Siddha System of Medicine

"A human birth is rare, and even rarer is a birth without any deformity. Even after such a birth, it is rare to have an interest in learning and wisdom. Even if one has such an interest, it is rare to do penance and charity. Even if one does penance and charity, the path to liberation should unfold; this is truly most rare."

" அரியது கேட்கின் வரிவடி வேலோய் அரிதரிது மானிடர் ஆதல் அரிது மானிடர் ஆயினும் கூன்குருடு செவிடு பேடு நீங்கிப் பிறத்தல் அரிது பேடு நீங்கிப் பிறந்த காலையும் ஞானமும் கல்வியும் நயத்தல் அரிது ஞானமும் கல்வியும் நயந்த காலையும் தானமும் தவமும் தான்செயல் அரிது தானமும் தவமும் தான்செய்வ ராயின் வானவர் நாடு வழிதிறந் திடுமே "
- ஔவையார்

God created the human body, and it is by far the most excellent and wonderful organization given to us from divine hands. It is a lesson for the whole of life. The stomach, which prepares the supply of the body; the vessels, which distribute the supply; the arteries, which receive and transmit the food; the lungs, which ventilate the nutrient-rich blood; the muscular machine, the heart, which stands night and day pumping and driving a healthy stream of vital irrigation through the whole system, uniting and harmonizing the whole band of organs. And the brain, which dwells in the dome high above all, like a veritable royalty these, with their various and wonderful functions, are not to be lightly called or held irreverent.

In contrast, our Creator gave man the passions. They serve a specific purpose. The wisdom of man is to keep the passions under proper control. When the passions go against the purpose, they cause terrible disasters.

The passions are given to us according to our ‘Samskaras’. Each of us is always in a deep connection with our roots. These roots have the deep connection and the constant influence they have on us as individuals and on humanity as a whole, at any given moment. These roots are called 'samskaras' which literally means 'refinement’.

It is impossible for the essential vulgarity of mind to comprehend refinement. Avarice cannot comprehend generosity. A glutton cannot know the pleasure of temperance. Hatred and envy cannot sympathize with the goodness of love, and cruelty cannot sympathize with mercy. People who are thoroughly depraved, as basically good people, cannot even understand human truth, and still less can they rise to an intuition of divine things. It is something that concerns human character, and classifies people not by artificial tests but by their very nature.

Samskaras can be defined as the life-forming forces inherited both individually and collectively by each of us. Our samskaras or innate patterns act and influence our psyche both internally and externally, shaping our psychological attitudes. In this way, we can call ourselves the continuation of our ancestors. Every moment is a perpetual echo that radiates the calls of our ancestors through the genetic map of our psyche. This very elemental psychological environment is called 'archetypes' The factors and motives that arrange the psychological elements into particular images are called archetypal, but in such a way that they can only be recognised by their effects. They exist unconsciously and supposedly, thus forming the structural dominance of the psyche in general. As a priori conditioning factors, they constitute a particular psychological manifestation of the biological pattern of behaviour that gives all things their specific properties. An archetypal content expresses itself primarily in metaphors.

More precisely, our personal archetypes have emerged from and are rooted in the collective archetypes of primitive traditions. Whether we are aware of it or not, it is obviously an ancient story, and undoubtedly we are all connected to our ancient roots. But this subterranean connectedness is also subject to modification and change, depending on our present living conditions, and expresses itself accordingly.

As for samkara or refinement, everyone must remember that refinement in particular is not supposed to be exclusive - elective affinities are not objected to. For instance, it is not objected that people who are alike in their intellectual pursuits should not associate with each other; but they must not separate from their equals. There is no refinement or genius in any direction that will exempt you from the charge of betraying your fellows if you make your gifts of beauty and excellence a cruel instrument to create separation. All goodness draws men to men; and the sign that a man is a gentleman is his consideration for those around him. The sign that a man is educated is the breadth of his compassion - not his narrowness. The sign that someone is truly cultured is not that there is a desert in his soul, but that he flourishes like a prairie and that his compassion is as wide as the horizon.

Passions should be kept at a proper distance. When we give in to the passions, we destroy the finest of the life forces and vital organs: we call this destruction disease and indisposition.

Over time, man tried to achieve happiness by projecting his 'inherence" into object-oriented, materialistic approaches. Soon he became entangled in his own web of created objects and had already begun to lose his own aliveness by beginning to invest his being in man-made objects. To this day, these objects demand an overindulgence that compulsively identifies man with the object itself. And this inevitably leads him to further enjoyment - a continuation of the vicious circle!

A look at the generations shows how the archetypes have changed and how the passions develop unfavourably

Through inappropriate passions we destroy digestion and assimilation, we weaken the strength and energies of the heart and the entire nervous system. The stomach is the workshop of the whole human body, and all its disorders immediately make themselves felt in the extremities, and the heart immediately stops beating when the forces of the stomach sink and are destroyed.

Mental restlessness, due to the attainment of passions, is always a cause conducive to disease; a calm and contented mind, and the proper control of the passions and inclinations, are sure to have consequences which counteract all causes conducive to disease.

All diseases arising from mental excitement are more obstinate than those caused by violent physical excitement. There is a mutual influence of body and mind which is absolutely inexplicable to man.

Cowardice disturbs and hinders blood circulation, prevents free breathing, upsets the stomach and intestines, affects the kidneys and skin, and has a negative effect on the whole body.

Fear weakens the energy or strength of the heart and the entire nervous system; infectious substances have a greater effect on the body at this time - consequently, the disturbed system loses its healthy effect and cannot defend itself against and ward off epidemic diseases.

