Ayurveda means "Science of Life." by Michael Braunstein

No one really knows when a human first used a form of massage therapy on herself or another. No one knows the first time a hunter-gatherer noticed he felt better after eating a certain herb when his stomach was upset. No one knows the exact date someone started chewing leaves from the foxglove plant and relieved heart pain and arrhythmia. And aromatherapy has been in use since the first human picked a flower and carried it and its scent to make a bower. No one knows the first time a human used meditation or visualization or when the first human realized that there were energy centers in the body.

We may not know the first time many of these natural and traditional therapies were used. What we do know is the first time they were documented and actually written down. It happened thousands of years ago in ancient India.

The Vedic texts comprise a written compendium of knowledge scribed over 4000 years ago. After thousands of years of oral tradition, the keepers of knowledge in ancient India set their system of health and medicine in four basic books. It exists as the oldest known literature and the medical system described therein is ayurveda, Sanskrit for "the science of life." (Pronounced "eye - yer - vay' - da.")

Ayurveda is in the tradition of yoga, an everyday awareness of living in harmony with natural laws. Many of us think yoga is merely a set of stretching exercises. It is not. It is the tradition upon which the Vedas were based.

The Vedic texts explain the basic science behind the traditional therapies that are now so popular. The overall wisdom of seeing our natural existence in terms of energy, much like a modern quantum physicist would, is unveiled in the Vedas. There are three basic energies that the rishis, or vedic scientists, describe. They are vata, pitta and kapha. These energies have particular characteristics that are clearly described in the texts. (Curiously, modern-day physicists recognize Einstein's unified field work and also describe three energies : gross electromagnetic, subtle electromagnetic (atomic) and gravity.)

By turning to natural therapies like herbs, vegetarian diet, aromatherapy, meditation, massage, visualization, stress reduction exercise and on and on, we are simply applying rules of energy balancing that were laid out in the Vedic texts long ago. Color therapy, crystal therapy, feng shui, music therapy, hydrotherapy; all are described in some way in ayurveda.

Ayurveda is not claimed to be the source of these therapies. That in itself is contrary to ayurveda, ( it recognizes a higher source.) But ayurveda, alongside some ancient Chinese texts, is an early guide book for the therapies that are gaining in use here in the West in the year 2000.

There are a number of teachers and practitioners in the Omaha area that utilize the wisdom contained in the Vedas. Ask about them.

Be well.