Why I Love Ayurveda
Monday, February 4th, 2008by Hrimati Sarasvati
I’m not sure when it first happened, but sometime during my childhood of grape-flavored penicillin, I became frustrated because I couldn’t see inside my own body and understand its inner workings. The explanations offered by my doctor parents never satisfied. I couldn’t really do anything with this language of bacteria and viruses. I felt adrift in a world of hostile invaders, only slightly comforted by the fact that there were some people around me who claimed to know how to navigate these waters. I wanted to take matters into my own hands, but I had no idea where to begin.
My own inner landscape was as foreign to me as any far-off kingdom, and no matter where I looked, I couldn’t seem to find a map that linked this kingdom to the world I already could see. During my first “health crisis” as an independent adult, I discovered such a map. This map came in the form of the ancient Indian science of Ayurveda, or the “study of life.”
I love Ayurveda because the description it provides of the universe is useful. The advice given in the classic texts of Ayurveda is extremely practical. And yet the mystery of life is alive and well at the heart of Ayurveda. Practitioners of Ayurveda are worshippers of that mystery.
Ayurveda more effectively and thoroughly describes the world around us than any other system I have encountered. Things are explained. . . to a point, beyond which there is still plenty of room for awe and wonder.
Ayurveda provides a description of how things relate to each other. It allows us to understand how things came to be the way they are and to make predictions for how things will work in the future. Ayurveda is a narrative about the communicative nature of the universe. It is a language of patterns and rhythms, helping us to see areas of our life where the healthy patterns have broken down, where we have lost the ability to hear what the world is communicating to us.
Ultimately, the advisements offered by the ancient sages of Ayurveda are opportunities to get quiet enough to be able to hear the whisper (and, occasionally, the bellow) of the wisdom of nature. This is the place where the mundane meets the profound, and natural ease arises from appropriate actions.
I love Ayurveda, because in every moment, the profundity and applicability of its interpretations surprises and delights me. I will never know the fullness of Ayurveda, but I will spend the rest of my life discovering it.
About the author:
Hrimati Sarasvati is a practitioner and teacher in the tradition of classical Indian Ayurveda and Tantrik Hatha Yoga. Hrimati teaches the Ayurveda Self-Care course for Jaya Kula in Portland, Oregon. When not visiting Portland, she is in residence, teaching and practicing Ayurveda and Tantrik Hatha Yoga, at Yoga Mandala in Berkeley California.
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