In pain and physical disorders, hope elevates the mood, it increases the activity and strength of the heart and nervous system, moderates the pulse, makes the breath fuller and freer - and speeds up all excretions. In normal health and life, hope is associated with many positive effects of a happy event, without the physical disadvantages.

People who are normally courageous sometimes become cowards for a moment, but suddenly return to their former state like a feather. Courage is their natural state. People who are normally cowards occasionally become courageous; but their natural state is timidity. It is the same with subtlety; some people live in it. They appreciate the fine and beautiful, seek it, and are unhappy without it. They can sometimes become coarse and uncouth, but that is not their natural state. Others are habitually coarse and vulgar. They may occasionally rise to a state of nobility, purity, refinement, and good taste, but that is not their habitual state. Some people are habitually generous. Sometimes emergencies upset them and cause them to deviate from their habitual mood; but this is not common among them. On the other hand, there are many people who are sullen, boorish, selfish, hard and ugly. From time to time they surprise everyone by doing a good and generous deed and displaying a friendly nature; but this condition is only temporary with them. These are illustrations from ordinary life to show a state or disposition, as opposed to a particular will. Depending on the merit of the character illustration, one's health and welfare is accumulated.

The brain gives us two ways to evaluate experiences like suffering - one is how we perceive experiences in a moment, and the other is how we remember them after the fact - and these two ways are deeply contradictory.

We believe that a longer duration of pain is worse than a shorter duration, and that a higher average level of pain is worse than a lower average level.

However, this was not the case. The final ratings largely ignored pain duration. Instead, ratings were best predicted by an average of pain at only two time points - the worst moment of the procedure and the end.

People seem to have two distinct egos - an experiencing ego that endures each moment equally, and a remembering ego that places almost all of the weight of the rating after the fact on two discrete moments in time, the worst moment and the last moment. The remembering ego seems to adhere to the "climax-ending" even when the ending is an anomaly. For instance, just a few minutes without pain at the end of a medical procedure dramatically reduced patients' overall pain scores, even if they had been in severe pain for more than half an hour beforehand. "It was not that bad," they reported afterwards. A bad ending caused pain scores to increase just as dramatically.

Everyone knows the experience from sports when a team that performed admirably for much of the game fails at the end. We feel that the ending ruins the whole experience. However, there is a contradiction behind this judgment. The experiencing ego had whole hours of pleasure and only one moment of displeasure, but the remembering ego sees no pleasure at all.

Ultimately, people do not see their lives as the average of all moments - which, after all, usually consists of little and some sleep. For humans, life is meaningful because it is a story. A story has the sense of a whole, and its arc is determined by the meaningful moments, the moments when something happens. Measuring people's joy and pain by the minute ignores this fundamental aspect of human existence. A seemingly happy life can be empty. A seemingly difficult life can be dedicated to a great cause.

The passionable motivations that drive us in life don't remain constant, but change enormously over time and in ways that don't quite fit into the classical hierarchy. In young adulthood, people strive for a life of growth and self-actualization. Growing up means opening up to the outside world. We seek new experiences, broader social connections, and opportunities to make our mark on the world. In the second half of adulthood, however, priorities change noticeably. Most reduce the amount of time and effort they spend on the pursuit of success and social networking. Given the choice, young people would rather meet new people than spend time with their siblings, while older people tend to do the opposite. As people get older, they socialise less and spend more time with family and close friends. They focus more on being than doing and more on the present than the future.

The change occurs as wisdom gained from long life experience, or it is the cognitive result of changes in the tissues of the aging brain, or the behavioral change is forced on the elderly and does not correspond to what they want at the bottom of their hearts. They limit themselves because the constraints of physical and cognitive decline prevent them from pursuing the goals they once had, or because the world stops them for no other reason than that they are old. Instead of resisting, they adapt - or, to put it more sadly, they give in.

People don't become unhappier but show more positive feelings as they grow older. They were less prone to anxiety, depression, and anger. Of course, they also experienced trials and more emotional moments, meaning positive and negative feelings were mixed. But overall, they found their lives to be more emotionally satisfying and stable over time, even as age limited their lives. If, as we age, we value the pleasures of everyday life and our relationships more than achieving, having and getting, and if we find this more fulfilling, why do we take so much time with it? Why do we wait until we're old?

The answer is that these lessons are hard to learn. Life is a kind of art. The serenity and wisdom of old age comes with time.

What if the change in needs and wants has nothing to do with age per se? Suppose it has merely to do with perspective - with the personal sense that time is finite in this world. Personal perspective could be of central importance - a near-death experience that radically changed one's view of life.

The way we spend our time may depend on how much time we think we have. When you are young and healthy, you think you are going to live forever. You do not worry about losing your abilities. The world is "at your feet," "the sky is the limit," and so on. And you are willing to delay gratification and invest years to acquire skills and resources for a better future, for example. You seek to plug into larger streams of knowledge and information. You expand your network of friends and relationships instead of hanging out with your mother. When horizons are measured in decades, which might as well be infinite for people, you desire above all else what's at the top - achievement, creativity, and other attributes of "self-actualization" When your horizons narrow, however - when you see the future ahead as finite and uncertain - your focus shifts to the here and now, to everyday pleasures and the people closest to you.

We have goals greater than ourselves. Unlike our experiencing ego - which is absorbed in the moment - our remembering ego tries to see not only the peaks of joy and the valleys of misery, but also how history as a whole is unfolding. This has a huge impact on how things ultimately unfold.

Why would a cricket fan allow a few blown minutes at the end of the game to ruin three hours of bliss? Because a cricket game is a story. And with stories, the ending is important. But we also recognize that the experiencing ego should not be ignored. The climax and the ending are not the only things that matter. If the remembering ego prefers the moment of intense joy to lasting happiness, that is not always wise.

