeup. From the moment of conception, this individual constitution is created by the universal energies of ether, air, fire, water, and earth.

These five elements combine into the three fundamental energies, or doshas. Ether and air constitute vata, which is the energy of movement; fire and water constitute pitta, the principle of digestion or metabolism, the transformation of matter into energy; and water and earth make up kapha, the energy structure and lubrication. When the make sperm and the female egg join at the time of fertilization, the vatta-pitta-kapha factors from the parents bodies that are most active and predominant at the moment, due to the season, the time, the emotional state, and the quality of their relationship, form a new individual with a particular constellation of qualities.

In modern terms we speak of this blueprint of the individual as our inherited genetic code; from ancient times Ayurveda has called it our prakruti or individual constitution, a constant factor which does not change throughout life. It is our own unique pattern of energy, our combination of physical, mental, and emotional characteristics and predispositions.

Though the underlying structure of our prakruti remains a fixed reality, our home base or essential individuality, it is constantly bombarded by numerous forces. Changes in age and in our external environment, alternating heat and cold as the seasons pass, our endlessly shifting thoughts, feelings, and emotions, the quality and quantity of the food we eat, continuously affect us. Unhealthy diet, excess stress, insufficient rest or exercise, and repressed emotions, all disturb our doshic balance. Depending on the type of changes and the individuals underlying constitution, various ailments may develop:

Some individuals experience an increase or aggravation of kapha, leading to conditions such as colds, congestion, sneezing, and allergic manifestations as well as attachment, greed, and possessiveness.

A pitta individual may become highly critical, angry, or perfectionistic, or may develop physical symptoms such as acid indigestion, heartburn, diarrhea, dysentery, hives, rash, or acne.

Vata imbalances may manifest as constipation, abdominal distention, sciatica, arthritis, or insomnia, along with psychological symptoms such as fear, anxiety, and insecurity.

All these illnesses and conditions, in addition to the countless others that lead to human suffering, are due to alterations in the bodys inner ecology. These upset the individuals balance, creating subtle biochemical changes which ultimately lead to disease. This is why the Ayurvedic system of medicine speaks of the need for healing for every individual in every walk of life.

As the internal and external conditions of our lives change, if we are going to remain healthy we need to constantly adjust in order to maintain equilibrium. Some of this adjusting takes place automatically due to the beautiful wisdom and intelligence with which our bodies have been designed. but much demands conscious choice. To maintain health and balance, we have to juggle with the three doshas, taking action to increase or decrease vata, pitta, or kapha as conditions demand. This requires moment to moment awareness, moment to moment consciousness, moment to moment healing.

Thus healinghealthy, balanced, conscious living in the fullness of the present momentis really a way of life. Ayurveda is not a passive form of therapy but rather asks each individual to take responsibility for his or her own daily living. Through our diet, our relationships, our job, our numerous responsibilities, and our daily life as a whole, we can take simple actions for prevention, self-healing, wholeness, and growth toward fulfillment.

About the Author

Vasant Lad, B.A.M.S., M.A.Sc., was born in India and served three years as the medical director of the Ayurvedic Hospital in Pune, India. He is a world-renowned expert on the practices and health benefits of Ayurvedic medicine and has lectured at seminars and workshops with Deepak Chopra, M.D., and Andrew Weil, M.D. Founder of the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he currently serves as its director.