By Maria Wirth
I wrote this article in 1990 in German. It was well received and inspired a German Hospital owner to add an Ayurveda Department in one of his clinics.
After seeing, how Ayurveda and Baba Ramdev were recently demeaned on social media, I translated it into English. What Baba Ramdev has achieved in encouraging healthy living is admirable. He should be praised, not hounded.
The following was published over 30 years ago:
The elderly gentleman from London, originally Indian, reacted strangely, yet typically for a growing trend: after his doctor diagnosed his problem as arthritis, he packed his suitcase and bought flight tickets for himself and his family to India. “I knew that Western medicine can’t help me, and that Ayurveda will be my saviour,” he explained his quick and firm decision. He is sure that after a 5-week treatment he will go home healed.
Many of the other patients in the Ayurvedic clinic in Coimbatore were not that quick and focused. The woman from Delhi for example has suffered for decades from arthritis and manages only with the help of pain killers. “Why didn’t you come earlier?” I asked her. “Because Ayurveda just didn’t come to my mind,” she replied. Only when a young relative had an astonishing result with Ayurveda, she came here.
Almost every patient knows someone whom Ayurveda has helped, including my next-door neighbour, a wealthy NRI from London. His niece had suffered since childhood from unbearable migraine. He had tried everything for her, had consulted top physicians in several countries – in vain. Finally, he gave Ayurveda a chance. He came in the previous year with his niece, and what hardly was expected, happened: the migraine stopped for good. So, this year, he came back with his wife, who has diabetes, and daughter, who also suffers from migraine.
After a long time, when Ayurveda was ignored, the ancient ‘science of life’ gains again trust and respect. According to Indian media reports, the number of patients increased by 60 percent in the last 2 years (1988/89).
The surprising thing is that India’s elite goes back to Ayurveda, even though the British colonialists did their best to wean Indians away from the ‘primitive native system’ and make them adopt the ‘modern scientific system’. Maybe the British really believed this, but if they did, definitely without knowing the classical texts of Caraka, Vagbata or Susruta, the authorities of Ayurveda.
The British deprived Ayurvedic institutions of support and gave it to Allopathy. Rightly so, it seemed, as the results of modern medicine were quick and amazing. No surprise that the western oriented elite patronised Allopathy thereafter. The Vaidya continued to look after the poor in the villages.
“What has value will be recognised on its own. It doesn’t lose value if it is considered of no value,” an Ayurveda student opined.
And he seems to be right. Ayurveda is being rehabilitated. This process is supported from an unexpected side – from the modern scientific medical research. Indian researchers found in the ancient Ayurveda texts interesting clues for medicines. Medicine like Guglip against high Cholesterol or Reserpin against high blood pressure are the result of such research.
The trust in the efficiency of the traditional system increased and with it also the readiness to study the ancient texts without prejudice. At the same time, the trust in Allopathy decreased. So, it doesn’t surprise, that some Indian doctors not only occasionally advised Ayurvedic medicine, but completely changed over into the Ayurveda camp. Dr Metha, founder of the renowned College for Ayurveda in Jamnagar, Gujarat, for example was an allopathic doctor with a number of British medical degrees. He surely didn’t take this step lightly.
What is in favor of Ayurveda?
First of all, surely the inclusive, non-materialistic view of the human being. Man and universe are one, claimed Caraka over 2000 years ago. While reading the 1st chapter of ‘Caraka Samhita’, I almost got the impression that I was reading a book on philosophy.
It says: Man is in his essence pure consciousness – infinite, unchanging, eternal. From this pure consciousness appears the body and the mind with its thoughts and emotions. Even though the consciousness (Atman) is still pure and infinite, it experiences itself as localised in body and mind and therefore limited and mortal.
For Atman there is neither health nor illness. It is blissful awareness. Yet mind and body are either healthy or sick. Mind is more important than the body. It permeates the whole body in a subtle form and is the source of our immunity.
But why does illness happen when everyone wants to be only healthy? Because something effects mind and body which is not good for them and derails the harmony of factors which are needed for the optimal functioning.
