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Tag: mind body connection

Satva, Rajas and Tamas: The Three Forces Behind How We Think and Act

When we look at something that already exists, we tend to focus on what we can see. To us, in our mind, a book is a book, a building is a building and a person is a person.   But let us go a little deeper, what made that thing come into existence in the first place? What happened before we could see the finished form? What allowed an idea to become reality?   According to the Ayurvedic understanding of nature, three fundamental qualities are involved in this process: Satva, Rajas and Tamas.   These are not substances in the ordinary physical sense. They are the principles that influence how things are conceived, developed, organised and eventually brought into a definite form.   They also influence how we think, respond to situations and behave.   From an idea to something real   Think about something as simple as a printed page.   Before the page existed, someone first had an idea. They imagined that information could be communicated through a page.   Then came the practical process where the paper had to be selected, its size had to be decided, the text had to be organized and the printing process had to be worked out.   Only then could the page actually be produced.   This can be understood through the three qualities.   Satva is associated with clarity, awareness and the emergence of an idea.   Rajas is associated with activity, movement and the effort required to bring that idea into action.   Tamas provides stability, limitation and resistance to further alternatives. It allows something to settle into a definite form.   All three have a role.   An idea without action remains an idea while an action without direction becomes scattered and without some form of limitation or stability, nothing is ever finalised.   This principle can be observed everywhere, from something as simple as making a page to something as complex as the development of a living being.   Satva, Rajas and Tamas in the mind   Ayurveda extends this idea beyond the physical world and applies it to Manas, or the mind.   Every person has Satva, Rajas and Tamas in relative dominance.   This explains us why two people can experience exactly the same situation but respond to it completely differently.   This is where understanding the predominance of Satva, Rajas and Tamas becomes important.   The Satva-dominant mind   A person in whom Satva is more prominent tends to be curious, observant and interested in understanding things.   They want to know why something happened.   If they fall ill, they may want to understand the cause, the relationship between their habits and their symptoms, and what they can do to improve their situation.   They may also be better able to remain composed during difficult circumstances. Instead of immediately reacting, they tend to step back, understand what is happening and work towards a solution.   This does not mean that a Satva-dominant person does not experience pain, fear or distress. Rather, their ability to understand and process the situation can influence how they respond to it.   The Rajas-dominant mind   Rajas is associated with movement, activity and constant engagement.   A Rajas-dominant person may be more expressive about both pleasure and discomfort. They may actively seek experiences, stimulation and reassurance.   If something happens to them, they may not necessarily be interested in understanding the deeper cause immediately. What they often need first is clear guidance and reassurance.   Once they feel confident about the course of action, they may be able to move forward.   Their mind is active and constantly responding to what is happening around them.   The Tamas-dominant mind   Tamas is associated with resistance, confusion and difficulty in moving forward.   A Tamas-dominant person may struggle to understand or accept what is happening around them. When they are facing a difficult situation, fear and apprehension may become stronger.   They may repeatedly question advice, seek opinions from several people and still find it difficult to make a decision.   Even with the outcome seeming clear, they may find it difficult to take a first step.   This is also why the same advice might not help every person, as they might not react to it in a similar way.   Why this matters in Ayurveda   For Ayurveda, treating a person is not limited to identifying physical symptoms.   The way a person perceives, expresses and responds to those symptoms also matters.   Let us take an example, someone may experience severe pain but barely express it while there is another person who may express relatively mild pain very dramatically. Someone else may not even understand that their symptoms require attention.   Now, the individual’s mental state might affect the way they communicate or show signs to understand about their condition.   If a practitioner judges the severity of a condition only by outward expression, there is a possibility of misunderstanding the situation.   Ayurveda’s understanding of Satva, Rajas and Tamas also highlights something that is often overlooked in modern conversations about health.   Two people can have similar physical circumstances but very different experiences of illness. Our perception, emotional response, understanding and behaviour can influence how we deal with what is happening to us.   This does not mean that mental qualities magically determine whether someone will recover. Nor does it mean that a person’s illness is simply a result of their mindset.   Rather, the Ayurvedic framework recognises that the mind is part of the individual’s overall experience and therefore deserves attention during care.   Three qualities, one constantly changing mind   Satva, Rajas and Tamas should not be understood as three permanent personality categories.   They are present in everyone, in different proportions, and can change depending on circumstances.   A person may be calm and thoughtful in one situation, highly restless in another and completely withdrawn in a third.   The important… Continue reading Satva, Rajas and Tamas: The Three Forces Behind How We Think and Act

