Holistic Approach:

Maharishi Ayur-Ved (MA) is prevention-oriented, free from harmful side-effects and capable of treating disease at its source.

It can legitimately claim to be both scientific and truly holistic, employing 20 systematic approaches to health from the angles of mind, body, behaviour and environment.
(see Twenty Approaches)

MA therapies do not conflict with either conventional or complementary methods, so they can be successfully employed alongside other systems of healing, if desired.


INTELLIGENCE AND MATTER
The power of the MA approach to health is that it looks beyond the changing physical structure of the human body to the value of intelligence that directs and orchestrates this continuous flow of matter. The self- organising value of intelli gence is the spark of life without which the body would be merely inert matter.

According to MA, the origin of all aspects of existence mental and physical - is the field of pure intelligence or pure consciousness. Although unusual at first sight, this view is remarkably parallel to the position that modem science has now reached. The latest theories of quantum physics locate the basis of the physical universe in a single unified field, the properties of which are identical to those of intelligence.

In biology, the package of intelligence we call genetic information is known to underlie and govern the development and maintenance of the entire physiology.

The mind-body interface is another very important example of how our intelligence becomes matter in the human body. Impulses of our own intelligence - our thinking and emotions - are constantly being translated into chemicals produced by our brains which, in turn, regulate all bodily processes. Thoughts and feelings - happy or depressed, harmonious or conflicting - are projected all over the body as our nervous systems produce the corresponding regulatory molecules. A familiar example is the way stress affects our health.

Foremost among the methods of MA is the simple technique of Transcendental Meditation (TM) which allows the conscious mind - human intelligence - to identify itself with its source in nature's intelligence. This ensures that a nourishing, healing influence is always generated through the mind-body connection.


First published in Natural Choice © Orbis 1989
Maharishi Ayur-Ved revitalization therapy : shirodhara - oil-flow massage to the forehead.
Maharishi Ayur-Ved employs 20 main health care approaches :

 1. Consciousness :
    Development of higher states of consciousness and removal of the stress through Transcendental Meditation.
2. Primordial sound :
    Creating balance in mind, body.and environment by using the sound sequences of the Veda - the primordial sound values of nature.
3. Intellect :
    Correcting the 'mistake of the intellect', the root of all disease, by understanding that life, although infinitely diverse, is essentially holistic and unified in nature.
4. Emotions :
    Strengthening of the finest level of feeling to develop the emotions fully.
5. Language :
    Using Vedic principles of language structure to promote balance and healing.
6. Gandharva Veda :
    Restoring harmony in mind and body through traditional music therapy.
7. Senses :
    Vedic procedures using the senses to enliven balance.
8. Psycho-physiological integration :
    Techniques to enliven the experience of bliss - the correlate of perfect health - at the junction point between body and mind.
9. Neuro-muscular integration :
    Vedic exercises to restore integrated functioning of mind and body.
10. Neuro-respiratory integration :
    Promoting balance through the physiology of breathing.
11. Physiological purification :
    Gentle procedures to rejuvenate the system by eliminating impurities that result from faulty diet and behaviour.
12. Diet and nutrition :
    according to individual needs, to enhance proper digestion and assimilation of food.
13. Herbal and mineral preparations.

14. Rasayanas :
    Special herbal and mineral preparations formulated to strengthen the immune system and promote long life.
15. Behaviour :
    Daily and seasonal routines to bring behaviour into accord with natural laws.
16. Pulse diagnosis :
    Detecting any existing or forth coming imbalances simply by feeling the pulse.
17. Jyotish :
    Mathematical calculation of environmental influences on health.
18. Yagya :
    The applied aspect of Jyotish procedures to mental influences on health.
19. Environment :
    Creating collective health for society as a whole through creating a coherence in the collective consciousness by the practice of TM.
20. Promoting world health and peace :
    Consciousness.



Dr B D Triguna, an expert in pulse diagnosis.


PHYSICAL PRINCIPLES
 On the physical level, MA understands the body in terms of three basic principles or 'doshas' that underlie all bodily processes. Balance ofthe doshas promotes health and well being. When imbalances in the doshas go uncorrected, illnesses results. The dominant dosha in an individual determines that person's body type, which in tum determines which diseases they are susceptible to. The MA physician uses systematic methods, including MA pulse diagnosis, to evaluate the balance of the doshas and prescribe a health programme suited to the individual.