There is an inconsistency in the design of our mind. We have strong preferences about the duration of our experiences of pain and pleasure. We want the pain to be short and the pleasure to last. But our memory ... has evolved to reflect the most intense moment of an episode of pain or pleasure (the climax) and the feelings at the end of the episode. A memory that neglects duration does not do justice to our preference for long pleasure and short pain.

When our time is limited and we do not know how best to meet our priorities, we are forced to face the fact that both the experiencing and remembering egos are important. We do not want to endure long pains and short pleasures. But certain pleasures can make enduring suffering worthwhile. The high points are important, as are the end points.

Thus, the expectation of happiness does not influence us as much as actual joy, and yet its influence on health is often more favorable than happiness perceives it to be.

Hope and joy are beneficent passions; they have an extraordinary effect and are of infinite benefit to the constitution when enjoyed in moderation. But when excessive or very sudden, it often does serious and permanent harm to healthy people. For weak or sick people it sometimes ends fatally. An excess of joy is often as dangerous to the human constitution as that of sorrow, if not more so. Both sick and weak people should always be told joyful news with great caution.

Passion is the outflow of freedom. Our lives are inherently dependent on others and subject to forces and circumstances beyond our control. Having more freedom seems better than having less.

The amount of freedom you have in your life is not the measure of the value of your life. Just as security is an empty and even self-defeating goal to live for, so ultimately is autonomy.

There is a second, more compelling sense of autonomy. Regardless of the constraints and travails we face, we want to maintain autonomy - the freedom - to make our own decisions about our lives. This is the core of being human.

The value of autonomy ... lies in the system of responsibility it creates: autonomy makes each of us responsible for shaping our own lives according to a coherent and distinct sense of character, beliefs, and interests. It empowers us to lead our own lives rather than be led by them, so that to the extent that such a system of rights makes this possible, each of us can be what we ourselves have created.

All we ask is that we be allowed to remain the authors of our own story. That history is constantly changing. In the course of our lives, we can encounter unimaginable difficulties. Our worries and desires may change. But whatever happens, we should retain the freedom to shape our lives according to our character and loyalties.

Therefore, the offences against our body and mind that threaten to erase our character and memory are among our worst torments. The struggle for mortality is the struggle to preserve the integrity of one's life - to avoid what one is becoming incompatible with what one was or what one wants to be, that is, to avoid being diminished, dissolved, or subjugated. Illness and old age make this struggle difficult enough.

A possible solution to avoid torment is to awaken the passion for living in nature. You can live in nature only if you love it. Nature will repay you. It will respond to those who live like nature.

Human life is a journey, the journey of a spiritual being going through a human experience. Man must identify with the language of the universe and feel the richness that nature shares so tirelessly. The frogs, the falling leaves, the birds, the wind… they all have something to tell you! From a new dimension of consciousness, you can actually listen to the silence and be with yourself with great ease, without the typical itch of always being on the move and always trying to stay ahead of schedule and demands. We owe them that! By listening to them and to ourselves, we create an environment where they are nurtured and acknowledged, and prevent them from being pushed into insignificance by overwhelming human aggressiveness.

If you listen to the language of nature, you will soon feel that you are part of the great universe of life and also inseparable from the physical dimensions of life by being in your body. The energy that permeates the entire living universe is embodied and rooted in physical form and life, and while it nourishes your mind-spirit body every single moment, your connection with it nourishes it even more.

Every action of our life, our sufferings, our happiness, our accidents, are due to the influential effects of nature: they proceed from ourselves; but our thoughts, actions, reflections sympathize with nature on the principle of general sympathy. Much stronger still is the sympathy between men of like constitution and temperament, for every mortal creature possesses a sun and system within itself; therefore, according to the principle of general sympathy, we are influenced by the general influence or universal spirit of the world, as the principle of life throughout the universe: therefore we must not seek the cause or impetus of man's bestial propensities in the compositions of nature, for animals have their peculiar propensities by the propagation of their principle through food; since man is often capable of the actions and debaucheries of animals, they can naturally befall man from no other source than the feminine infused into his composition; for since the soul is also immortal and endowed with a free will which acts upon the body, the soul cannot be inclined to good or evil by any design ; but by its own immortal power, to be wilfully seduced by sin to evil ; but enlightened by God, it springs from good ; on both principles, according to its inclination, the soul nourishes itself while in this weak body ; but as to the soul of man in this and after this further, we have fully treated every point of inquiry suggested to us by our own imagination, and have proved by experiment its divine virtue, which was originally sealed in it by the author of its being.

Can we try to live without the use of free will? No. It would be an empty and meaningless life.

Why mere existence - why does it seem empty and meaningless to us to merely be housed, fed, safe and alive. What else do we need to feel that life is worthwhile?

We are all searching for something beyond ourselves. This is a basic human need. The reason can be big or small. What is important is that we give meaning to our lives by ascribing value to the cause and seeing it as worthy of sacrifice.

Devotion to a cause beyond oneself is loyalty, which is the opposite of individualism. For the individualist, self-interest comes first; he sees his own pain, pleasure, and existence as his greatest concern. For an individualist, loyalty to a cause that has nothing to do with self-interest is strange. When such loyalty encourages self-sacrifice, it can even be disturbing - a mistaken and irrational tendency that makes people vulnerable to exploitation by bullies. Nothing could be more important than self-interest, and since one is no longer there after death, self-sacrifice has no meaning.

