PRACTICE OF AYURVEDA

About the Author:

Born on the 8th September, 1887, in the illustrious family of Saga Appayya Diskhita and several other renowned saints and savants, Sri Swami Sivananda had a natural flair for a life devoted to the study and practice of Vedanta. Added to this was an inborn eagerness to serve all and an innate feeling of unity with all mankind. His passion for service drew him to the medical career; and soon he gravitated to where he thought that his service was most needed. Malaya claimed him. He had earlier been editing a Health Journal and wrote extensively on health problems. He discovered that people needed right knowledge most of all; dissemination of that knowledge he espoused as his own mission. It was divine dispensation and the blessing of God upon mankind that the doctor of body and mind renounced his career and took to a life of renunciation to qualify himself for ministering to the soul of man. He settled down at Rishikesh in 1924, practiced intense austerities and shone as a great Yogi, Saint, Sage and Jivanmukta. In 1932 he started the Sivanandashram. In 1936 was born The Divine Life Society. In 1948 the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy was organized. Dissemination of spiritual knowledge and training of people in Yoga and Vedanta were their aim and object. In 1950 he undertook a lightning tour of India and Ceylon. In 1953 he convened a 'World Parliament Reliogions'. He is the author of over 300 volumes and has disciples all over the world, belonging to all nationalities, religions and creeds. To read his works is to drink at the fountain of Wisdom Supreme. On 14th July, 1963 he entered Mahasamadhi.

About the Book:

Ayurveda is the Veda or knowledge of Ayus or life. It has been classified s the fifth Veda. There are three main branches of Ayurveda and they deal with the causes, symptoms and treatment f diseases. Ayurveda serves as the best guide for the healthy as well as for the sick.

Charka, Sushruta, Vagbhata, Madhava and Sarangdhara were the great Rishis or Fathers of Ayurvedic medicine. They were Yogis and had great power of observation, generalization and analysis. Their students made wonderful researches. India's fertility for medicinal herbs and plants contributed a great deal to the prosecution of their study of medicine.

The principles of Ayurvedic treatment, in the main, are the same as that of allopathic treatment. They consist removing the injurious agent, soothing the injured body and mind, eradicating the cause. The difference lies in the methods of detail adopted by different systems. Besides, in Ayurveda great importance is given to the study of the various stages of variation of the three Doshas or humours of the body-Vatha, Pitta and Kapha.