7 Facts Yogis Should Know About Ayurveda
If you’ve spent any time in a Yoga class, you might have come across Ayurveda. It’s understandable if it still seems mysterious and complicated. Ayurveda (pronounced “ah-yer-vey-duh”) is a beautifully complex system, but if you start at the foundation, it is equally beautiful in its simplicity. Let’s start with seven simple facts.
- Ayurveda and Yoga have ancient roots in the Indian sub-continent and have evolved side by side for 5,000 years.
- Ayurveda is the science of life and living harmoniously in the body, mind, and in our environment. It literally translates as: Ayur = life, Veda = sacred knowledge.
- Ayurveda serves as a guide to healthy living and as a holistic system of medicine. The ultimate goal of both Yoga and Ayurveda is to attain a state of physical, mental, and spiritual harmony that will allow us to realize consciousness.
- At a fundamental level, Ayurveda identifies the five elements: Space, Air, Fire, Water, Earth, as the building blocks of all mater.
- According to Ayurveda the 5 elements are energetically represented in the human body by the three vital energies (Doshas): a. Vata (space & air) b. Pita (fire & water)c. Kapha (earth)
- There can be no physical health without a strong digestive fire, Agni (pronounced: “ugh-nee”). Agni is our power to transform nourishment into something we can use to grow and develop both physically and spiritually.
- To maintain health and help alleviate disease, Ayurveda focuses on diet, lifestyle, and herbal therapies to balance the vital energies.
So, the next time you come across Ayurveda you’ll have these seven simple facts to get you started. In order to create a lifestyle, diet, and utilize healing therapies that compliment your yoga practice, you may want to consider learning more about Yoga’s sister science, Ayurveda.
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Spinning the Seven Sacred Centers: Ayurveda And the Chakra
The popular seven chakra system is well known in the West. Chakra, meaning vortex or wheel, are the sacred centers of spiritual transformation. Everything from clothing, home décor, and oracle cards sport the seven subtle centers with their associated rainbow of colors. Popular western literature corresponds each of the chakras with a fundamental human need. The root chakra, or Muladhara, is associated with the need for survival.
The second chakra, Swadisthana, is associated with the need for emotional flow, desire, and sexuality. The third chakra, Manipuri, is associated with self-worth. The fourth chakra, Anahata, is associated with love. The fifth chakra, Vishudhi, is associated with the need for expression. The sixth chakra, Ajna, is associated with insight and intuition. And the 7th or crown chakra, Sahasrara, is associated with connection to the divine.
However, ancient scriptures on the chakras such as the 16th-century text, Sat Chakra Nirupama, do not associate the seven chakras with fundamental human needs. This association was, to my knowledge, first made by Carl Jung in a series of lectures that have been republished as “The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga”(1932).
Likewise, the association of rainbow colors (red for the 1st chakra, orange for the 2nd and so on up to purple at the crown) was made first in the 1970s in a book titled “Nuclear Evolution: Discovery of the Rainbow Body,” by Christopher Hills. Ancient Sanskrit and Tibetan texts on chakras and the subtle energetic body (also known as the Pranamayakosha) have various numbers of chakras and a variety of color schemes that do not follow the “ROYGBIV” rainbow-schema.
For better or worse, the seven chakra system has become reified in yogic culture; the seven chakras system is the “standard” system with which most students and teachers of yoga are familiar with. Many students and teachers of yoga may also have some familiarity with Ayurveda, the “Science of Life.” Ayurveda is a system of earth-based holistic medicine that was originally developed in ancient India but has evolved for contemporary application. Ayurveda uses three archetypal categories, called doshas, to understand balance in the body.
These categories are Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Vata is like air and ether. It is light, dry, and cold, and responsible for everything in the body that moves, communicates, and transports. Pitta is like fire. It is hot and slightly damp. Pitta is responsible for digestion, metabolism, and transformation in the body. Finally, Kapha is similar to earth and water. It is slow and stable. Wet and cold. Kapha is responsible for our stability, immunity, and strength.
