vedic ayurved chikitsa

    Vedic ayurved Chikitsa or Therapy...

The term for therapy in Sanskrit is Chikitsa. Ayurvedic textbooks like Charak, Sushruta, and Vagbhatta all contain sections called Chikitsa Sthana, or ‘section relating to chikitsa or treatment’. They have complementary sections like Nidana Sthana, ‘section relating to diagnosis’, and Sharira Sthana, ‘section relating to the embodied soul’, which includes the anatomy and physiology of the physical body. The Ayurvedic view of our embodied nature (body, mind and soul) and how it works, the causes of disease and the treatment of disease are all connected together in a beautiful, clear, and wonderful system of optimal health and total well-being.

Ayurveda addresses all aspects of medicine including diet, herbs, drugs, surgery, bodywork, and its own special clinical procedures like panchakarma. It brings in ritual, mantra, and meditation for healing the mind. In addition, it provides life-style recommendations for health, longevity, and disease prevention as well as special methods for rejuvenation of body and mind. It includes the practices of Yoga from asana and pranayama to mantra and meditation as part of its healing tools.

Yoga texts like the Yoga Sutras have sections like Samadhi Pada, ‘section relating to Samadhi or deep meditation’, Sadhana Pada, ‘section relating to spiritual practice’, Vibhuti Pada, ‘section relating to yogic powers’, and Kaivalya Pada, ‘section relating to liberation’. The yogic exploration of consciousness, the subtle energies of prana and mind, and various types of spiritual practices are all inter-connected. Yogic texts contain discussions of meditation, concentration, mantra, ritual, pranayama, asana, and related factors but as part of spiritual practice, not as a therapy.

We do not find any Chikitsa Padas or therapy sections in the usual Yoga texts. The term Chikitsa does not occur in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and is not a major topic of concern in Yoga philosophy. This is because the concern of classical Yoga is Sadhana, not Chikitsa, which was regarded as the field of Ayurveda. Most importantly, we do not find in Yoga texts a discussion of disease, pathology, diagnosis, or treatment strategies apart from the approach of Ayurveda. There is no Yoga system of medicine in terms of diagnosis, pathology, and treatment, apart from Ayurveda.

What we do find commonly in Yoga texts are discussions of the pranas, senses, mind, nadis, and chakras, worship of deities, discussion of the inner Self and nature of consciousness, as well as the types of samadhi or inner absorption. Disease is addressed briefly in some Yoga texts as it is regarded as one of the main obstacles to Yoga practice. But when this does occur, the language of Ayurveda is usually employed