The Causes of Disease

The natural condition (svabhava) of all sentient beings, including health —one of its manifestations— is perfection.

All aspects of our embodied existence have normal standards (normal for each specific Singularity) in respect of quantity (pramana), quality (guna), and function (karma).

Due to the effect of the three poisons (attachment, aversion, and indifference –kama, krodha, moha) on pure awareness, this perfection is veiled.

When any one or a combination of the three poisons overwhelms consciousness, physical, vocal, and mental actions, the activities of the sense organs, and our ability to adapt to the vagaries of time and season are adversely affected.

Improper physical, vocal, and mental action is the result of volitional transgression (prajnaparadha). Prajna means correct knowledge, while aparadha means transgression or offense. Prajnaparadha is therefore defined as improper behavior due to incorrect knowledge, or volitional transgression of right conduct.

Prajnaparadha is caused by loss of discrimination (dhi), conviction (dhriti), and memory (smriti).

Human activities are categorized as mental (manasika), vocal (vachika), and physical (kayaka). Prajnaparadha is thus of three kinds:

Mental

1. indulging excessively in thinking, calculating, and other mental activities over long periods of time.
2. making little or no use of the mental faculties.
3. indulging in emotions such as fear, grief, anger, greed, jealousy, lust, or finding fault with others.

Vocal

1. indulging in excessive speaking or speaking for extended periods of time.
2. speaking very little or observing silence for extended periods of time.
3. speaking untrue, untimely, quarrelsome, harsh, irrelevant, impolite, or abusive words.

Physical

1. engaging in excessive exercise or sexual activity.
2. performing too little or no physical activity.
3. engaging in suppression or premature initiation of urges, improper postures, activities that endanger life, and activities that debilitate.

Improper sensory activity is the result of unsuitable contact of sense organs with their objects (asatmya indriyartha). Together with our physiological limitations as members of a particular species, volitional transgression and unsuitable sense contact lead to the inability to adapt to the changes that take place in the external environment during the various times of day and seasons of the year (parinama).

Improper sensory activity refers to unsuitable or unaccustomed contact between the five organs of perception and their sense objects. These improper contacts may be accidental, inevitable, or intentional, and have deleterious effects on the sense organs themselves, the mind, and the body. They can be excessive, deficient, or unsuitable.

1.      Auditory

• hearing very loud or very high-pitched sounds for extended periods.
• hearing little or no sound at all.
• hearing abusive language, insults, terrifying words, words describing great loss, news of accidents, murder, theft, and the like.

2.      Tactile

• coming in contact with substances that are very hot or very cold, or indulging in bathing, oleation, or massage for extended periods.
• refraining from bathing and touching.
• indulging in improper bathing, improper dress and posture, trauma, contact with unclean objects, and contact with pathogens.

3.      Visual

• seeing very bright light or contemplating objects for extended periods.
• remaining in dim light or darkness, or seeing objects dimly or not at all.
• seeing objects that are too near or too far, and sights that are inspiring fear, fearful, terrifying, unprecedented, annoying, emotional, or abnormal.

4.      Gustatory

• tasting any of the six tastes for extended periods.
• using the sense of taste very little or not at all.
• indulging in overeating, undereating, eating incompatible foods, and transgressing the rules of eating.

5.      Olfactory

• smelling substances that are highly pungent, malodorous, or intoxicating for extended periods.
• using the olfactory sense little or not at all.
• smelling substances that are putrid, intensely disliked, unpleasant to the mind, decomposed, poisonous, or cadaverous.

Parinama is the third and last cause of disease, and literally means change or transformation.

Ayurveda classifies time into external and internal time. The former refers to the time of day, week, month, and seasons, while the latter refers to the different stages of life, of disease, and of administration of remedies.

Improper passage of time can be classified in three ways:

1. the normal features of a particular time or season are excessive;
2. the normal features of a particular time or season are diminished or not apparent; or
3. the features of a different period or season appear out of the expected time.

Abnormal conditions of the three causes are due to improper conduct (adharma), which can be of two kinds, concerning this life, and concerning previous lives. Both, either alone or in combination, produce diseases that may be of three types:

1. caused by improper conduct in this life
2. caused by improper conduct in previous lives
3. caused by a combination of both

These three fundamental causes of disease generate stress on the psycho-physical organism, leading to derangements in the flow of prana (life force), which can again be categorized as excessive, deficient, or unsuitable.

Stress that is not properly managed and resolved leads to tension, stiffness, detectable pain, or emptiness, and ensuing:

• Contraction of the affected energy meridians (nadi), with consequent expansion in others through compensation.
• Deranged circulation (excessive, deficient, or unsuitable) of prana to the main energy centers (chakras) and energy points (marmas).
• Derangement of the power of transformation (agni).
• Derangement of the power of resistance and resiliency (ojas).
• Functional and structural disorders.

Therefore, addressing the sources of stress and resolving tension are the primary therapeutic approaches in Suddha Ayurveda.

Exercise:

Please observe all your activities, with special attention to sensory input (thinking, hearing, touching, seeing, tasting, and smelling), and consider which can be:

AVOIDED —those inputs that can be eliminated entirely (being both unbeneficial and harmful);

ALTERED —those inputs that may be necessary, but can be adjusted in terms of frequency, duration, volume, location, etc.;

ADAPTED —those inputs which may be unavoidable and unalterable, but to which one can oppose strategies to increase resilience; or

ACCEPTED —those inputs which cannot be avoided, altered, or adapted, but toward which one can change one’s attitude, thus reducing ensuing stress.