The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies

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

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 body’s 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 aromatherapy 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-healing 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 a 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 Space, 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 of structure and lubrication. When the male
sperm and the female egg join at the time of fertilization, the vata–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.