Four pillars of treatment

The verse says that what the sages call kriyā is treatment, that it rests on four components with their qualities (physician, patient, medicine and the band of good attendants) and that among them the physician of complete understanding is the chief.

The patient too should be wealthy, long-lived and intelligent, have an agreeable wife, sons, friends, relatives and servants, be strong and self-controlled, and wish for his own well-being.

A medicine is commended when it grows in a good region, is gathered (uprooted) at the proper time, is small in amount, pleasant, of excellent appearance, taste and smell, and destroys the disease merely by being taken.

The attendant is said to need to be very strong, forgiving, steady, devoted to helping others, tolerant, affectionate and skilful; the attendants who stay with the patient should have these qualities.

The commentary calls the four the limbs or pillars (pāda) of treatment: the physician, the patient, the medicine and the attendants who serve the patient, each needing its own good qualities.

Physician, patient (ātura), medicine and attendant, each with the qualities described, are called the four unequalled limbs (pāda) of treatment; they are its parts, and only through them is the mass of diseases quickly destroyed, as a king destroys enemies with the strength of his fourfold army.

The editor reports that in chapter 7 the author tells the patient to trust the physician as he trusts his mother, father, son, friend and wife, to hide nothing from the physician and to practise no deceit or trickery; only then can the disease be cured.