102
Ayurveda
: Ancient Heritage in the Age of Globalisation
So this has been purposefully put in a circle to
say that in Ayurveda we consider body as a nutritive
process. Very clearly put by Dr. Deepak Chopra, body
is it is not a fixed anatomical structure. There is of
course a heart, liver, lungs, pancreas, small and large
intestines. Everything is there. But beyond that, there is
a very subtle nutritive process going on and on. As an
Ayurvedic physician, we are taught to look at the body as
a nutritive process rather than an anatomical structure.
So this signifies how this goes on and on starting from
rasa, which is the immediately observed essence which
undergoes transformation and becomes rakta or blood.
Then it becomes mamsa or the muscle then medas or the
fat, then to bones and then the reproductive principle and
ultimately the ojas.
In normal human beings it ends with ojas. But
ideally, for great yogis or spiritual masters this is a cycle
and they survivewithout food once the process is initiated
and their body automatically renews by itself. This is a
main theme of Ayurveda. From a Dhatu perspective we
can say that disease occurs when this transformation
process is not proper, like that this traffic jam. When
one Dhatu is not getting transformed to the other, not
reaching its destination because of some problem, there
is stagnation and that causes disease. Hence this dynamic
movement which is more important and not the fixed
