ARE YOU READY TO RECEIVE MOTHER NATURE’S GIFTS?

By SHANTHI BALASUBRAMANIAM, Ayurvedic Practitioner

Mother Nature, a term used to personify nature, to focus on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it in the form of the mother.

There is no question that Earth has been a giving planet.

Everything humans have needed to survive and thrive – food, water, medicine, materials for shelter, were provided by Mother Nature.

The science of Ayurveda aims at a perfect harmony between man and nature, since it believes that man is an epitome of the universe.

The science describes this life force and its manifestations with our entire psychophysical system; we are all made of five elements, or Mahabhutas, just as the natural world is – earth, water, fire, air and space.

The five elements can be seen to exist in everything in this, the universe, both organic and inorganic.

When they enter into a living organism, man, for example, they acquire a biological form.

The five elements are combined to form three biological forces which govern all life processes.

These three forces are known as the three doshas – Vata (air), Pitta (fire) and Kapha (water).

The tridosha regulates every physiological and psychological process in the living organism.

Every individual has these three elements, but Ayurveda considers everyone unique.

This individuality is known as “Prakruti” or basic constitution, decided, based on the predominance of doshas in the parents at the time of birth.

This predominance determines the character and disposition and health of an individual.

A harmonious state of the three doshas creates balance and health; an imbalance, which might be an excess or deficiency, manifests as a sign or symptom of disease. The balance here is not a mathematical proportion as these are physiologically influenced by factors like age, season, time, food taken, sleep, etc.

It proves that the disease is not always because of external factors, but we suffer when we fight the rhythms of nature and thrive when we live in harmony with them.

Nature is our greatest medicine cabinet: it has provided and has been supplying humankind with a multitude of lifesaving medicines.

We’re not only connected with Mother Nature; we are her.

Our body comes from her and returns to these great elements.

Claiming this connection with life as a whole is the real basis of healing, not manipulating nature and life force with artificial drugs and substances that unbalance and spoil us.

• Shanthi Balasubramaniam is an Ayurvedic practitioner and can be reached at 647-867-1505 and via www.ajaraayurvedicwellness.com.