THE ANCIENT INDIAN MEDICINE
Every discipline, scientific or
metaphysical one, has a basis of philosophical-mathematical
interpretation of the nature and of its rules that characterize
and distinguish it. The same is for the typical Indian medicine:
the Ayurveda.
The pillars of this building are made of elements of an ancient
philosophical, dualistic view that is called Samkya, prior to
the coming of Buddha, but atheist too. The tradition claims to
Kapila the burden of drawing up the text even if, as
Radhakrishnan said in his treatise The Indian Philosophy, no
philosophical school originated, in its fullness, from the mind
of a single man. In fact, we already found traces of this “point
of view” in the Rg Veda and in Upanisad, or reference to terms
that will be then used by Kapila himself.
Maybe not everyone knows that the Samkhya is one of the “Sat
Darshana”, the six Brahman orthodox points of view, that, during
the history of the philosophical Indian thought, had the task of
expounding some speculations concerning the universe’s nature in
general. Today, they are still considered reliable systems of
the Hindu thought, because, even if they are different, they
have the same roots in the ancient holy texts that are called
Veda.
I think that, to understand the theoretical foundation of
Ayurveda and Yoga, we must pass through an examination of the
Samkhya.
I state beforehand that philosophers and scientists who wanted
to look for the principles of “Manifestation”, because of the
obvious limited human constitution, compressed in their
enunciations the manifold infinite into finite rules, trying to
find fundamental and inseparable elements, that are the
presupposition on which their interpretations are safely based.
The same is for the Samkhya, in which, with 24 basis elements (Tattya
or reality’s principles), we can build an interpretative
pyramid, however without a vertex or transcendental prime cause.
In my exposition, I think it will be interesting to start the
analysis from the summit of this scheme.
The ancient wise rapporteurs of this doctrine stated that two
nature’s components were to be considered ultimate, eternal and
absolutely non-caused principles: the Purusa and the Prakrti.
The first one can be considered, from a certain point of view,
the unexpressed Cosmic Spiritual Energy. It is the Seer without
any characteristics or attributes; the cosmic immutable and
unmoved conscience, that, into the microcosm, we find reflected
into the pure inner subject, cleaned out from the identification
in the matter.
The second one is the Material Cosmic Energy, without any
conscience but active and dynamic, the object that we
erroneously identify with the subject.
From the union of these two components originates, in accordance
with some school, the evil, because the Prakrti leads the Purusa
to consider as good and eternal everything that is, as a matter
of fact, painful and non-permanent.
The main purpose of Ayurveda, and of Yoga too, is to set man
free from the identification of the subject into the object
through discriminations.
But let’s go back to the macrocosm; it seems to me that these
two components could have in nature a state of quiet and
inactivity until they get in touch each other. It would be like
if we say that, if we admit a beginning, one of them can
activate the other one. In short, the spirit enters the matter
and activates it. As a consequence of this statement, we could
consider the spirit as the responsible and maybe also, in
accordance with other interpretative schools, the prime cause
even if, honestly, I think that the supporters of this thought’s
movement did not want to show the idea of a God displayed and
transcendent at the same time, that could be the prime cause of
both of them, Purusa and Prakrti too, seeing them, as other
schools will admit, as aspects of the divine manifestation.
As I said at the beginning, the Samkhya is atheist, so there is
no point in quibbling, as some scholar does, trying to find a
link for a theological recovery of this research’s method.
So, when the Purusa and the Prakrti get in touch each other for
a reason we don’t know, it seems to start the living universe as
an evolution of the Prakrti, in accordance with this philosophy,
into a first amalgam, that is called Mahat, in which are already
active the qualities that will later define the characteristics
of each single material’s agglomerate, human’s one as well.
These qualities (Guna), if referred to the macrocosm or to the
microcosmic intellectual aspect, are: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas.
The first one is the potential conscience, the push to
perfection, everything that can produce happiness and goodness.
It is light, transparent and illuminating. It is also
responsible and determining the training of the five cognitive
senses or jnanendriya: hearing, touch, eyesight, taste and
smell.
The second one is the activity, world’s becoming included; it’s
the one that produces pain and induces to feverish activity. It
determines the development of the organs of action Karmendriya:
speech, hands, feet, reproduction’s and excretion’s organs.
The third one, at last, Tamas, set against the activity, is the
apathy, the indifference that brings to ignorance and inertia.
From the Tamas, at first originate the five tanmatra or thin
elements: sound, touch, shape, taste and smell, then, in a
subsequent condensation, the five rough elements (maha-bhuta):
space, air, fire, water and earth.
The three Guna or Prakrti’s qualities are never separated but
live together in a dynamic correlation between them, mix and
support each other.
In Ayurvedic medicine we find the three qualities represented
into the body, physically shown, and in this case defined as
Vata, Pitta and Kapha (tridosa).
The Ayurvedic doctor can feel their presence by simply
auscultating the wrist. It is not a western interpretation of
the heart-beat but the ability to notice these qualities throb
in three near points, on the right arm and on the left one as
well, looking for possible anomalies or discordances between
them.
The Dosa (peculiarities-disabilities) show themselves into the
body with these divergent characteristics: Vata corresponds to
dry, cold, rough, light, it can also be the light and it is in
the low part of the body; Pitta is warmth, fluid but also
acidity and it’s on the body’s centre; at last, Kapha is the
weight, cold, solidity, fat and we find it in the head and
chest.
At birth, with the genetic heritage, man brings with him his
basic characteristics, but they can certainly be modified during
the life from the contents of mind (manas), so we say that the
Dosa’s constitution is changeable. I state that Ayurvedic
medicine supports the hypothesis of the psychosomatic origin of
illnesses. Because of this reason, it deals with the mental too,
and doctors are always ready to give patients the advice to
bring them to a purification of their mind, to a revival of the
attention’s state and to the consequent awareness, prelude of
conscience.
The way is to admit that there is a subjective view and an
objective one. The first one is prey of the ego. But let’s see
from where the idea of ego originates in Ayurveda: when the
manifestation is touched by the development’s impulse, a cosmic
principle of “separatist” cohesion, called ahamkara,is
activated, and it let, with its centripetal force, the inert
matter coagulate, inducing the universe’s particles to condense
themselves into separated bodies. From this principle originates
the sense of Ego, or principle of subjective identification,
enemy of the objective view, that is often seen in Indian
disciplines as the obstacle to realization.
by Amadio Bianchi