When discussing the issue of health, it is common for people in all cultures to talk just about their body, its ailments and the medicines they might take to treat these ailments. However, health is not merely a matter of the state of the body, since it is obvious we are much more than just this material form. A system of health that only takes into account the structure and functioning of the physical body cannot effectively address human health in its totality.
Ayurveda is not just a medicinal approach to health. Rather, it is a complete philosophy of life. It gives equal importance to the parts of life which are more subjective and intangible, as well as those which are objective and material, those aspects we can observe with our physical senses. In fact, it is a view of life which understands that the non-material components of our lives — our consciousness, mind, .thoughts and emotions — animate and direct our more physical parts.
Based on this perspective, Ayurveda defines ayu, or life, as the intelligent coordination of the four parts of life: atma (the soul), manas (the mind), indriyas (the senses) and sbarira (the body), with the totality of life. Each of these four aspects has specific functions which contribute to the wholeness we experience as life, and Ayurveda focuses on maintaining a balanced, integrated relationship among them. Imbalance, whether physical, mental or emotional, arises when there is a disconnection between the subjective/non-physical and the objective/physical areas of life.
To elaborate on the subjective aspects of human life which cannot be apprehended by the senses, Ayurveda relies on the tools of observation and comparison, deducing, from the way the universe works, the principles of how the human body functions. Now let’s examine each of these four components of life.
ATMA: THE SOUL
The texts of Ayurveda state that in order to fully understand how the body functions, we must first understand the senses and their role in protecting and nourishing the body. Knowledge of the senses, in turn, is gained by understanding the nature of the mind and how it acts to control sensory perception. However, we cannot begin to comprehend the complexity of the human mind unless we understand atma, the motivating intelligence that guides the mind as well as all of life. But how did the first Ayurvedic scientists come to understand the nature of this unseen “director” within human life?
Though atma is the least tangible part of life, the ancients could identify its existence by the way people always ascribe ownership to things. When people talk, regardless of their cultural background, they refer to aspects of their lives in the possessive case: “My mind is a jumble today”; “My vision is clear”; or “My body feels tired.” This implies an inherent duality. There is some aspect within ourselves that possesses a distinct sense of I-ness and sees itself as different from its objects of perception — the mind, the senses and the body — and in ownership of them. These universally common statements reflect atma — the sense of “I” as the experiencer — rather than the object of experience, and show that the mind, senses and body are the vehicles through which atma gains experience of the world.
The ancients could see that this atma or sense of I directed all aspects of human life, but what was the source of this unseen guiding force within each human being? Simple powers of observation were enough to lead them to conclude there was an unimaginable intelligence responsible for creating and orchestrating the vast diversity of the universe. All the various aspects of creation appeared to move together in an intricate interdependence a wondrous synchrony. It was as if every aspect of life inherently knew how to act in coordination with every other part for the greater good of the whole. This, they deduced, could only occur if every part was, in fact, infused with or connected to that intelligence which had knowledge of the whole.
Through extensive observation of nature and comparison to human life they deduced that this same governing principle existed as a part of us, guiding all mental, sensory and physical processes. As in nature, this intangible director within also had two aspects. The first they identified as jiva atma — the quality of innate intelligence usually associated with the concept of “soul” or individual consciousness within us. It imparts the sense of I-ness or individual identity. It can be thought of as our finely tuned guidance system which steers us through life according to our particular destiny.
These early Ayurvedic scientists realized that jiva atma or individual soul could have no real existence except in relation to that which gave rise to it. They called this universal quality of intelligence within us param atma or “universal soul” and understood it to be the very consciousness of nature. Param atma is the very essence of our individual soul, as well as that of everything in creation, and is responsible for animating and unifying all diversity.
The sages compared the relationship that existed between individual soul and universal soul to be like that of the ocean and its waves. Jiva atma is an expression of param atma in the same way that the wave is an expression of the ocean. Moreover, just as the ocean does not cease to be the ocean when it rises up into a wave, consciousness does not lose its universal status when it individuates into unique expressions of human intelligence. Every jiva atma or individual soul, no matter how different it appears to be from every other jiva atma, is, in its essential nature, one and the same as the infinite organizing power of param atma.
As a unique expression of universal intelligence, each jiva atma displays a distinct set of preferences and predispositions. These inherent tendencies serve to guide the soul to achieve its life’s purpose. Based on the evolutionary nature of life, the ancients recognized that the ultimate purpose of each soul is to consciously reconnect with that which is its source.
Dharma is the term Ayurveda uses to describe the idea of the soul’s special purpose and path. Each soul’s inherent preferences lead it to make choices which are consistent with its dharma. The soul’s powerful will to reconnect the parts of life with the whole of life is what moves human life in an evolutionary, progressive direction. A life that is lived in accord with dharma is a life that is in harmony with ayu, the totality of life.
The most obvious sign that life is being lived in accord with dharma is the joy that comes from doing those things that are most closely aligned with our soul’s purpose. Because increasing joy informs us of our proximity to our dharma or life’s purpose, the soul is ever discriminating among experiences — choosing those experiences that give more happiness, knowledge and satisfaction, and avoiding those that give pain and a feeling of lack.
The ancients found other evidence for the presence of this non-dimensional director of life in identical twins. Two bodies are formed in the same womb, at the same time, with the same genetic material and the same environmental influences, and are born only a few minutes apart. Yet these two individuals will show dramatically different preferences and predispositions in their lives. With all the physical influences being identical, only the presence of souls with distinct predilections could account for these differences.
They also saw evidence of jiva atma in the food choices made by an expectant mother. A woman has her own lifelong preferences for certain foods. Yet, when she becomes pregnant, she often begins to desire entirely new things. She may also begin to dislike the foods which she has always enjoyed. What accounts for these changes? It is the new soul in her womb with its own set of desires and preferences which begins to influence the mother’s food choices. After the birth of the child, the mother is seen to revert to her normal preferences.
The changes in preferences immediately preceding death further demonstrated to these early physicians the existence of the jiva atma. Within twenty-four to forty-eight hours of death, an individual will lose all his or her usual predilections, likes and dislikes. According to the Ayurvedic understanding of the dying process, the soul at this time begins to withdraw from the body, thus explaining the loss of preferences usually associated with that particular soul.