Yoga Healing Disease
The Concept of Yoga Healing Disease
Health according to Yoga is a state of an integration, harmony and balance among body, mind and soul. According to Yogic philosophy a man is made up of three bodies:
These three bodies are further grouped into 5 sheaths / panch koshas:
In order to achieve a state of perfect health all three bodies should be free from any ailment. The causal body is taken as the innermost body of a person. It is the source of physical and astral bodies. The causal body is related to anandamaya kosha. The astral body consists of three sheaths; pranamaya, manomaya and vijanamaya kosha. It is constituted by intellect, mind, and the prana ( vital force ). the physical body consists of annamaya kosha and is constituted by blood, nerves etc. health from yogic point of view is a state of wellbeing of all three bodies: the causal body, the astral body and the physical body.
Development of A Disease
Development of a disease can be explained in following four distinct stages:
Psychic Phase or Adhi
Organic Phase or Vyadhi
In the psychic phase /Adhi stage, the person gets most of the psychological changes as a result of excessive psychic trauma or too much of mental and emotional disturbance, irritation from any particular person or object or continuous brooding over a thought or situation which takes place because of ignorance. This kind of repeated and excessive psychological onslaught makes the central nervous system overactive, thus disturbing its normal harmonious functioning, finally leading to anxiety, disturbed sleep etc. All this occurs in the manomaya kosha.
In the second phase / psychosomatic stage, functional disturbance occurs in pranamaya kosha. one can notice certain generalised changes such as hypertension, tremors, palpitation, increased heart rate and respiratory rate etc. This is related to pranamaya kosha.
In the third phase /somatic stage, there is an increased functioning of all the organs which affects a particular system of the body. For example in case of hyperthyroidism the function of thyroid gland gets disturbed leading to abnormally increased levels of thyroid hormone. Similarly tachycardia can be observed if heart is affected. At this stage pranic flow in annamaya kosha gets affected by increased or decreased functions of the target organ.
At the fourth stage/organic phase gradually this disturbance settles down in the target organ with full-fledged changes and all the symptoms are manifested on the physical body or annamaya kosha in the form of the disease or Vyadhi. Coronary insufficiency, bronchial asthma or peptic ulcers are some examples.
- AVIDYA -
According to Yogic philosophy Avidya (ignorance ) is the root cause of all diseases. Avidya causes the disease firstly in the causal body and then it gives rise to the disease in mind and body. The disease of the mind is called Adhi and the disease of body is called Vyadhi. Avidhi causes psychic or mental diseases in the form of conflicts, frustrations, greed, egotism and other impurities. This causes reactions at physiological level which are manifested in the form of physical disease.
Avidya causes kleshas, which disturb the mind. This disturbance leads to various mental diseases (adhi). This affects smooth flow of prana in the nadis. The blockage in the pranic flow causes imblances in the body and all physiological get affected. the malfunctioning of there bodily systems gets reflected in the form of physical diseases (vyadhi). therefore, according to Yogic philosophy, adhi and vyadhi can be cured by the methods which can help in removing ignorance (avidya) and cure causal and astral bodies.