What Your Body Is Telling You Before You Ask It

There’s actually a lot we can tell about a person without asking them a single question.   If they are not feeling well, you can notice the way they look unusually pale, or that their voice sounds different, weaker than usual. Their eyes may look different, their skin may look dry, their lips may look chapped, or maybe they might just look exhausted.   These are just some observations.   Ayurveda actually has an entire section in the Charaka Samhita talking about this kind of observation called Indriya Sthana. The very first chapter is called Varṇasvarīyam Indriyam where Charaka describes how a physician should pay attention to changes in a person’s complexion, voice, and other signs when assessing an illness or the severity of a disease.   Because Ayurveda doesn’t look at the simple question of what disease this person is actually having. It instead goes a little deeper into asking what the body is telling us about the illness.   It is actually our body that gives out the first signs of illness before it becomes something more obvious. Disease isn’t always the beginning of the story. It is ultimately important to keep in check the signs that our body is giving away, always.   यच्चान्यदपि किंचिद्वर्णवैकृतमभूतपूर्वं सहसोत्पद्येतानिमित्तमेव हीयमानस्यातुरस्य शश्वत्, तदरिष्टमिति विद्यात्।   An abnormal change that was not present before, appears suddenly, and occurs in someone whose condition is already declining. Such a change, Charaka says, should be recognized as an ariṣṭa, an ominous prognostic sign.   Now, one of the most important ideas in the chapter is the distinction between Prakriti and Vikriti.   Prakriti refers to a person’s natural state, while Vikriti refers to the deviation from that state.   A person’s appearance may naturally vary depending upon their constitution, age, environment, and other individual characteristics. So we can’t just vaguely determine that one particular complexion may be healthy or unhealthy. We need to look a little deeper.   Charaka’s list of things to examine is very extensive. He not just mentions the complexion and voice, but also the smell, taste, touch, eyes, ears, nose, the mental state, and many more. The list goes on.   In fact, Charaka tells us that a person should be observed as a whole, because a single unusual sign doesn’t entirely tell the entire story.   A temporary change with an obvious explanation is different from a sudden change that appears without apparent reason in someone whose condition may already be deteriorating.   So generally, the whole idea is that observation becomes meaningful when it is placed in context.   The entire emphasis here is on the change that you witness within your body.   And I think this is where this idea becomes useful even outside the context of an Ayurvedic physician examining a patient.   Because most of us don’t necessarily pay attention to our own bodies or the signs they are giving out.   We know how we feel ultimately, whether our face is looking normal when we wake up, or if our skin is feeling as usual. We know our baseline.   But when you wake up feeling different we brush it off as, “Maybe I have not rested well.”   But you need to understand that the baseline is important.   Because if you suddenly feel unusually tired for several days, or maybe your appetite has changed, or there are other signs your body that are trying to tell you, then I think this is where we need to stop looking and start observing what is wrong.   Because from an Ayurvedic point of view, disease is never something that simply comes overnight. Long before it becomes serious, your body is already trying to protest against it through different signs.   None of those signs individually might feel like a big deal. And that is exactly why they get ignored.   But when you look at the whole picture, these small signs can slowly lead up to something more serious.   Disease isn’t the starting point, it is actually much closer to the end of the story that your body has already been trying to tell you for a while now.   We are often quick to notice when there is something wrong with our phones, our cars, or our laptops. We notice that the battery is draining faster than usual, or the screen is running slow, or the phone is lagging a bit.   But when it comes to our bodies, we often ignore the same signs.   And maybe it is because our lifestyle has changed. We sleep less, work more, eat at odd hours, and keep pushing ourselves through the day.   We think our body is adaptable, but it isn’t.   Your body is constantly giving you information. The question is whether you are paying enough attention to notice it.   You don’t have to become an expert at interpreting every single sign. You just need to know what your normal looks and feels like, so you can recognize when something starts to change.   If you want to understand your body a little more deeply, you can explore our courses on the Charaka Samhita and Ashtanga Hridayam, and learn how these texts approach the body, health, and the signs it gives us.