The egoist has always been within us. "But the divine right to be selfish has never been more cunningly defended." Indeed, man needs loyalty. It does not necessarily make one happy and can even be painful, but we all need devotion to something more than ourselves in order for our lives to be bearable. Without it, we can only be guided by our desires, and they are fleeting, capricious, and insatiable. In the end, they bring us only torment. Consider that we care deeply about what happens to the world after we die. If self-interest were the most important source of meaning in life, then people would not mind if everyone they knew disappeared from the earth an hour after they died. But for most people it is very important. We feel that such an event would make our lives meaningless.

Death is not meaningless only if you see yourself as part of something bigger: a family, a community, a society. If one does not, death is only a horror. But if one does, it is not. Loyalty solves the paradox of our ordinary existence by showing us outside ourselves the thing we are supposed to serve, and inside ourselves the will that gladly does that service and that is not hindered but enriched and expressed by that service.

Beyond the level of self-realization, there is in man the transcendent desire to see other beings and to help them realize their potential. When our time is running out, we all seek comfort in simple pleasures - companionship, daily routine, the taste of good food, the chill of rain on our face. We are less interested in the rewards of achievement and accumulation, and more interested in the rewards of simply being. But although we are less ambitious, we also care about our legacy. And we have a deep need to identify goals outside ourselves that make life seem meaningful and worthwhile. Through your kind act, you see people come alive. You see them begin to interact with the world, you see them begin to love, care, and laugh. This is overwhelming.

Yes, it is life. Within each of us there is an oceanic rhythm that strives to live; a rhythm whose pulse animates us; this life pulse is called Vaasi' by the Chidhdhars. Any blockage or fixation on this life-sustaining pulse manifests as disease.

Disease simply indicates how we have misunderstood our inspiration and in what ways we have misdirected it in our actions. This is exactly what the spiritual traditions address in their teachings; in other words … "Being and Becoming"

A watch will keep time when it is broken through and through in the wheels, provided you keep your finger on the hand and push it around all the time; but by itself it cannot keep time. Thus a sick person can be maintained up to a certain average of virtue, but this can only be done by an uninterrupted series of expressions of will; whereas it is health that makes expressions of will superfluous, which is the proper basis for right action in life. And this is more and more the case as civilization advances.

On its course, in the human anatomy, due to three things, namely contagion, negligence and ignorance, the natural warmth begins to fade, and its weakening and temperature increases more and more.

The tendency and inclination to any disease, from the moment of their birth, every day take a significant step towards old age, which is itself a disease.

When the warmth in our body gradually decreases, the accidents of old age appear, and after that time that rapid development that accelerates man from manhood to old age, from old age to old age, from old age to the broken strength of decrepit old age.


What weakness and temperature of heat is caused in two ways…
• By the decay of the natural humidity and
• By the increase of the foreign moisture.

For the heat consists in the natural moisture and is extinguished by external and foreign moisture, which flows from weakness of digestion.

The causes of the dissolution of the internal moisture and the increase of the external, which causes a cooling of the innate heat, are many.

Again and again the story is told of a ninety-seven year old running a marathon, lifting weights at 80, giving birth to a son at 65, etc., etc., as if such cases were not biological luck but reasonable for all. Then, when our bodies do not live up to that fantasy, we feel like we have something to apologize for. The medical profession does not help us with this, because it often considers the patient who is going downhill as uninteresting, unless he or she has a specific problem that it can fix.

The classic view is that aging occurs through random attrition. Aging is more orderly and genetically programmed. Proponents of this view point out that animals of similar species subjected to the same wear and tear have significantly different life expectancies. Similar to plants, much of the life of animals is controlled from within. Certain species of bamboo, for example, form a dense stand that grows and thrives for a hundred years, then flowers all at once and eventually dies.

The natural progression was to die before old age. In fact, for most of history, death was a risk at any age and had no obvious connection to aging. Dying at old age is a rare, unique, and extraordinary death that is far less natural than others: It is the last and most extreme type of dying. When we look at aging, we are trying to understand not so much a natural process, but an unnatural one.

The story of aging is the story of our parts. Let us consider the teeth. The hardest substance in the human body is white tooth enamel. However, as we age, it wears away, exposing the softer, darker layers underneath. At the same time, the blood supply to the pulp and roots of the teeth decreases, saliva flow decreases, the gums become inflamed and pull away from the teeth, exposing the base of the teeth, making the teeth unstable, and especially making the lower teeth longer. It is possible to estimate a person's age to within five years by examining a single tooth - if the person still has teeth that can be examined. Careful dental hygiene can help prevent tooth loss, but aging gets in the way. Arthritis, tremors and mild strokes make brushing and flossing difficult, and because nerves become less sensitive with age, people may not notice cavities and gum problems until it's too late. Over a normal lifetime, jaw muscles lose about 40 percent of their mass, and the bones of the lower jaw lose about 20 percent, becoming porous and weak. The ability to chew decreases, and people turn to softer foods, which are generally higher in fermentable carbohydrates and more likely to cause tooth decay. By age sixty, people have lost an average of one-third of their teeth. By age eighty-five, nearly 40 percent have no teeth at all.

Even as our bones and teeth soften, the rest of our bodies harden. Blood vessels, joints, heart muscle and valves, and even the lungs store significant amounts of calcium and become stiff. The vessels and soft tissues show the same form of calcium that is found in bones. If you have the opportunity to reach inside an elderly person, the aorta and other large vessels may feel crisp under your fingers. Loss of bone density is an even better predictor of death from atherosclerotic disease than cholesterol levels. As we age, it's as if calcium seeps out of our skeleton and into our tissues.

