PDI – Ayurveda Yoga and Panchakarma

Ayurveda is the most ancient complete scientific healing systems in the history of the humankind. It originated in India and influenced the medical systems in different parts of the world. Yoga is an integral part of Ayurvedic Medicine. According to Ayurveda, the ultimate aim of human life is healing the body and mind and bringing it to a state of harmony between the environment and consciousness.

Ayurveda and yoga are two sides of a coin and cannot be separated. Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy (or Ayur Yoga) is the application of Ayurvedic principles through yogic practices for healing to take place. Ayurveda provides the foundation for understanding how to use yoga to restore the energy balance in the human body and mind to support the healing process.

Classical Yoga manifested as a spiritual practice with the aim of Self-realization, which lies beyond the physical plane. That is the reason why traditional Yogic texts say little about disease, diagnosis, or treatment. When we find information on health issues in Yogic texts, it comes from Ayurveda. On the other hand, in the system of Vedic sciences we will find that classical Yoga is part of Ayurveda as a branch that specifically deals with physical and psychological diseases and focuses on their treatment.

Both Ayurveda and Yoga recognize the role of consciousness as the prime factor in our well being. Yoga tools like Asana, Pranayama, Mantra, Meditation together with an Ayurvedic healthy lifestyle (dinacharya) that includes proper diet, herbs, massages and Ayurvedic treatments, help to counteract balance disturbance in the physical and mental plane of our existence. In other words, Yoga and Ayurveda provide the knowledge and foundation to live a healthy life free from mental or physical disease.

If yoga teachers possess knowledge of Ayurveda, its view on the body and mind, health and disease, including a person’s biological constitution and Ayurveda’s natural approach to healing and living, they and their students will derive immense benefit from it.

Both Yoga and Ayurveda use the same language of energy and Universal energetic forces. Studying the Ayurvedic view of anatomy and physiology, the constitution and the disease process, which follows the energetics of prana, will greatly enhance the Yoga therapist’s view of “dis-ease” and how to treat it in a Yogic manner. Studying the Ayurvedic view of how physical diseases are connected to psychological diseases developed from the lack of connection with our inner consciousness, will greatly expand the realm of Yoga psychology.

Considering the above facts one can’t imagine the future for Yoga Therapy without Ayurveda or vice-versa. Ayurveda can help us add the medical background, diagnosis, and greater treatment options. This makes Yoga Therapy a part of a complete Ayur Yoga system of Medicine.