About Vedic Medicine
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About Vedic Medicine
Vedic medicine is a complete, universal, natural, and timeless science of health grounded in the knowledge of the essence of man. It utilizes many scientific disciplines based on Veda, the laws of nature governing the perpetual emergence, maintenance and dissolution of the different levels of creation. Vedic medicine is focused not only on the health of the individual but also on the health of the environment and the wholesomeness of society.
Vedic Medicine is complete because it prescribes treatments that create harmony and balance using all avenues of a person's life including one's diet, daily and seasonal routine, relationships, sleep, exercise, living and work environment, music and spiritual life. It is universal because it is a science conceived for people of any age, climate, culture, and state of health. Vedic medicine describes nearly every possible influence on a person including the best (and worst) food, water, buildings, music, and plants, permitting people to adjust their lifestyle for maximum longevity by eliminating unwholesome stresses, wear and tear, toxic foods and environments. Vedic health science is natural because it only prescribes remedies taken directly from nature. Vedic medicine is timeless because it is as fresh as the youngest generation and as old as humankind.
Ayurveda, a word derived from the Sanskrit roots ayush (lifespan) and veda (knowledge) is the science of longevity that forms the heart of Vedic medicine. Ayurveda, while being comprehensive in its scope and extensive in its voluminous texts, is nevertheless a science that is easy to grasp and learn. In fact, you can learn the practical essence of Ayurveda before you even leave this web site.
The origins of Vedic medicine
Vedic medicine is a repository of knowledge that has been collected over thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years, and kept alive as an oral tradition. It survived because it is a collection of poetic Sanskrit verses that can be sung and therefore easily memorized. Vedic medicine was cognized by seers and refined by the experience of its practitioners. Contributions to Vedic medicine may have come from all over Asia and Middle East, and perhaps parts of Europe, since Sanskrit was the language for sciences. Vedic medicine was kept alive primarily in India during thousands of years of upheaval throughout the region, surviving even the influences of Greek, Mogul and finally British occupation. Our modern medicine is a branch of Vedic medicine, since it is the direct descendant of Greek, Islamic and subsequently European medical traditions, all of which were based on Ayurveda, the principle Vedic science of health.
Vedic medicine - the multidisciplinary health science
Ayurveda is only one aspect of Vedic medicine, a field that includes at least 40 disciplines or sciences based on Veda and the Vedic literature, all of which support Ayurveda's purpose of creating wholeness of life. These other disciplines include:
- yoga (from which we have meditation, hatha yoga asanas, and pranayama)
- smriti (guidelines for healthy conduct)
- sthapatyaveda (the Vedic science of environmental and architectural design)
- gandharvaveda (Vedic music therapy)
- dhanurveda (defense of the society)
- Vedic veterinary medicine and agriculture
- jyotish (science of predicting imbalances in the environment that influence one's life)
- yajna (a science of specific Vedic performances or sacrifices to create positive influences in creation and to correct imbalances predicted by jyotish
- Vedic sciences of sound, language, grammar, and diction that permit using sound and music for healing.
- Vedic sciences of logic, reasoning, mathematics, and law
- Veda itself together with the sciences devoted to its application and preservation for future generations.
Sources of Ayurvedic Knowledge
The collections of Ayurvedic knowledge are contained in 6 principle treatises, three ancient major texts and three more recent minor texts. The major ones are:
Caraka Samhita - The oldest and most complete work, dealing with internal medicine, gynecology, pediatrics, toxicology, psychiatry, rejuvenation and reproduction. This is the main source I have used in preparing this web site and in my practice.
Susruta Samhita - An encyclopedic work dealing particularly well with surgery.
Vagbhata Samhita - An encyclopedic collection principally dealing with internal medicine that is especially concise and poetic, and which elaborates in a practical way the concepts in Caraka and Susruta.
Vedic medicine: a prerequisite for every health professional
Vedic medicine is an important way of understanding human biology from the perspective of a human being as an expression of Veda, so intimately imbedded in the cosmos that a tiny fluctuation in one affects the other. This makes Vedic medicine a critical science to be studied by every health professional seriously interested in helping her patients. Vedic medicine is not a type of primordial medicine, but rather a vision of health and disease with important practical consequences for treatment and prevention.
Dr. Glaser credits Maharishi Mahesh Yogi with presenting these texts in a context that makes them practical for everyone.
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