Such is the secret of susceptibility of a particular individual. In short, all physical substances are reduced to five categories of proto – elements and each proto – element is ascribed certain specific qualities, the total number of all the qualities coming to twenty in number. “thus the body – substance, environmental factors necessary for life – processes, causative or curative factors of diseases – all these are reduced to a specific number of qualities whose presence or deficiency in excess in the body makes one susceptible to disharmony of the sensations and functions which ultimate into diseases; and whose use or avoidance could be prescribed for therapeutic purposes.
Charaka – Samhita says in connection with aetiological factors of disease – conditions that “the complex of causes with reference to disease – psychic and somatic – is either erroneous, absence or excessive interaction of time, mind, senses and sense – objections leading to imbalance in the three determinant principles of Vaya, Pitta and Kapha. The following lines from Charaka – Samhita may be quoted for reference:
Ayurveda also maintains with Claude Bernard that “Vital force directs phenomena which it does not produce and physical agencies produces (in living things) phenomena which they cannot direct.” It is when the bodily constitution is undermined by the non – observance of the Laws of Health such as Ritucharya (seasonal observances), Dinacharya (daily observances), Brahmacharya (observance of celebacy) and Mithya Ahara and Vihara (faulty dietary and mode of life) that the Khetra (soil, the material body) becomes suitable for the growth of germ – seeds which were powerless to do any mischief in the case of those persons who lead pure and healthy lives because the soil was unsuitable for the germination and growth of the seed.
Regarding the present trend in Modern Medicine Lin Byod writes thus in his book “The Simile in Medicine” “Medicine is just in the process of recovering from enthusiasm of the school of bacteriology which saw in bacteria the sole cause of infectious diseases. Medicine is now entering the throes of constitutional school of medicine which perceives in bacteria only one cause of infectious diseases and recognises the constitution and disposition of the patient as equally important factors.” The Ayurvedic approach to he subject clears the problem.
Metaphysical consideration of Disease.
Susceptibility to disease conditions is due to imbalance in one or more aspect of the triumvirate of biological organisation known as Vayu, Pitta and Kapha in Ayurvedic terminology. But why it is not possible for a man to be in a state of perfect equilibrium? To answer this question we have to go deep, very deep in the metaphysical domain. From the phenomenal aspect of the universe mind has evolved from life, which in its turn has evolved from matter. The basis of this world is matter which ultimately dominates over life and mind. That is why the poet sings “All the paths of glory lead but to grave,” So mans mind and life, however developed they might be, are still limited and conditioned by matter and its laws.
Psychologically mans ego is a fragmented consciousness. So he is limited, his power of consciousness is limited. “His limited being is the cause of all the difficulty, discord, struggle, division that mars life. The limitations of its consciousness, unable to dominate or assimilate the contacts of the Universal Energy, is the cause of all its suffering, pain and sorrow. Its limited power of consciousness formulated in an ignorant will unable to grasp or follow the right law of its life and action is the cause of all its error, wrong doing and evil. There is no other true cause; for all apparent causes are themselves circumstance and result of this original sin of the being. Only when it rises and widens out of this limited separative consciousness into the oneness of the liberated spirit can it escape from these results of its growth out of the Inconscience.”
Though individuality is the highest expression of existence, an individual is always handicapped in its fight against the Universal. The individual life exists and acts as a separate life with a limited insufficient capacity undergoing and not freely embracing the shock and pressure of all the Cosmic Life around it. It is impossible for a divided and individualised consciousness with a divided and individualised and therefore limited power and will to be the master of All – Force. So the individual life in the individual therefore must be always subject to the three badges of its limitation, Death Desire and Incapacity. Thus it is evident that a human being because of his inherent imperfection, is bound to suffer at times.
Indian spiritual experience accounts for the origin and mode of attack of illness in human beings in this way:
Illness marks some imperfection or weakness or else opening to adverse touches in the physical nature and is often connected also with some obscurity or disharmony in the lower vital or the physical mind or elsewhere. Illness is a deformation of the physical nature just as lust, anger, jealousy etc., are deformations of the vital nature; error, prejudice and indulgence to falsehood are deformation of the mental nature. Thus the origin of illness may be in the mind; it may be in the vital; it may be in any one of the parts of the being.
One and the same illness may be due to a variety of causes, it may spring in different cases from different sources of disharmony. But to whatever an illness may be due, material or mental, external or internal, it must before it can affect the physical body, touch and pass through another layer of the being that surrounds and protects it. This subtle layer is called in different teachings by various names viz., the etheric body, the nervous envelop. It is subtle and yet almost visible. All communications with the exterior world are made through this medium and it is this that must be invaded and penetrated first before the body can be affected.
If this envelope be strong and intact one can go into places infested with the worst of disease, e.g. cholera, plague, etc. and remain quite immune. It is a perfect protection against all possible attacks of illness, so long as it is whole and entire, thoroughly consistent in its composition, its elements in faultless balance. This body is built up, on the one side, of material basis, but rather of material conditions than of physical matter; on the other, of vibrations of our psychological states. Peace and equanimity and confidence, faith in health, undisturbed repose and cheerfulness and bright gladness constitute this element in it and give it strength and substance.
Yogic experience asserts that if one is conscious of the subtle body or with the subtle consciousness one can stop an illness on its way and prevent it from entering the physical body. But it may come without ones noticing or when one is asleep or through the subconscience or in a sudden rush when one is off ones guard; then there is nothing to do but to fight it our from a hold already gained in the body. Self – defence by these inner means may become so strong that the body becomes practically immune as many yogis are. Still this “practically” does not mean “absolutely.” The absolute immunity can only come with the supramental change.
(Adapted from Sri Aurobindos writings.)
If one wants to get cured there are two conditions. First, one must be without fear, absolutely fearless in mental, vital and physical planes; secondly, one must have a complete faith in the Divine protection. For fear does produce illness. Fear opens the door and illness stalks in. In a epidemic it is this thing that spreads the malady. Fear can produce even an accident by contagion. So fear pricks a hole, as it were, in the nervous or vital – physical sheath and allows the disease – forces to attack the physical body or the mind. In scientific language fear lowers the resistance.
(Adapted from the writings of the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondichery, India,)
We conclude this topic with the following lines from Charakas Sarirasthanam, Second Chapter.
He who is given to wholesome food and conduct, who has discernment and detachment from sense pleasures, who is charitable, impartial, truthful and forgiving and who follows the precepts of sages, lives free from disease. Diseases do not befall a man in whom thought, word and deed are happily blended, the mind is controlled and the understanding is clear and who is possessed of knowledge, austerity and the absorption in Yoga.
Calcutta