Philosophical Writings

Author(s): Hemant Shah
Publisher: Academy of Philosophy

Page 62

Philosophy and Medicine : The Indian Standpoint
43
becomes a philosophy of the body. “Cit” means Becoming. It means Life or "conscious force", which also means motion. Sat has no motion. Life (Cit) has motion. The acceleration or retention, the change in motion (speedy or slow) result in disorder. The aim is to reestablish the order. ‘Anand' means bliss. Bliss arises when the self is in its natural state. The self in its natural state means”healthy”. Thus according to the Indian standpoint the purpose of medical science is to keep the self in its proper and natural state in the body. When the self is displaced from its natural position in the body, it is suffering or diseased. When self is in its natural position it is in bliss. Indian medical science is called Ayurveda which means the science of life. According to some it is a sub-part of AtharwaVeda which is one of the Four Vedas, while others consider Ayurveda as an independent fifth veda. Whatever it is, it is quite rich in content, it "was co-existent with other vedas, was entitled to great respect, and was associated with the Atharwa-Veda in a special way. It seems, however, that the nature of this association consisted in the fact that both of them dealt with the curing of diseases and attainment of long life; the one principally by incantations and charms, and the other by medicine”. There is an interesting mythological story about the origin of Ayurveda. “Long back many sages met together on the slopes of the Himalayas. They wanted to get rid of many diseases that were afflicting mankind. They knew that 'Indra', the Lord of Immortals, knew Ayurveda, the science of longevity from Ashwin kumar, the physicians to the gods, who learnt it from Daksha Prajapati, who in turn had learnt it from Brahma, the creator. Sage Bharadvaja approached Indra. Indra knew Bharadvaja's knowledge and power and so he taught the whole science of Ayurveda in brief. Sage Bharadwaja passed on to Punarvasu Atreya who taught Ayurveda to his six disciples, who composed treatises which became popular and proved helpful in mitigating human suffering”. In discussing the nature of Ayurveda it is said that “there was never a time when life did not exist or when intelligent people did not exist; and so there were always plenty of people who knew about life and there