Health (svasthya)

It says health is of three kinds, bodily, mental and sensory, and that health is not merely the absence of disease: it is the balance of all the dhātus in the body, balanced agni, balanced working of the dhātus and malas, and mind and senses that are balanced and flourishing. A footnote quotes a verse attributed to Vāgbhaṭa defining the healthy person in these terms, and the text adds that health lasts while vāta and the others remain in their natural state.

A person whose body is free from diseases is called healthy; the commentary says this is stated on the authority of the Ayurvedic texts and not otherwise.

Medical science is said to be practised for the sake of health, and health is the means of dharma, artha, kama and moksha, which the sick cannot accomplish; a quoted verse says that a mortal without health, however steadfast, cannot pursue dharma, wealth, pleasures or liberation, so the attainment of the four aims rests on the science of health.

The signs of health are given as balanced dhatus and the like, appetite, energy and strength; its means is what is wholesome and measured, and its fruit the attainment of the four aims; when the four are lost, the text adds, the person perishes.

Medical science is said to be taken up for health, and health is the means of dharma, artha, kama and moksha, which the sick cannot accomplish; a quoted saying adds that a person without health, however steadfast and brave, cannot practise dharma, earn wealth, enjoy pleasures or reach liberation, attains none of the four aims and cannot even study the science of health.

When the four aims are lost the person's very existence is said to be lost; health is marked by balanced dhatus and the like, lustre, energy and strength, and is the means of attaining the four aims.

The introduction says Ayurveda has two divisions, one that maintains health (svāsthyānuvṛttikara) and one that eradicates disease (rogocchedakara). The health-maintaining science, which may also be called the science of health (ārogya śāstra), considers water, air, dwelling place and time for public health, and food, water, conduct, thought and behaviour for personal health.

The verse says the Jinas declare health for the person capable of liberation to be of two kinds: the first and chief called ultimate (paramārtha), and the other arising from worldly practice (vyavahāra).

The commentary says the purpose of medical science is twofold: protecting the health of the healthy and freeing the sick from disease.

All diseases are said to hinder the body, and the body is the chief means of achieving the four aims of life (dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa): without the body there is no dharma, without dharma no wealth, without wealth no pleasure, and for one without these three, liberation is impossible; so the wise should first protect the body in every way.

As the ruler of a city protects it from the fear of enemies with his army, weapons and all his means, so the master of the body should protect it from the enemy of disease with medicines as his means; if he does not follow the medicines and conduct taught in this work, fit for meritorious people, the body, the abode of dharma and happiness, is spoiled by greatly aggravated doshas and perishes.

The introduction says health rests on the balance of vāta and the others, and that Ayurveda teaches one to act daily in the way that keeps health (footnote from Caraka Sūtra 5). Food, sleep (svapna) and brahmacarya are the main supports of health; wholesome food and conduct prevent disease and keep health. Doing everything thoughtfully, keeping an even mind, holding to truth, being forgiving, staying unattached to sense pleasures and following the good path taught by the former ācāryas keep the senses healthy. It adds that the Kalyāṇakāraka discusses both the disease-eradicating and the health-maintaining sciences in great detail.

Very sour things, food full of dry substances, excessive exercise, too much wind, enduring too much sun and heat, excessive sexual activity and the daily use of only one taste are said to cause many diseases and are always to be avoided.

The publisher's note opens with the saying 'the body is indeed the first means of dharma' and says that a healthy body is necessary for religious practice, and that only through a healthy body does the soul attain purity.

A learned monk who knows the science of health and keeps his diet and conduct by it protects his health and reaches the path to the bliss of the liberated (siddha); one who does not, afflicted by diseases born of his own doshas, binds karma through his troubled states of mind.

A sick person, however intelligent and steadfast, can neither practise dharma, earn wealth, enjoy pleasures nor pursue liberation; the commentary adds that one who cannot attain these aims hardly deserves to be called human, since a human birth succeeds through them.

By taking the many medicines described properly, the wise are said to gain three of the aims of life (purushartha) in this life and dharma, artha, kama and moksha in the next; the commentary explains that medicine makes the body healthy and firm, and only if one practises dharma well with that healthy body are the aims gained in the next life.

Holy men, the translation says, can keep to their path of restraint (samyama), which is the destruction of karma, only when the body is free of disease, so it is necessary to keep their path free of obstacles.

The wise muni who studies this science of health and grasps its secret is said to secure health, which is the cause of the bliss of liberation (moksha).