Ayurved is perceived by people at large as a method of treatment using herbal and herbo animal mixtures, but there is more depth to Ayurved then just that. Ayurved is a word composed of two words namely; Ayu i.e. life and Ved; the derivative of the word Ved means to know. Thus, Ayurved means a method or a way of understanding life. Though this is a literal meaning of the word, the actual meaning runs much deeper than this. Ayurved in fact defines life, health, i.e. good and that is not for living a fully and healthy life. It also encompasses the knowledge of things around, like those belonging to plant kingdom, animal kingdom and of mineral origin.

Ayurved is basically a science of life. A science that with stood the test of time, a science that has been preached and practiced, originating from India across the globe for many, many years. In fact Ayurved origin dates back to around 5,000 years. It has been able to withstand the test of time, for the simple reason that it is a complete science, best on principles, which need not change as time passes. The principles are universal and are not bound by the passage of time.

One of the most important aspects of Ayurved is the enunciation of the basic principles such as the principles of Panchamahabhoota the theory of Thridosh and allied subject are dealt with right in the beginning of ancient texts

Historical & Philosophical perspective

From time immemorial, the human race has found it imperative to remain healthy and to have a long life. To this end, they developed various methods and practiced them. Over the years, as we look at the evolutionary process, these methods formed a part of their life to remain healthy. As the man practiced these, he developed ways and means to cure the diseases as and when he fell ill. Over the years, these formed ‘the sciences’ taking care of the health of a person. We can identify many such sciences that are known today as ‘medical sciences’.

The origin of a total health science, Ayurved, can however be traced to an era which is over about 5,000 years old. Ayurved is a word made up of two words derived from Sanskrit language. Ayu means life and Ved is a derived form of a verb with the meaning ‘to know’. Thus Ayurved means a method or a way or a science to know, the life in its entirety.

While discussing the issue of health, it is usually only the body health that is talked and cared about. It is often overlooked that structure and functioning of the body, though forms an important and integral part of the health of a person, cannot be construed to be the human health in its totality.

Ayurved, being not only a health science but a complete philosophy of life, takes care of the well-being of not only the material component the body but also the non-material components of our lives – our consciousness, mind, thoughts and emotions.

Thus Ayur, that is, life can be interpreted as an intelligent co-ordination of the atma (the soul), manas (the mind), indriya (the senses) and shareera (the body). Ayurved envisages and helps achieve a balanced and integrated relationship of these most important constituents that make up life. Imbalance of any kind in any of these can lead to an unhealthy condition. The complexity of the human mind, the senses and their interaction with the body can be understood well by first understanding ATMA, the motivator with intelligence that guides the mind and body, in fact the entire life.

Atma the least tangible part of life can be identified by its existence by the way one always ascribes ownership of things when we say my body cannot cope up or my mind is boggled or that my vision is blurred. It clearly implies that within oneself there is a distinct self of ‘me’ being different from the mind, the senses and the body and at the same time the sense of ownership of them. These expressions used universally, reflect atma as the one who experiences and clearly indicate that mind, senses and body are the means through which atma enriches itself with the experiences of the world around.

Having accepted that it is this atma or the sense of “me-ness” that directs all aspects of human life, it is also important to identify the source of this non material component which acts as a guiding force within each human being. If the vastly diverse universe is observed closely, we realise that there is a immaculate orcestrisation in the nature around us. It can be realised that the various aspects of creations are together in a wonderful synchrony. It seems that every aspect of life knows (from this) how to act and react with any other part in the universe to have a totalistic wonderful outcome. The scientists of that age realised that there has to be some driving force which is intelligent enough to have a comprehensive knowledge of the universe as a whole so that no part in the universe is out of tune with the other. The immense observations led to the realisation that the nature of the human life can be extensively compared and that the same governing principle existed whether in a human being or in the universe. Thus the conclusion was that there has to be a force similar to the one that is present in the body in the form of atma that / synchronizes the movements and the events in the universe. This force in the universe with a high degree of intelligence controlling the universe is referred to as “universal soul” or “PARAMATMA” and the one in the human body controlling the mental, sensory, physical process is known as JEEVATMA.

The individual consciousness and the quality of intelligence associated with an individual that is jeevatma has the same relationship with the paramatma as the waves have with the ocean. As the waves are considered as an expression of the ocean, jeevatma has to be considered a expression of the paramatma. Every jeevatma will exhibit individualistic expressions of human intelligence which may appear to be totally different from any other jeevatma as well as from the parmatma, just as each and every wave appears to be different from the other and the ocean. But every jeevatma has a infinite capacity of organising power which in a supreme situation imitates paramatma.

Manas, the Mind :
Jeevatma being an expression of paramatma, the one that has an infinite intelligence and organising power, it is natural to accept that the soul in a human being, the atma will always be driving the person to follow tediously the path of perfect health and harmony. But is it really so? If we observe ourselves and the surroundings we find that many a time consciously and with full knowledge of the pros and cons of the action we indulge in something that is not always good for health and happiness. This brings us to the other non-material component of the body – manas or the mind. Ayurved preaches that the human being has to experience the full potential of the life. This can come about only by living in complete conscious atunement with the nature. But it is found many a times that this does not hold good. It is because of the quality of mind that this happens.

Manas, the mind is influenced as is the universe by 3 phases of activity namely the creation mode or the satva, the activating phase the rajas and the destruction mode the tama.

These three phases of creation govern existence and regulate our minds. Satva, in its manifestation in mind cusses the desire to know as also the acceptance to create, to them and to imagine. This gets expressed in the form of curiosity, pasination and inspiration. Rajas generates action, initiative and motivation which gets expressed in the form of ability to organise and implement. Having initiated in activity it is necessary to end it with fructification. It is tamas that provides the ability to end a particular action. It is only that the well balanced co-ordination of these 3 phases of activities that a particular idea can be translated into reality through action. It is natural to have these 3 forces in existence at any particular time. These are, however, not present in equal proportions. Though there is natural parity among the three, they are disproportionate to each other. This natural parity helps keep the human life in a balanced state and moving in a positive direction.