In order to keep the same amount of blood flowing through our narrowed and stiffened blood vessels, the heart must create increased pressure. As a result, more than half of us develop high blood pressure by age sixty-five. The heart thickens because it must pump against the pressure, and it is less able to respond to the demands of exertion. Therefore, the peak performance of the heart steadily decreases after the age of thirty. People gradually can not run as far or as fast as they used to or climb a flight of stairs without getting out of breath.

As the heart muscle thickens, the muscle elsewhere thins out. Around age forty, you begin to lose muscle mass and strength. By age eighty, one has lost between a quarter and half of one's muscle weight. All of these processes can be seen in the hand: 40 percent of the hand's muscle mass is accounted for by the thumb muscles, and if you look closely at the palm of an older person's hand at the base of the thumb, you'll notice that the muscles are apartment rather than bulging. On a plain X-ray, you can see patches of calcification in the arteries and the permeability of the bones, which begin to lose density at a rate of almost 1% per year after the age of fifty.

The hand has twenty-nine joints, any one of which may be destroyed by osteoarthritis, giving the articular surfaces a worn appearance. The joint space collapses. Bone can be seen bumping into bone. The affected person feels swelling around the joints, limited wrist mobility, decreased grip strength and pain. The hand also has forty-eight nerve branches. Deterioration of cutaneous mechanoreceptors in the fingertips results in loss of touch sensitivity. Loss of motor neurons leads to loss of dexterity. Handwriting deteriorates. Hand speed and vibration sensation decrease. Operating a normal cell phone, with its tiny buttons and touch screen display, becomes increasingly awkward. This is quite normal.

While these processes can be slowed - diet and physical activity can make a difference - they cannot be stopped. Our functional lung capacity decreases. Our bowels slow down. Our glands stop functioning. Even our brains shrink: by age thirty, the brain is a three-pound organ that barely fits inside the skull; in our seventies, the loss of gray matter leaves almost an inch of space. That's why older people are so much more prone to brain hemorrhage after a blow to the head - because the brain is bouncing around inside. The first parts to shrink are generally the frontal lobes, which control judgment and planning, and the hippocampus, where memory is organized. As a result, memory and the ability to gather and weigh multiple ideas - multitasking - increases in midlife and then gradually declines. Processing speed decreases significantly before the age of forty. By age eighty-five, working memory and judgment are so impaired that 40 percent of us have textbook dementia. Living things shut down instead of wearing out. This happens in an amazing number of ways. For example, hair turns gray because we run out of the pigment cells that give hair its color. The natural life cycle of pigment cells in the scalp is only a few years. We rely on stem cells to migrate beneath the surface and replace them. Gradually, however, the reservoir of stem cells is depleted. That is why, by the age of fifty, half the hair of an average person has turned gray.

In the skin cells, the mechanisms for removing waste products slowly break down, and the residue clumps together to form a sticky yellow-brown pigment called lipofuscin. These are the age spots we see on the skin. When lipofuscin accumulates in the sweat glands, the sweat glands can no longer function, which explains why we become so prone to heat stroke and heat exhaustion as we age.

As we age, the lordosis of the spine causes the head to tilt forward, so looking straight ahead is like looking at the ceiling for everyone else. Try swallowing once while looking up and you will occasionally choke.

Another problem is postural hypotension - a condition of aging in which the body is no longer able to maintain sufficient blood pressure for brain function when it changes position, such as standing up from a seated position.

Another age-related condition is severe chest and abdominal pain due to intestinal obstruction that has led to intestinal rupture, heart attack, septic shock and kidney failure.

In the eyes, there are other causes. The lens is made of crystalline proteins that are very resistant, but they change chemically so that their elasticity decreases over time - hence the farsightedness that most people develop after the fourth decade of life. This process also leads to a gradual yellowing of the lens. Even without cataracts, the amount of light reaching the retina of a healthy sixty-year-old reaches only one-third of that of a twenty-year-old.

Lipofuscin - oxygen free radical damage, random DNA mutations, and numerous other microcellular problems accumulate in our bodies without a single common cellular mechanism for "aging." The process is insidious and relentless.

Humans fail the way all complex systems fail: randomly and gradually. As engineers have long recognized, simple devices generally do not age. They function reliably until a critical component fails and the entire device gives up the ghost in the blink of an eye. A wind-up toy works smoothly until a gear rusts or a spring breaks, and then it does not work at all.

But complex systems - such as power plants - must survive and function despite containing thousands of critical, potentially fragile components. Engineers therefore design these machines with multiple layers of redundancy: Backup systems and backup systems for the backup systems. The backup systems may not be as powerful as the first-level components, but they ensure that the machine will continue to function even as damage accumulates.

Within the parameters set by our genes, humans seem to function exactly as they do. We have an extra kidney, an extra lung, an extra gonad, extra teeth. The DNA in our cells is frequently damaged under everyday conditions, but our cells have a number of DNA repair systems. If an important gene is permanently damaged, there are usually extra copies of the gene nearby. And if the entire cell dies, other cells can step in for it.

However, as the defects in a complex system increase, there comes a time when one more defect is enough to affect the entire system, leading to the condition known as frailty.

When a disease invades you, the doctors are assigned to fight it; but when the fight is over, they must leave your service. The art of war is best practiced in peace, and it is too late to build the walls when the gate is to be closed against the enemy.

People who are as careful to preserve their health as to restore it can often multiply the sum of their years and live the product without a disease.

Health with virtue and diseases with vices, run parallel. For as the police punish the wicked instead of encouraging the good, so physicians nurse the sick extensively, but seldom visit the healthy, whose preservation would be the most glorious deed in this respect.

