Ayurveda Identifies 3 Root Causes of Disease

1. (Pragyaparah) Ayurveda's first root cause of disease is a mistake, mis-identification or misuse of the mind, in where one observes or perceives incorrectly. When we try to solve it from the place of suppression or thinking what to do about IT, that creates further fragments and divisions. 

Observe holistically, observe the whole movement of life as one, then conflict with its destructive energy not only ceases but also out of that observation comes a totally new approach to life!

2. (Asatyendriyartha, samyoga) Ayurveda’s second root cause of disease arises out of its first or even more specifically the misuse of the intelligence, and is the misuse of objects of the senses. We can also view this as wrong relationship to such objects like people, places, things, activities, and even our own mind, including its thoughts, emotions, perceptions and conditioning. 

To be alive is to be in relationship and we are in relationship to all things based upon the health and condition of our 5 physical senses; heard, seen, tasted, smelled, and felt, plus the sixth sense, the mind. The practices of Yoga and Ayurveda work synergistically, and traditionally, Ayurveda cleanses and balances the bodily humors or the material body, and Yoga cleanses and balances the mind and the subtle body, thereby creating the conditions for direct perception and harmony with live. The mind can take the senses, thereby the physical body, in any direction. When total awareness is achieved, and you know who the driver is, then you can go in the direction that you, the real you, really wants to go.

3. (Parinama) The third root cause of disease is considered the most important of all-Time. By Time, it is meant living according to the rhythms of nature and understanding the symptoms of change, which Patanjali also speaks about in his Yoga Sutras III-13 to III-16: as the sun moves and changes in quality and form, it governs specific functions and abilities. 

For example, the rising sun and it’s quality and function of creation, the mid day sun and it’s quality and function of sustaining and nourishing life, and the setting sun, and it’s quality and function of transformation. The same sun shines through each one of us, like unique pieces of stained glass, mirroring the same changes throughout the day, season and lifetime. 

Yoga practice is primarily for balancing the qualities of the mind, and Ayurvedic practice is primarily for balancing the qualities of the body. They overlap and interconnect, as both are the synergy of understanding how the body and mind, with all of their qualities and functions, are subject to change. 

An example of this is given by Swami Shyam in his Patanjali Yog Darshan: the transformation of water into vapor or ice and back again is representative of time, or the natural movement and change of the water element. Thereby, living according to Time means living according to the time of day, the season, the age, the constitution (dosha), and the condition of the individual and this brings and maintains balance and health. This is a fundamental principle of Yoga and Ayurveda and a prominent feature in Ayurvedic treatment. 

The formation, vitiation, aggravation, and alleviation of doshas or biological humors or elements, organs, tissues and waste products are governed by this alchemy. 

The Ayurvedic treatment process and the Yoga Sequencing is based on this principle of nature and balance, purification and harmony that these practices together achieve. The removal of these impurities of  the mind, senses and body that are obstacles to health also creates the environment for the individual to know who they are, to find freedom and live purposefully.

All changes at any level of the body and mind, are influenced by the forces of time and intelligence, and one’s ability to live in this awakened state of pure consciousness allows for clarity, infinite wisdom, good health, longevity and grace.