PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF INCURABLE DISEASES AS PER AYURVEDA & DHARMA SHASTRAS AS RECOMMENDED BY OUR VEDAS
Our great Vedic Rishis had prescribed lot of rules, regulation and restrictions which were clubbed under the title “Aacharam”. These aacharams prevented us from getting communicable disease like the current Corona Virus we are dealing with. I give you some examples below which even upto our last generation a couple of years back was being practiced. Some even have preserved it completely without moving away from the Aacharams.
1. After bath always wear fresh clothes untouched by others. Which means you wash the clothes while you are wet and then hang it separately in a place where nobody can touch it till the next day when you have bath and you remove it for your use. This is called Madi Vastra.
2. Once you wear this fresh cloth you can perform your Nityakarma like Sandhyavandana, Devata Pooja etc. But during this time nobody should touch you even family members.
3. You cannot sit on sofa/bed etc. You can sit on floor as bhoomi is considered pure. If you touch a curtain cloth, or a door mat by your leg your purity is lost.
4. Same cloth cannot be worn once removed from the body. You cannot share clothes which you wear in exchange of their clothes.
5. If you sleep in the afternoon this purity is lost.
6. While eating in your plates (rather banana leaf in ancient time) should not touch others plate. Vessels in which food has been prepared should not be in touch with the food plate / leaf in which we are eating.
7. The vessels used for storing items like pickles, curd, ghee which we store for repeated use should not come in touch with what we have cooked for the day. For example vessel containing cooked rice should not be in touch with Ghee/curd etc. Each time you touch these 2 different categories of food items you have to wash your hands
8. Food once cooked should be eaten within 3 hours else it is unfit for consumption. Morning cooked food, afternoon cooked food etc cannot be stored and eaten in night. There is a Yatayama dosha for food if kept for more than 3 hours
9. You cannot eat half bitten food by other. Commonest example we see today is friends lick the same ice-cream one by one, or bite into the same piece of cake one by one. All this is a big sin in Shastras.
10. Bronze vessels are ideal for cooking food.
And so on ….. This high level of restrictions, self control, striving to maintain purity as per Dharma Shastras kept infectious diseases away. Various Vratas which entailed strict fasting kept cholesterol, diabetes related diseases away. Various daily rituals some lengthy ones kept mind focussed at single point on worshipping God and prevented unnecessary thinking and stress related diseases away. But with changing times people felt all these are redundant and thus started emergence of novel diseases.
Now let us speak about a diseases which seems to have no cure and people are struggling to find a remedy. Our ancient Rishis and Ayurvedacharyas have suggested remedies for such unknown diseases also. Ayurveda categorizes treatment in 3 categories.
1. Yuktivyapashraya Chikitsa: Ayurveda considers that for any disease, treatment is prescribed with a strong reasoning (Yukti). Ayurveda treats the doshas (disorder of system/imbalance) of the person rather than the disease itself. Ayurveda mentions that the doshas are the reason for any disease so we should treat the person wholly. The 3 doshas are Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Vata is air born, Pitta is fire born, and Kapha is water born. Panchakarma comes under Yuktivyapashraya Chikitsa which aim to correct this imbalance of Vata, Pitta and Kapha in the body.
2. Sattvavajaya Chikitsa: This type of treatment assesses the overall psychological profile of the individual to treat the patient and identifies diseases which can born of non-control of mind like lust, anger, greed, desire, fear, pride, hate, jealously etc. The idea is to increase his Satva Guna and reduce the Tamasic and Rajasic Gunas. The treatment of these type of diseases begin with altering life style habits. Following a strict routine time table, control on food in terms of what can be eaten what should be avoided etc, practicing yoga, do’s and don’t in various aspects. Control of body and mind is the key apart from taken medicines.
3. Daivavyapashraya Chikitisa: If nothing of this works then Ayurveda recommends Daivavyapashraya Chikitsa which means seek intervention of God for healing incurable disease. This is achieved by 5 ways. It could be 1, 2 or combination of all 5. Ayurveda says many diseases are Papajanya (emerging from sin), which means that the papa or sin you commit affects you in future. In this type of incurable disease where everything has failed only Daivavyapashraya Chikitsa can help. These 5 are Shanti (homam/yagna), medicines, Danam (donation), Japam (repeated chanting of mantras) and Devata pooja (worshipping God). In fact many of our scriptures like Garuda Purana include chapter called Karmavipaka which tells you exactly which sin if you commit in this birth will result of which disease in the even in next birth. It also prescribes remedies which can heal the person. For example a person who is “Ungrateful” suffers from diseases of lungs has frequent cough, cold and fever and will also suffer from acidity. Our scriptures recommend us to then perform Prayaschitta (expiation) first to reduce the burden of the sin and then perform other rituals to please Gods. In this case of the person who is suffering from fever, cough, cold which doesn’t go with medications and restrictions, Vishnu and Agni Devata should be worshipped and homam/pooja/japa/danam etc.
Our ancestors have been practicing these 3 systems of treatment and that’s how our lineage continued and we are existing today. For something for which we have no remedy we need to exercise control, listen to what is advised and pray to Devatas to protect us.
Veda Ghosham is engaged in spreading our ancient wisdom through teaching Vedas, Nityakarma exactly as per Shastra and Dharma Shastra rules and living by it.
