Ayurvedasutra 1

The Āyurvedasūtra, chapters 1–5 [a machine-readable transcription by Zoe Slatoff]

Now, therefore, one should consume substances that promote longevity and serve as the cause for the non-vitiation of the movement of the humours situated in the bodily constituents.

The desire and endeavour for a long life accomplish the purpose of Āyurveda and the goals of human life.

One should protect that which serves as the cause thereof.

Neither excessive pampering nor excessive affliction of the sense organs [should be done].

[For both] bring about the increase and depletion of the humours.

Their symptoms are likewise [produced].

And one should ward that off by suitable means.

One should maintain freedom from undigested matter.

For undigested matter is, of all diseases,

the primal source, as Brahmā declared.

Its cessation is [state of being] free from disease.

One who is free from disease esteems oneself [soundly].

The notion of 'I' is the agent of action;

possessing an abode, it is the ego-maker.

As long as one is free from disease, one conceives [agency].

That very [agent] experiences.

For the unborn is the presiding witness;

he experiences the enjoyments of sense objects.

The other experiences the karma;

he who is the agent is the experiencer of karma.

The agent is the embodied self;

the unembodied self does not eat food.

The body is not fit for experience alone, [but only] through union with the Self.

For two unborn principles preside:

the one eats food;

the other does not eat at all.

When the body exists, [it exists] for experience.

The embodied self has eight limbs.

The body lasts as long as the rule of its actions [determines].

Seizure is an affliction characterised by agitation of the mind and fear, caused by the effects of diseases arising from undigested matter.

Those [measures] that avert diseases arising from the effects of diseases born of undigested matter, as well as those arising from other causes, are caused by unprecedented limbs [of practice].

Some remove pains arising in the joints of the bones, ears, nose, and so forth, which originate from the absence of circulation of the humours, by means of an instrument.

From eating the excellent essence that nourishes the bodily constituents through the proper distribution of yoga, which is brought back by the return journey of the nectar that issued forth upon the attainment of the manifest first journey, one becomes free from disease and free from old age.

Whoever knows thus,

he becomes long-lived.

That itself is the medicament;

that itself is the treatment.

Until then, one should undertake examination of substances.

The tastes are sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent; they are their preservers.

The tastes of food to be ingested are sweet, sour, and pungent.

According as the humours are in balance, so do they stimulate the fire.

The six [tastes] established become three in digestive transformation:

bitter is sweet in digestive transformation;

astringent is sour taste;

pungent is salty in digestive transformation.

Tastes in inverted order produce disorders.

Digestive bile digests food,

and likewise that which is produced from the heat of the humours, bodily constituents, and excrements.

The membrane of the duodenum maintains life-span and fires.

From the eating of food, because of the non-obstruction of the stomach, the membrane becomes strong.

Indeed, from excessive filling of the stomach, and through the strength of the membrane obstructing the movement of the wind located in the stomach, aggravation of the wind occurs.

Whatever the humours are, of such kind is the fire born from the aggravation of the wind, and of such kind are the fevers.

Burning [the body], it blazes up, inflaming the eyes, ears, nose, head with pain, internal burning, dryness of the tongue and mouth, and the belly.

Wind fever [occurs] due to body ache, excessive obstruction and severe distress of the passages of excrement, deviation of the channels of the bodily constituents, and the displacement of the digestive fire from its site by the wind, and the like.

The fever caused by the aggravation of wind and bile is a disease endowed with the symptoms of both, having as its primary humour that which moves in the blood constituent and in the undigested matter produced from indigestion born of improper taste caused by wind and bile.

The fever born of disorders of wind and phlegm is accompanied by the symptoms of both, circulating in the flesh and fat constituents, born of indigestion arising from improper taste caused by disorders of wind and phlegm.

The fever born of disorders of phlegm and bile is a disease endowed with the symptoms of both, its primary humour moving in the bodily constituents of bone and marrow, born of indigestion arising from improper taste caused by disorders of phlegm and bile.

The fever produced from causes such as the mind, desire, fear, spirit-possession, trauma, and season has internal burning, asthma, cough, intoxication, giddiness, fainting, vomiting, diarrhoea, grief, anger, and fear as its attributes; the removers of those [causes] remove these exogenous fevers.

The regimen of treatment nourishes the strength of the fire by the non-aggravation of wind and the other [humours].

When the humour has diminished through wholesome regimen, when the strength of the fire has arisen, hunger, thirst, taste, and capacity [appear]; knowing the divisions of strength and time, one becomes happy through emesis and purgation, free from fear of dyspnoea, cough, heart disease, irregular fever, and diarrhoea.

Situated in the stomach, it generates strength for all bodily constituents.

Kindling the membranes located there by means of the samāna wind, it digests.

A corrupted duodenum is the producer of disease.

Dividing the food from time to time through liquid substances, [food] having reached the abdomen by means of the prāṇa wind, the membrane situated there, kindling by means of the samāna wind, digests.

When it is empty, the wind becomes aggravated.

The fire becomes minimal.

Consumed food that has become sweet removes the aggravation of wind.

Food inundated by the phlegm located in the heart, having become sour, destroys the aggravation of bile.

Food fallen from the heart, dried by fire, situated in the stomach, removes phlegm.

Sweet, sour, and pungent tastes are to be transformed; balancing the humours, they appropriately bestow the fruit of yoga.

Whichever tastes are the causes of those [elements], having the fire arisen from them, nourish the bodily constituents produced from them.

From chyle arises blood.

The body consists of the five elements.

It is heard by means of the two channels situated inside the ear that make known the quality of sound.

Ether has sound as its quality.

The skin, produced from the bodily constituents of chyle and blood, carries respiration and inspiration.

Surrounded by skin and the seven bodily constituents, the wind is born from space.

The fire situated in the eyes, surrounded by fifty-six channels, digesting food endowed with the five forms, the fire born from wind sees an object belonging to itself.

Having the form of saliva, dividing the distinctions of taste and the like, one perceives taste with the tongue.

The tongue, which is the receptacle of two channels situated [there], is the cogniser of all tastes.

With twenty-four channels, originating at the tip of the nose, earth makes known the twenty-four principles.

The body which is enveloped by channels: “From food beings are born; being born, by food they grow; it is eaten, and it eats beings; therefore it is called food.”

Manifestations that are disorders from an excess of the nose are perceived at the tip of the nose.

Blood, flesh, and fat come from the mother; marrow, bone, and semen come from the father; the body consists of the qualities of sattva, rajas, and tamas.

Longevity, health, radiance, strength, purity, and the like in the body generate the quality of sattva.

Wherever the tastes reside, arisen from respective elements, they nourish the bodily constituents.

Now then, that which is the primary agent, in proportion to action, precisely that is medicament; the body enveloped by mind, desire, phlegm situated in the heart, semen, and so forth is tenfold.