Hemadri Ayurveda Centre - Rishikesh
In Ayur-Veda health care, prevention of illness and disease is of primary importance, as in the East - good health and a long life is valued as an important part of life itself. In the West - good health is taken for granted and it is only when illness or medical problems present themselves that the patient will go to a doctor to diagnose the problem and then treat the condition. Consequently in Ayur -Veda treatment takes place much earlier than in the West, even before the symptoms present themselves where diagnosis made by pulse examination.
The Ayur-Vedic focus is on maintaining good health hence preventing illness and early detection of the problems, which left untreated, may present themselves in the form of an illness or disease. Early detection brings great benefits to the severity of the illness and its subsequent cure. Ayur-Veda and Yoga, where first Ayur-Veda conference was organized by Rishis and that holy knowledge bring on earth by Maharishi Bhardwaj (before 5000 years ago) – Rishikesh - The gateway to the Himalayas in the Tehri-Garhwal region of Uttarakhand in Northern India. Rishikesh is a very holy place and there are many temples and Ashrams where it is believed that yogis and sages of ancient times lived and practiced penance here.
Additional Information
Panchakarma term is made up by two words, Panch means five and karma means procedure or action – so Panchakarma is five different types of procedure/action to clean/detoxify the body or procedure for balancing the five elements which is Aakash, Vayu, Agni, Jala and Prithvi Mahabhuta/tattva is called Panchakarma. The term Panchakarma refers to the five principal practices used to cleanse the body of its excess bodily humours called Doshas. According to Charaka (Maharishi who first recorded and re-evaluated the Ayurvedic texts called Charaka samhita) introduced these cleansing practices as the axis around which all Ayurvedic healing therapies revolve, defining it as the one primary independent discipline to be employed in order to promote health.
Charaka considerd it a requisite procedure before surgical operations or the administration of any of the rejuvenation therapies. Panchakarma benefits both the healthy and the unhealthy and is considered to be most effective therapy for preventing and curing diseases, as well as for revitalizing the entire human organism. According to Sushrut – Maharishi who invented surgery and now who is called father of surgery- recommended Panchakarma before surgery and after surgery to protect health and prevents surgery in future.
Panchakarma is a process for removal of waste products and toxic substances, which are deposited at weak points in the our body on a regular basis due to seasonal changes, air pollution, water pollution, sound pollution, light pollution, food alterations or impurities, over eating and also by the stress and tensions of daily abnormal lifestyle. The system of Medicine that is said to have been revealed to the people by God himself. That is named Ayurveda (the science of life), wherein are laid down the good and bad of life, the happy and unhappy of life and what is wholesome in relation to life,as also the span of life” - Charaka Samhita .
Ayurveda is a holistic, ancient , time tested and traditional system of medicine that is indigeous to and widely practiced in India. The word Ayurveda is a Sanskrit term meaning “science of life”. Ayu means “life” or “daily living” and the word “veda” is “knowing”. Ayurveda was first recorded in the Vedas – the ancient texts of the Himalayan sages. The world’s oldest existant literature .
The Ayurvedic healing system has been practiced in daily life in India for more then 5000 years. All Ayurveda literature is based on the Samkhya philosophy of creation. (The root of term Samkhya: Sat, means “true” and khya, means “to know”)The Vedas, made up of the Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Vedas in which the ancient scriptural knowledge is found, have been handed down to us generation by generation over several thousand years of oral tradition, before finally being recorded in written form.
It was not until about 500 B.C. that the sage Adi Sankara culled the end portion of vedas, called vedanta, which reveals the knowledge that the self and the supreme being are one. Sankara recorded this knowledge on palm leaves. Rig veda, the foundation pillar and oldest of the vedas, contains many references to Ayurvedic principles, although Ayurveda itself was primarily developed from the Atherva Veda, the most recent of the Vedas. The mainstay of Ayurvedic knowledge we have today is found in two treatise, Charak Samhita and Sushrut Samhita, each of which first appeared at the turn of the first millenium B.C.
The main objective of Ayurveda is to impart health-full longevity and to relieve human suffering. This is achieved through appropriate regimes of Ahara, Vihara, and Ausadhis and systemic Samshodhana {detoxification} of the body.