Ojas: The Ayurvedic Concept Modern Medicine Doesn’t Have a Word For

Before we talk about Ojas, let me ask you a question.   What keeps you from falling sick?   Your answer would probably have been immunity, right?!   Ayurveda has a broader concept for this term called immunity, it’s called Ojas.   Most people, when talking about Ayurveda, must have heard or come across its fundamental concepts like Doshas and Agni. But very few have heard of Ojas, even though classical texts like the Charaka Samhita treat it as one of the most important substances in the body.   So what exactly is it?   Ayurveda describes Ojas as the final, most refined product of digestion. Food is broken down and transformed through seven progressive tissue layers, called Dhatus, each one nourishing the next. At the very end of this chain sits Ojas, described as the essence that remains once digestion and tissue formation have been completed properly.   In simple terms, Ojas is what your body produces when everything upstream, digestion, absorption, sleep, stress and lifestyle, is working the way it is supposed to.   This is very different from how modern medicine defines immunity.   Modern immunology has largely been about defence. It studies how white blood cells recognise a threat, how antibodies respond to an infection, how inflammation rises and eventually settles down. So much of the field is built around one fundamental question: what does the body do to fight disease once the disease has already appeared?   Ayurveda asked a slightly different question. Instead of only asking how the body fights disease once it appears, it asked what keeps a person resilient enough that disease struggles to take hold in the first place.   This is where Ojas becomes more than just another word for immunity. It points to the body’s underlying capacity to remain nourished and resilient.   Ayurveda describes Ojas as responsible not only for physical resistance to illness, but also for mental steadiness, emotional stability and general vitality. A person with strong Ojas is described as calm and capable of recovering quickly from physical or emotional strain. A person with depleted Ojas is described as fatigued, anxious and repeatedly falling ill.   Sounds familiar?   This is remarkably close to a field in modern medicine called psychoneuroimmunology, the study of how the mind and the immune system influence each other. Research in this space has repeatedly shown that chronic stress suppresses immune function, lowers the activity of certain immune cells, and disrupts hormonal balance over time.   Ayurveda arrived at a this conclusion, though earlier and through a completely different method.   According to Ayurvedic texts, Ojas exists in two forms. Para Ojas, a small, fixed reserve said to be located in the heart, considered essential to life itself. And Apara Ojas, a larger, circulating form that fluctuates based on how a person lives. Apara Ojas is what rises with good digestion, adequate sleep, emotional balance and a stable routine. It is also what depletes with poor diet, chronic stress, overexertion and disrupted sleep.   This is an important detail, because it means Ayurveda never treated immunity as fixed. It treated it as something built daily, and something that can just as easily be worn down daily.   That idea alone reframes a lot of modern health conversations.   We tend to think of immunity reactively. Ayurveda asked people to think of it proactively, as something to be cultivated through Ahara, or diet, Nidra, or sleep, and Brahmacharya, a disciplined, balanced lifestyle.   Rasayana, the branch of Ayurveda focused on rejuvenation, exists almost entirely around this idea. Its routines and therapies are not designed to treat a specific illness but to strengthen Ojas itself, on the belief that a body with strong Ojas is naturally less susceptible to disease in the first place.   This is a meaningfully different starting point from most of modern healthcare, where treatment typically begins after a diagnosis.   None of this means Ayurveda and modern immunology are describing identical things. Ojas is a broader, more integrated concept, tying together digestion, sleep, emotional health and physical resilience in a way modern immunology usually studies as separate systems. But the overlap is close enough that researchers today are actively exploring where classical descriptions of Ojas align with measurable biomarkers of immune and stress response.   Which brings us back to the original question.   If Ayurveda already had a framework for resilience that considered the body and mind as one system, why did it stay this unfamiliar to most people?   Likely for the same reason so much of Ayurveda’s deeper philosophy gets overlooked.  Concepts like Ojas require explanation, context and patience to be understood.   But this is also exactly why concepts like Ojas are worth understanding properly, and not just referencing in passing.   Because long before immunity became a trending word, Ayurveda had already built an entire framework around what it actually takes for a body to stay resilient, not just after illness, but before it ever begins.   If topics like this interest you, our courses on Charaka Samhita and Ashtanga Hridayam explore concepts like Ojas in far greater depth, straight from the original texts.  