The healing power does not lie with the physicians, nor with the remedies, but with what is inherent in the body and normally manifests itself in the formation and maintenance of the organism: In other words, the body heals itself.

Mental and moral causation is generally recognized for a large class of physical diseases, but for a large proportion physical causation is insisted upon.

The processes of the body and the mind meet in the imagination; it is only through the imagination that they interact and interact again.

A thought without an image cannot become physically ill, nor can sensations without imagination become mentally ill. Below the imagination we find diseases of the sensory and motor nerves, which remain purely physical diseases as long as they do not interfere with their territory.

But how can they become sick without intervening in their territory?

Because all our knowledge and experience about sensory and motor nerves comes exclusively from their diseased state.

In the healthy state, we would never have known anything about the nerves. They never report themselves. But when they are disturbed, they report, and this must necessarily be by imagination. There is no other way. It remains, then, only to determine whether the sensory and motor nerves are themselves disturbed or by some abuse on the part of the ego. If it can then be shown that pathological states of the sensory or motor nerves are the result of faulty judgment, there is certainly no longer any reason to assert physical causation, even in the particular case of the sensory and motor nerves. The finite ego is the immediate or efficient cause of the change or modification of the phenomena which we can observe in human life. The mere fact that the senses report certain phenomena followed by sufferings and disturbances of the organism affecting the functions of the body and mind is not a sufficient reason for affirming a physical causation in the case of purely physical diseases. The belief in physical causation produces anxiety, and anxiety affects the body both directly and indirectly. Often it acts directly on the sensory and motor nerves, as was seen in illustrating the immediate consequences of avarice and revenge on the sensory and motor nerves; or in the case of the consequences observed when one believes in a false fire alarm. It would be impossible to frighten the mind that is conscious of its perfect ability to suppress the fire or to escape the flames unharmed. Especially not if the awareness of perfect ability is based on the knowledge that the only conceivable danger would result from fear. Thus, perfect fearlessness has carried many through the worst contagions of cholera, smallpox, etc., without harm.

Fear is the cause of disease. It is the open door through which the enemy can enter at any time and bind the strong man. It exists along with the first personified abstraction or lie of an independent reality separate from the mind and hostile to it.

Faith in the knowledge and abilities of the doctor who prescribed the medicine and the hope in the people who surround the sick person transform the mental image into the glorious reality of health, until the appearance of dissolution, the glorious reality of dissolution.

Courage is strength in the face of knowledge of what is to be feared or hoped for. Wisdom is prudent strength. At least two kinds of courage are required, especially, in old age and in sickness. The first is the courage to face the reality of mortality - the courage to search for the truth of what to fear and what to hope for. This courage is hard enough. We have many reasons to shrink from it. But even harder is the second kind of courage - the courage to act on the truth we find. The problem is that the right path is so often unclear.

That's simply because of uncertainty. When you do not know what's going to happen, it's hard to know what to do. But the challenge is much more fundamental than that. You have to decide within your own fears and hopes what is most important.

So the problem of health would be how to cultivate and preserve clean and healthy images in the mind. Health would then be an essential part of the self. Man would be a strict unity and not a trinity of intellect, body and morals.

Knowing facts is one thing, but understanding the relationship of these facts to each other is quite another. In the first case, the intellect of one can help the other, but in the second, each soul must recognize the relationships itself. This realization must be innate; it cannot be taught.

Consciousness and movement symbolize the broken or celestial elements of the Quarterni. The body and the finite mind are the earthly parts. The body is the strictly visible member of these quarterni. And the body, in turn, as a whole, is fourfold and corresponds in structure to the four elements. The solid parts of the body (bones, tissues, etc.) correspond to the earth. The heat, bearer of the functions especially connected with the solid bodies and between the solid and liquid bodies, corresponds to the second element, fire. The excretions of the body correspond to the third element, water, and the breath is the fourth element, air.

The action of the breath and the reaction of the excretions form an upper dualism and destroy. For example, if one were to destroy the balance between the action of the lungs and the reaction of the blood, there would immediately be violent and even fatal consequences, from which the visible body would soon pass into the realm of the invisible. The action of heat and the secretion of tissues form a lower dualism, and the destruction of the balance between heat and tissues would also lead to the destruction of the visible body.

The harmonious balance between these upper and lower dualisms is what is commonly called physical health.

Frankly, our highest conception of an active agent is the conscious ego or mind. There is certainly nothing in the universe so inconceivable as the mind. What picture can be formed of that part of man which thinks, reflects, makes judgments, takes decisions, etc. ?

The term mind is not only unimaginable, but also stands for the most definite, vivid and self-evident fact of consciousness. Therefore, we take the term mind, our highest, most real, definite and knowable term for a unitary active agent.

For a unified active agent, for the present purpose as the source of all reality in the universe. Infinite spirit! It is impossible to imagine a mind without thoughts. On the other hand, thoughts have no independent existence by themselves. They are not a community hanging around waiting for something.

Mind to think them. Neither are thoughts the mind, nor the mind the thoughts. There is an ultimate dualism between the two. To every thought there is an accompanying mental image of some kind. If you cannot imagine the thing itself, there is an accompanying mental image of a manifestation or appearance of the thing. And all divine action is perfect, beautiful, harmonious, perfectly in order, health and bliss. Any other appearance that man thinks he sees is a totally gratuitous contribution on his part. An example of the exercise of his freedom to form a false judgment, by which he does not change the truth or reality, but only, as far as he himself is concerned, the results.