REVERSAL OF AGING
 One of the most important aspects of MA is the special revitalization therapy, using the techniques traditionally known as Panchakarma. This therapy involves a combination of methods, including specific herb and oil massage techniques, heat therapies and gentle purification procedures. This deeply relaxing therapy acts by gently cleansing, the body's tissues of accumulated impurities. These impurities prevent the free flow of intelligence in the body by obstructing channels of circulation and communication.

Research has shown that this procedure does actually reverse age regulated deteriorations in physical functioning and has confirmed its value for both physical and mental health. Findings include improvements in :

  • energy, vitality and stamina;
  • appetite and digestion;
  • musculo-skeletal health;
  • sleep patterns and mood;
  • memory, alertness and intelligence;
  • also : reductions in anxiety and depression;
  • plus : people feel much younger generally.

    DEFEATING TOXIC BUILD-UP
     Revitalization therapy through MA holds great hope for the prevention of many serious illnesses of middle and later life. We often forget that conditions such as cancer, heart disease and various degenerative disorders do not crop up ovemight. They are usually the result of years of gradually accumulating imbalances or toxic and waste materials in the body - accumulations that can be effectively and thoroughly prevented by regular Panchakarma treatments.

    FOOD FOR THOUGHT
    MA includes a complete and unique science of nutrition, recognising the importance ofthe individual's capacity for digesting and assimilating food and providing a valuable understanding of differences in dietary requirements according to age, constitutional type and individual health needs. The influence of the seasons and time of day are also taken into account in MA nutrition.

    The MA approach to healthy eating teaches how to get in touch with the body's real needs regarding food intake and also how to achieve maximum satisfaction and enjoyment from the food we eat. The focus is not merely on what to eat, but rather on when and how to eat.


    Maharishi Ayur-Ved revitalization therapy, using a full body massage with herbalized oils.


    The body's powerful weight and appetite regulating mechanisms are able to function normally. The MA approach to effortless weight loss can help everyone achieve healthier, more enjoyable eating. For those who are too heavy, weight reduction is just an added albeit welcome advantage.

     RESTORATIVE REMEDIES
    MA herbal preparations make use of the balancing power of the whole plant or combination of plants in order to promote healing without side effects. The classical Ayur-Vedic texts list many hundreds of Rasayanas sophisticated herbal and mineral preparations for strengthening immunity and preventing ageing. However, two of these are particularly effective; their formulas had been lost for centuries before being restored as Maharishi Amrit Kalash (MAK). Recent laboratory research conducted by Dr H Sharma, Professor of Anatomic Pathology at the University of Ohio in the USA, found that MAK had preventive and therapeutic effects against cancer tissue. MAK was also found to enhance the efficiency of the immune system and to be effective in preventing platelet aggregation - potentially a very important effect for the prevention of heart attacks and strokes.

    Other research has confirmed that MAK has wide ranging benefits for well being and leads to improvement in perceptual abilities that tend to deteriorate with age.

     COMBATING CHRONIC PROBLEMS
    MA is proving to be of great value in the treatment of many conditions, including chronic, long standing or persistent disorders that are often notoriously difficult to treat and for which orthodox medicine can usually offer, at best, only relief from symptoms. One recent study, conducted in collaboration with the largest health insurance company in Holland, examined the benefits of MA herbal preparations in 126 patients with 10 common chronic disorders : rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, asthma, bronchitis, sinusitis, headaches, eczema, psoriasis, constipation and non-insulin dependent diabetes.

    After three months of treatment, 79 per cent of the patients showed clear cut improvementsin theircondition. These patients had suffered from their problems for an average period of 18 years, and had failed to find relief from other approaches, both orthodox and complementary.


    MOTHER & BABY PROGRAMME



    • Baby massage is apart of the successful Mother and Baby programme,
    which includes daily massage for the mother


    FURTHER READING

     FREEDOM FROM DISEASE by Dr Hari Sharma
    THE PHSIOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS by Dr Robert Keith Wallace
    FEEL GREAT WITH TM by Jim Anderson & Bill Stevens

    Avallable from the London Maharishi Ayur-Ved Health Centre.