Modern medical knowledge has given us a very detailed understanding of the substances and structures that compose the human body. With the aid of modern technology, it has been able to probe deeply into the workings of organs, cells and even the minute organization of the DNA. However, even with this vast knowledge, it has not provided us with an understanding of the intelligences that initiate and coordinate all the various processes that go on within the human physiology.
What, for instance, is responsible for keeping certain things inside the body while separating and eliminating other things? What determines why blood stays in and urine or feces come out? It is not enough just to say that because one is a bodily tissue, it stays in and because the other is a waste material, it is expelled.
The strength of the Ayurvedic paradigm is that it not only gives us in-depth understanding of the physical substances that compose the body but the organizing intelligences that create and govern their functions. It explains the body’s composition in terms of three basic systems: dosha, dhatu and mala.
The concept of dhatu covers function, structure and substance, whereas the concept of mala is defined primarily as substance. Though both of these are included in the modern medical paradigm, Ayurveda gives them a slightly more expanded definition.
The concept of dosha, however, is not easily objectifiable since it cannot be understood in terms of its material substance or structure. Rather, it is more useful to understand dosha primarily in terms of its operational dynamics. Ayurveda derives the existence of dosha from extensive observation, always comparing what is happening in nature to what is going on in the body. Now, let’s explore these three different components in detail in the following articles to see how they work together to create sharira, the human body.