Thought never loses its unity, however numerous the forms that represent it. Attention (abstraction) is first directed to phenomena. The sensations are mental translations of the phenomena. The sensations, for their part, are not entities. They are sensations only insofar as they are thought by the mind; only insofar as they are an act of the conscious self. There are, however, two ways of looking at this one act. At the same time that the self recognizes its sensations as its own, it also recognizes that the sensations stand for something that is not its own; and so it comes to the phenomena. It observes the most wonderful manifestations of power, law, truth, life, etc., etc., and is impressed by the overwhelming reality. Thus it is led to personify nature or to give the phenomena an independent reality. It does not recognize the fact that the visible universe is only a mental expression of thought, that if the Infinite Mind could cease to exist, all phenomena that appear so great and eternal would disappear like a soap bubble, leaving no shadow of a dream. The ego that has personified nature, when it comes to some realization of the Infinite Spirit, has two opposite realities in the universe - spirit and matter - or when it has personified the various laws, forces, etc. that it has abstracted along the way, it already has a multitude of deities.

Personification, then, is the fundamental lie that accompanies abstraction, the first step toward knowledge. When the ego focused its attention on phenomena, it endowed the manifestations of reality with an independent existence and reality that they do not possess. When the ego comes to explain body and soul. The soul as a union of spirit and matter, it has two incompatible forces. To the extent that matter is given dominion, spirit and morality are enslaved, until in a final struggle for consistency, matter is declared the all-dominating force!

The spirit is only the reflection, the expression of matter. Mechanism is quite capable of explaining all appearances or phenomena of the spirit. The sensations are everything. The whole physical organization also reacts to the mental error. A momentary thought of sensuality, avarice, or revenge disfigures the face, impairs breathing, delays or accelerates the circulation, and passes as a tingling through all the nerves and fibers of the body. However, if it continues long enough, it leads either to some form of disease or to permanent disfigurement of the facial features, if not of the whole body, or to both.

It is well known that very many forms of disease are the result of immorality and thus have a purely spiritual origin. Nevertheless, it never seems absurd to treat a person out of avarice or revenge. On the contrary, it is considered the only right thing to do. However, anyone who wanted to remove an ugly picture thrown on the wall by a magic lantern with a coat of whitewash would most likely be considered either crazy or a great ignoramus.

However much one may try to ignore this fact, or to deceive the senses by hanging a dark curtain over the ugly image, reason will insist that the reflection is still there as long as the lantern remains intact; and that one need only lift the dark curtain to be confronted again with the unseemly reflection.

There is only one way to remove it from the wall, and that must be through a change inside the lantern.

Health has been recognized only as an important conditioning physical fact. The body in all its various manifestations must be an effect or result of thought. Disease and evil must both be the direct and indirect results of wrong judgment. An evil person does not become virtuous if he does not exert himself, and a sick person is not lifted out of bed if he simply resolves to be healthy.

Freedom for the individual simply means the power to choose something truth or its opposite, a reality or its opposite, nothingness, to choose and behave accordingly. When the mind is endowed with trustworthy faculties to determine truth or falsity, the mind does not choose falsity.

Actions can have moral quality only under the condition of freedom. And, freedom is an absolutely necessary postulate of intelligence; for without the power of choice there could be no intellectual life. Thus, physical health is possible only through the fact of freedom.

When one and the same truth is constantly repeated, it's hard to pretend that it's just a coincidence. One reason it's impossible not to recognize trends is that our minds are designed to recognize patterns and assign meaning to them. Humans are a meaning-making species.

we all struggle with shame and the fear of not being enough. And yes, many of us are afraid to show and recognize the real us. But in reality, there is also story after story of men and women who have lived amazing and inspiring lives.

There are certain do's and prohibitions. The "Do" column was full of words like worthiness, rest, play, trust, faith, intuition, hope, authenticity, love, belonging, joy, gratitude and creativity. The "Don't" column was dripping with words like perfection, insensitivity, certainty, exhaustion, self-sufficiency, be cool, conform, judge, and scarcity. Knowing is important, but only if we're kind and gentle to ourselves as we work to discover who we're. Wholeness means embracing our tenderness and vulnerability as much as our knowledge and ability to claim power.

What happens may be called a "crisis," but it's not. It's an unleashing - a time when you feel a desperate urge to live the life you want to live, not the life you're "supposed" to live.

Resolution is a time when you're challenged by the universe to let go of what you think you should be and embrace who you're.

That happen to us throughout our lives are: marriage, divorce, parenthood, recovery, relocation, empty nest, retirement, loss or trauma, working in a job that sucks the soul dry.

Living wholeheartedly isn't like trying to reach a goal. It's like walking toward a star in the sky. We never really get there, but we know for sure that we're going in the right direction.

Living wholeheartedly means approaching our lives from a place of appreciation. It means cultivating the courage, compassion and connectedness to wake up in the morning and think, no matter what gets done and how much is left undone, it's enough. It means going to bed at night thinking, Yes, I'm imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes fearful, but that doesn't change the truth that I'm also courageous and worthy of love and belonging. Because we're human and so wonderfully imperfect, we can practice using our tools every day. In this way, courage, compassion and connectedness become gifts. Our vulnerability compels us to use these tools. Going deep helps us think about how to make our choices consciously and with inspiration, and how to act.

Nature is pointing you to understand your personal limits and to protect yourself from influences, external demands or compulsive activities that do not really support growth in your life.

Nature is an endlessly flowing phenomenon, always changing, always moving. That is its very nature. And when this flow of existence experiences a blockage, it reacts with an alarm!

The work with an object-oriented mentality becomes sooner or later a pressure generator, while the work through self-reference becomes an extension of the own energy.

Self-reference! Listening to the inner call and following it cannot be held as a far-fetched, conceptualised theory, but can only be lived as an attitude, as a natural way of being.