Ayurveda Named the Reason We Keep Doing Things We Know Are Bad For Us

Have you ever eaten an extra serving despite being full?   Have you ever stayed up scrolling through your phone and lost track of time?   Have you ever decided to be a little lazy and skip your workout?   Admit it, we’ve all at least done any one of these once in our lives.   And here’s the thing, none of us do this because we don’t know better. We know exactly what we’re doing. We just do it anyway.   Ayurveda had a word for this, thousands of years before behavioural science made a whole field out of it. It’s called Pragyaparadha.   And according to Ayurveda, this one idea sits behind almost every disease we end up bringing on ourselves.   The word comes from two Sanskrit roots. Pragya, meaning wisdom or intellect. Aparadha, meaning offence or crime. Put the two together and Pragyaparadha literally means an offence against wisdom.   Not a lack of wisdom but an offence against it.   That difference matters a lot. Ayurveda wasn’t talking about ignorance here, it was talking about something far more familiar and honestly, a little harder to admit to. Knowing exactly what’s good for you, and choosing the opposite anyway.   Ayurvedic texts describe Pragyaparadha as actions of the body, mind or speech, done despite knowing better. Eating something you already know doesn’t suit you. Brushing off clear signs that you’re exhausted. Saying something in anger that you know you’ll regret the second it leaves your mouth. None of this needs ignorance. It just needs one moment where awareness loses to impulse.   Ayurveda believed that this pattern, repeated enough times, becomes one of the root causes of disease itself.   This is a very different starting point from how most of us think about getting sick.   When something goes wrong with our health, we usually look outward first. We look for the virus, the deficiency, the bad gene, the environmental trigger, the food we ate, or sometimes, simply, bad luck. And of course, these things matter.   Ayurveda never claimed that everything that happens to the body is a consequence of personal choices. But it also asked us to look somewhere else, somewhere most of us are much less comfortable looking: at the small, repeated choices we make against our own better judgement.   Because sometimes, we already know.   We know we are tired, but we stay up anyway. We know we are full, but we take another serving because it tastes good. We know that certain foods leave us feeling terrible, yet somehow, they keep finding their way back onto our plates. We know we need to move, rest, slow down, or stop stressing about something, and still find ourselves doing the exact opposite.   We think subconsciously that stayiny up one late night is not going to affect our health, one indulgent meal is not going to make us sick. But we forget that we keep repeating these things quietly, so much so that you’ll realise it stopped becoming a choice and started becoming a pattern.   The doshas getting disturbed again and again by the same habits. The body constantly having to compensate for the same disruptions. Small imbalances being ignored because they are still small enough to live with. Until, eventually, the body cannot keep correcting itself quite as easily as it once did, and disease gets the room it needs to take hold.   And honestly, this sounds a lot like something we are already talking about today.   There is an entire area of behavioural science concerned with the distance between what we know and what we actually do. It is often described as the knowledge-behaviour gap, and you do not need a psychology degree to recognise it in your own life.   We are not exactly short on information.   And yet, somehow, knowing all of this does not guarantee that we will act on it.   We can have all the information in the world and still find ourselves repeating the same habits we promised ourselves we were going to change.   And this is where I think the concept gets particularly interesting, because Pragyaparadha is not really about not knowing better. It is about knowing better and then, for whatever reason, choosing otherwise.   There is something almost painfully human about that.   And here is what I particularly like about the Ayurvedic approach to this. It does not seem interested in turning that observation into another reason for us to feel terrible about ourselves.   There is already enough guilt attached to health. Every day, we are given another reason to feel like we are failing at taking care of ourselves.   Pragyaparadha gives us a slightly different way of looking at the problem. Instead of asking, What is wrong with me that I keep doing this?, perhaps the more useful question is, Why did I act against what I already knew?   That question takes us somewhere much more interesting.   Ayurveda places importance on cultivating Sattva, a state associated with clarity, steadiness and a balanced mind. The answer, therefore, was not simply to keep collecting more knowledge. It was to develop the mental clarity required to actually live according to the knowledge you already have.   Because there is a huge difference between knowing something and being able to act on it.   And this is also why practices like Dinacharya, the Ayurvedic approach to daily routine, make more sense when viewed through this lens. They were not simply a collection of rituals designed to give you another checklist to complete every morning. At their best, routines create regularity, and regularity gives you the opportunity to notice yourself.   You start noticing when you are actually hungry instead of eating because the clock says it is lunchtime. You notice when your sleep is beginning to deteriorate. You notice when your digestion feels different, when your energy is lower than usual, when… Continue reading Ayurveda Named the Reason We Keep Doing Things We Know Are Bad For Us