Ayurveda and Sharad Rutu

Ayurveda is also known as the science of life. The most important aim of Ayurveda is to safeguard the health of the healthy individual. Cure of disease has been the secondary objective. Keeping this principle in mind, the entire Ayurveda has been written down and passed on. Ayurveda has recognized the influence of day night, seasons, climate on the body and accordingly the state of health and disease occurs.

                         In order to safeguard one’s health, Ayurveda has laid emphasis on one’s daily routine as well as certain regimen that must be followed in certain season and climatic conditions. If that is done properly, then the chance of a person falling ill is very negligible. Six seasons, also known as ‘rutu’ in Sanskrit have been mentioned in Indian culture. Out of those six, the current rutu is ‘sharad rutu’. So let’s have a look at the regimen during this period and dos and don’ts  for this particular season.

                        ‘Sharad rutu’ lasts for 2 months i.e. Months of Ashwin and Karthik in Indian calendar. Sharad rutu follows rainy season(varsha rutu). So all the pitta that has been collected inside the body but suppressed due to cold climate in the rains, gets aggravated due to sudden rise in temperatures during this season i.e. all the heat that has been stored inside the body during rains gets kind of liberated due to climatic influence. You all must be familiar with the term “October Heat” which is dreaded by everyone. It indirectly refers to this period only.

                           As mentioned in Ayurveda and also seen practically there are maximum number of infections during this season as body is not able to cope up with sudden climatic changes. Incidences of cough, cold, fever, eye infections, acidity, burning sensations, nausea, loose motions, skin problems like urticaria are on the rise during this period. There is also aggravation in joint pains, gouty arthritis etc. in certain individuals depending upon their ‘prakruti’(body constitution). All these happen because of aggravation of ‘pitta dosha’.

                                 In order to prevent the above incidences and to remove excess pitta from the body a specific panchakarma i.e. virechana (use of purgatives to remove excess pitta) has been recommended. For those having skin problems, blood letting should be done. But these should be done under the guidance of Ayurvedic Physician only. For those who cannot undergo these treatments, few precautions have been mentioned which can also help to prevent diseases or at least reduce the severity of the diseases occurring due to season. Ghee should be consumed in proper amount during this period as it is strengthening as well as pitta pacifying. Milk and milk products like kheer, butter etc. should be consumed sufficiently. Drinking water in sufficient amounts is also essential. One should stay away from alcohol, avoid spicy, salty, pungent foodstuffs. Eating or drinking food stuffs directly from refrigerator should also be avoided.

                                       Pitta increasing foods such as curd, chilies(both red and green), capsicum, tomatoes, excess of oily products, cold drinks, soda, fish etc. should not be consumed. Sleep during day time must be avoided at all costs. Milk products, rice, wheat, jowar etc. should be consumed on daily basis. Hence during this period ‘kheer’ (delicacy made from milk and rice) esp. for shradh puja and all is generally prepared and consumed. Sleeping in moonlight is also pitta pacifying. For those having skin problems or pitta constitution, various medicated ghee should be consumed.

                             These are some of the regimen which I felt can be easily understood and followed by everyone which I have mentioned here. By following this, one can stay fit during this season as this season is said to be the mother of all diseases. If one can stay healthy during this season, he can stay healthy throughout the year. Hence it’s truly said “ Jived Sharadha Shatam”.

                                 

  

Understanding Ayurveda

                             Ayurveda is the science of life. It teaches us to get closer to nature. It emphasizes not only on the cure of diseases, but also on the preventive aspects of it. Ancient people have prescribed a lot of wisdom for us to follow to lead a healthy life.

                            If we understand the wisdom of Ayurveda properly and observe our own selves in terms with nature, we might not fall sick at all. Now a days problems like heart diseases, arthritis are becoming very common. That is all due to not paying enough attention to our body needs. Even the treatment for these is confined only up to managing the symptoms; the basic factor which has been the cause of the disease is entirely neglected. Hence, because of this, many new serious diseases are coming up everyday and modern science is bringing out various potent drugs on a daily basis to manage these conditions.

                           Whereas Ayurveda is concerned, there are certain factors which have been known to be the root cause of health and also of diseases. Those factors are known as doshas. These doshas when are in balanced proportions grant health to the individual whereas slight imbalance in these cause the illness. So the most basic thing an Ayurvedic physician does whenever the person comes for treatment is to try and balance the doshas i.e. he is indirectly treating the root cause of the disease and not managing the symptoms only. Hence because of this, there is no relapse of any illness and inspite of how many number of disease keep cropping daily, an Ayurvedic physician can easily manage them with the medicines at his disposal by selecting them on the basis of person’s constitution.. He does not need to go out and look for new medicine for new disease.

                                 Even if we look at the definition of Health according to ayurveda, we develop a new respect for the foresight of our forefathers. It states that a person can be labeled as healthy only if all the body constituents including doshas are balanced, his metabolism is proper, all his vital functions are normal, the waste products are excreted from his body in a normal way, he is mentally healthy, free of stress or distress, all his senses are functioning properly, his mind is clear and his soul or spirit is appreciating the beauty of things around him. This clearly shows that Ayurveda stresses on the basic things only even while defining a thing such as health.

                                For keeping the doshas in balance, we should have proper knowledge of prakruti ie.our constitution, how changes in nature affect us. Similarly the diet which we take daily has a great deal to do with our health. One thing might be good for a particular individual, but the same thing might cause trouble for other.

All this and many more things,we will discuss later in detail.