Ayurveda is a philosophy of maintaining a balance of many factors in order to realize the highest level of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.  In the Sanskrit language, “Ayur” means life and “Veda”, knowledge.  Its philosophies derive from a branch of ancient Indian Hindu texts, called the Vedas, which are thought to have been developed between 1700 and 1100 BC.  There are four main vedas, one of which is Atharva Veda, which is said to relate to the procedures of everyday life.  Much later, there were further texts developed, called the upavedas, which are said to correspond to the four main vedas but from a more applied, pragmatic, perspective.  Ayurveda is one of the upavedas and is believed to correspond with the main veda, Atharva Veda.  The first known texts of Ayurveda have been traced to approximately the 6th century BC.

These ayurvedic teachings have been passed down orally and through further written texts over the centuries, greatly influencing Chinese medicine as well, and are still in use today.  Ayurvedic philosophy describes a system of balance between various elements that can be applied to the body, mind, emotions, and spirit as one whole.  Balance is emphasized and the idea is neither to suppress nor to over-indulge in one’s natural tendencies.

Central to ayurvedic teachings are the concepts of elements and doshas.  The five elements consist of ether (akasha), air (vayu), fire (agni), water (jala), and earth (prithvi).  The essence of each element need not be literally related to the English translation—the translations are simply a guide as an example of something that demonstrates the properties of the given element.  There is also a progression from one element to the next from most ethereal to most physical.  Ether, for example, translates in Sanskrit to all-enclosing, omnipresent or all-pervading and its qualities are said to be clear, light, subtle, soft and immeasurable.  Likewise, air, while it can be thought of as wind, can also be seen simply as movement, or the point at which ether starts to move with intention.  Its qualities are: mobile, dry, light, cold, rough and subtle.  Fire progresses from the movement and intention of air to transformation and bringing into form.  The element of fire denotes something that is hot, sharp, light, dry and subtle.  The water element, like air, has a quality of movement, but more in the sense of transportation, connection, and flow.  Water represents the point at which an idea or creation now needs nourishment and flow in order to establish its form.  Qualities one can think of are cool, liquid, dull, soft, oily and slimy.  Earth is anything related to structure, solidity, stability, or support.  It is the final step in manifestation from consciousness to form.  Its qualities include a sense of something heavy, dull, constant, dense, hard and gross.

Many of the teachings of Ayurveda involve finding a balance of these elements within an individual.  Part of the Ayurvedic philosophy involves grouping tendencies into three major energy complexes, which are commonly called doshas: vata, pitta, and kapha.  Each dosha represents a predominance of two of the elements explored above.  Vata reflects ether and air.  People or other entities possessing vata predominance will often seem fast-moving, ever-changing, thin, and mobile.  Pitta encompasses the elements of fire and water. Those with a pitta predominance may have a hot temper, passionate personality, and oily skin, for example.  The third dosha, kapha, shows us the elements of water and earth.  Kapha types will often have a solid body frame, musculature, and flesh with a calm temperament.

Each of us is comprised of a combination of the doshas, and thus elements.  Our make-up is constantly changing based on environment, diet, activities, thoughts, feelings, circumstances, etc.  There seem to be at least two bodies of thought as to finding one’s optimal balance.  One body of thought supports the idea that we should all have an equal balance of all the doshas to reach our highest potential.  Another body of thought seems to indicate the we are all born with a unique balance which will contain more or less of each dosha and our aim should be to get back to or maintain this unique balance for our best individual experience of life.

Regardless of which philosophy of dosha balance one ascribes to, the concept of finding balance between the doshas is called prakruti.  The state of being more out of balance between one’s doshas is called vikruti.  One can be out of balance by either having too much or not enough of one or more doshas.  Typically, a person experiencing imbalance in the doshas will experience the most imbalance in their predominant dosha tendency.  For example, a kapha person out of balance may experience an over-predominance of kapha, perhaps resulting in laziness or procrastination.

Also related to the five basic elements is the concept of the sensory gunas, or qualities, supposed to be inherent in all material substances. To my understanding, the sensory gunas are a way of describing on a spectrum the state of various materials within a substance, in terms of the elements.  There are ten spectrums: heavy/light, cold/hot, unctuous/dry, dull/sharp, stable/mobile, soft/hard, non-slimy/slimy, smooth/coarse, minute/gross, and viscous/liquid.  Ayurveda also names seven basic tissues (dhatu), which are plasma (rasa), blood (rakta), muscles (māmsa), fat (meda), bone (asthi), marrow (majja), and semen (shukra).  All bodily substances correspond to one or more of the five elements, as can be surmised from the sensory guna spectrums that can be used to describe a given bodily substance.  For example, at a basic level, blood (a tissue) could be measured on a scale from cold to hot (guna) which could represent a measurement of the presence of fire (element).  In another sense, there are three gunas that describe mental and physical attributes: Sattva—clarity and purity, Rajas—activity and distraction, and Tamas—darkness and inertia.

All of these concepts—elements, gunas, body tissues, doshas—would be considered by a practitioner of Ayurvedic philosophy in formulating recommendations for an individual seeking dosha balance.  Ultimately, the goal of Ayurvedic balancing is to help one along the path to enlightenment via health, in a holistic sense that includes physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.  With a balanced, healthy body, mind, and spirit, one can more easily pursue a path, such as yoga, which will continue towards enlightenment.  Through Ayurvedic balancing, it is hoped to move from excesses of Rajas—activity and distraction—and Tamas—darkness and inertia—towards a more enduring experience of Sattva—clarity and purity.