Ayurveda Bhawan

The word 'ayurveda' is composed of two terms, 'ayush' meaning life and 'veda' meaning knowledgeor science. Ayurveda, the science of life, deals with all aspects of health - the physical, as well as the mental, and environmental. It includes herbal and mineral preparations, behavioral measures, dietetics, surgery, psychological and spiritual procedures.

Today, ayurveda is an officially recognised system of medicine in India. Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognises it as Traditional Medicine (TRM). It is estimated that the total market size of the Indian ayurvedic market size is 80 billion Rupees and it is growing substantially between 10-15 percent, with the same growth rate targeted for the next 10 years.

Ayurveda is now a part of a movement towards a global medicine system that includes the best features of medicine systems of many countries. A new natural medicine is emerging, largely through a re-examination of the older Eastern and TRM of indigenous people throughout the world. Of all the systems, ayurveda is probably the best point of synthesis for such a global medicine system as it contains the broadest number of healing knowledge and modalities. It provides rational help for the treatment of many internal diseases, which are considered to be obstinate and incurable in other systems of medicine. It simultaneously lays a great deal of emphasis on the maintenance of positive health of an individual. Thus it aims at both prevention and cure of diseases.

Ayurveda is based on the premise that the universe is made up of five elements: air, fire, water, earth and ether (space). These elements are represented in humans by thethree "doshas": (“energies” is not correct, I would say) or energies: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. When any of the doshas accumulate in the body beyond the desirable limit, the body loses its balance. Every individual has a distinct balance, and our health and well-being depend on getting a right balance of the three doshas ("tridoshas"). Ayurveda suggests specific lifestyle, nutritional guidelines, and Panchakarma to help individuals reduce the excess dosha.

A healthy person, as defined in SushrutSamhita, one of the primary works on Ayurveda, is "he whose doshasaree in balance, appetite is good, all tissues of the body and all natural urges are functioning properly, and whose mind, body and spirit are blissful."