Consequently, Ayurveda deals with what is good and what is not good for body and mind. The question is how the balance can be kept.
This preventive aspect is of utmost importance. It’s more important to know how not to fall sick, than to know how to heal after being sick.
But since sickness cannot always be prevented, Ayurveda also has means to get back the balance. Interestingly, already 2000 years ago Caraka demanded that the therapy must not have any harmful side effects.
The framework is vast and valid today. But maybe there is a doubt: did the ancient Rishis have good-enough insight into the complex functioning of the human organisms in the light of modern science? After all, they didn’t have the technology to deeply look into the body.
It would be a worthwhile task for researchers to find out if the Ayurvedic theories are maybe not even more appropriate than the modern scientific theories… Ayurveda is holistic and yet extremely complex and differentiated. An article can never do justice to it.
I read in one text that the students of Ayurveda need “to meditate deeply on the fundamental principles”. This advice presumes that a fine intuition may lead to deeper insights than a microscope. The ancient Rishis surely had a fine intuition and those who know Ayurveda don’t doubt its theories which not only explain the constitution and functioning of the body, but also different psychosomatic types and their interaction with substances from the environment.
it would be for modern medicine generally a gain, if scientists would research on Ayurveda. Some do it already and make waves in the medical community, for example Dr Deepak Chopra, a specialist for endocrinology in Boston. He points out that the claim by Ayurveda about the close connection between mind and body has been confirmed by modern neurological research about neurotransmitter.
A happy thought makes a happy molecule
Ayurveda presumes that intelligent impulses, like thoughts, express themselves as chemical molecules in the whole body. “When you have a thought, you make a molecule,” Dr Chopra puts it simply. “And if you have a happy thought, you make a happy molecule.”
Is it possible that, in the future, Ayurveda and Allopathy complement each other? There is hope, because not only in India but all over the world more and more doctors take interest in Ayurveda. This interest is mainly due to the initiative of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to introduce Ayurveda in the West. He had asked Dr Chopra for cooperation. Since then, Dr Chopra travels the world, gives talks and writes books. He is also the medical director of an Ayurveda centre and the president of the “US Association for Ayurveda Medicine”.
In India the growing interest in Ayurveda is welcome. Yet how it is marketed in the West is criticised. “One should not make big profit with Ayurveda,” I heard several times. And it is true: the price for Ayurvedic treatment in Maharshi’s clinics is forbidding. As much as 2000 to 4000 dollars for one week in USA. In comparison, a 5-week treatment in Coimbatore costs not even 400 dollars.
Let’s stay with the clinic in Coimbatore for a while and look at the treatment.
At the start there is a detailed diagnosis – the crux of Ayurveda. The Vaidya should “enter the heart of the patient and fully grasp his specific condition,” says Caraka.
Through daily oil massage the body is made smooth and with enemas or laxatives the intestines are cleaned. Then the intense individual treatment is given for 2 weeks. Absolute rest is demanded. No writing, no reading, not going outdoors. Then follow 2 weeks recuperation with daily oil massage.
This treatment has greatest success in illnesses which are connected with the nervous system, like arthritis, joint and back pain, migraine, etc. At the same time, it strengthens the body and rejuvenates it.
As mentioned, Ayurveda puts great stress on preventive methods, which preserve health, vitality and joy of life. The best ‘preventive method’ according to Ayurveda is to live a dharmic, noble life.
How does a good, noble life affect the health?
According to Ayurveda, 3 factors determine the mind: sattva, rajas and tamas. Too much of rajas or tamas produces negative emotions which in turn negatively influence the body. Yet for sattva, there is no ‘too much’.
Ayurveda claims that in a dharmic life, in which wealth is procured with fair means and desires are in tune with the goal of knowing one’s Atma, sattva increases.
This type of Ayurvedic preventive health care is even for us in the West now available – till the treatment in the Ayurveda clinics become more affordable.
(Maira Wirth is the author of “Thank You India” which was released at the Dehradun Litfest.)
