Ayurvedic Principles of Treatment

From the Charaka Samhita (500 BCE): “Vata, Pitta and Kapha are said to be the complex of pathogenic factors in the body; and agitation (rajas) and ignorance (tamas) are considered to be the complex of pathogenic factors of the mind. The former type of morbidity is quieted by medications, divine and physical and the latter by spiritual knowledge, philosophy, fortitude, remembrance and meditation.”

From the Charaka Samhita: “This much is evident to us all: We treat a disease-ridden man with disease-removing measures and the depleted man with tonification. We nourish the emaciated and the feeble and we fast the corpulent and the overweight; we treat the man afflicted by heat with cooling measures, and with hot things him who is afflicted with cold. We replenish body-elements that have suffered decrease, and reduce those that have undergone increase. By treating disorders properly with what are antagonistic to their causative factors, we restore the patient to the healthy condition. In our hands, administered in this manner, the pharmacopoeia shows itself to the best of its excellence.”