We must constantly connect with ourselves, disconnect from demanding external situations, and tune into ourselves. The strength of our detachment from the demanding external scenario is proportional to the strength of our sensitivity to maintain the inner focus of our life inspiration. Whenever you feel desperate, tense and completely off centre, simply become sensitive to your inner level of inspiration. The only silver lining is that the pursuit of expression lurking between our inspiration and our actions keeps us creative and healthy in this multi-layered, fast-paced world. The sustained awareness of our inspiration within and throughout all activities is self-healing and overcomes stressful situations that often require living as a non-centred person.

Health is knowledge, wisdom, insight; that people only suffer from so-called physical diseases because they form false judgments; and the basic false judgment is that there is such a thing as a physical cause in the universe that leads both directly and indirectly to disease.

PHILASOPHIES OF CHIDHDHA MEDICAL SYSTEM
The Chidhdha tradition is identified with the Tamil-speaking country. The Tamil term 'Siddhu' actually comes from "Chit", which means 'consciousness that enlightens": thus "Chidhdhar" is the one who dwells as consciousness. The traditional Tamil system evolved with the development of humanity. It is the first system to emphasize health as the ideal, perfected state of a person's physical, psychological, social and spiritual components.

"That which cures physical suffering is medicine;
That which cures mental ailments is medicine;
That which prevents disease is medicine;
That which gives immortality is medicine."
- Thirumoolar

We and our planet Earth were formed from elements formed in stars that lived and died long ago. The so-called elements are hydrogen and helium, which were transformed into heavier elements. So we are 'star material'!

If something was created, then it can be created either from what was or from what was not. Out of that which was not is impossible; for out of nothing nothing was created. Out of what was, it is even more impossible, because since it already was, it cannot be created again.

Unity comes from multiplicity, multiplicity from unity, and the harmony of the universe is made of opposites.

Just as our soul, which is air, holds us together, so breath and air enclose the universe. Through the act of breathing we take into our being a part of the all-pervading vital element of all being; in this universal being we live and move and have our consciousness; the eternal and omnipresent wisdom becomes our wisdom, at least in fragments, through the channels of our senses and especially through the eyes. Therefore, if man is wise, it is because his spirit is ignited by the union with the universal spirit.

How did the world come into being?

From the source a changed state is derived, from which another is derived, and another again, and so on ... until the evolution process comes to rest at the point where no more creation or evolution is necessary - from here on there is only manifestation!

This is because the state that evolution has reached is the state of perfect cosmic unrest; a state that allows unlimited manifestation of form. Out of the undisturbed existence of pure consciousness a primordial change occurs - it is a kind of distinction.

It is here that the First TwoTathwams, the two inseparable yet distinct aspects of existence, arise.

These two Tattwams are the Siva Tathwam and the Sakthi Tathwam.

They are the beginning of cosmic evolution. Both aspects are always present, always predominant, and cannot exist without the other.

They are also known as Purusha (cosmic spirit) and Prakrithi (the cosmic substance).

The entire world is nothing but a manifestation of the cosmic spirit and its substance. Every form, whether subtle or gross, is nothing but this cosmic principle in an assumed or derived state.

"HE constructs the tathwams, twenty and five,
On the life of me, which is endless,
In the egg-shaped womb he creates;
Knowing what I am to be, he attacks."
- Thirumanthiram

The Tathwams were divided into four distinct types and the four distinguishable types are:
o Those that neither produce nor are produced
o Those that are not produced but do produce
o Those that are produced and do produce
o Those that are produced and do not produce

"They saw twenty-five who destroyed their birth.
How Purusha entered the physical body, no one knows;
That which sought the woman's birth pit, the two-poled,
In form, two tumbled and fell. "
- Thirumanthiram

Purusha or the Siva Tathwam belongs to the first type - ‘That which is neither produced nor produced’.

It is the cosmic mind, the undeveloped and that which does not evolve. It is the uncaused, unborn and that which is not the cause of a new form of being. Purusha is the soul of the universe and of all living beings; the animating principle that breathes life into matter, the source of consciousness.

"He gave to the world the truth of His Immanence of the world.".
- Thirumanthiram

Whereas, the active or more obvious aspect, Prakrithi, or the Sakthi Tathwam is the second type of Tathwam – ‘that which is not produced, but is produced’.

It is also the undeveloped, but it is that from which evolution emerges. Prakrithi is the original substance from which all things have come forth and to which all things will return. It is the primary nature of the animate and inanimate - the primary nature of all existence.

Prakrithi, the cosmic substance, consists of three constituents or forces called gunas. Each guna is a derivative aspect of existence, yet never separate from the origin itself. A guna remains distinct in its properties and functions accordingly.

The three gunas (forces) are sathwa, rajas and tamas.

Sathwa guna is of enlightening character. It has the quality of equilibrium and manifests as light.

Rajas guna has the quality of activity, excitement and manifests as the nature of movement.

The nature of tamas guna is inertia or darkness and has a restraining quality.

As long as the three gunas or cosmic properties are in a perfect state of equilibrium, no further evolution is possible. As long as the three gunas are not disturbed into a state of imbalance, nothing new is born. This is because only when the three gunas are disturbed into a state of disequilibrium do their inherent functions and properties come into interplay and, through this combined act, become causative factors for further evolution.

The rajas guna is activated with the intention of bringing about the sathwa guna or Light as the true nature of everything to manifest, but the restraining nature of Tamas Guna comes into play, influencing the play of energy and solidifying consciousness into characteristic forms.

The process by which unmanifest energy passes into subtle and then into distinct gross forms occurs as tathwams continue to evolve. In total, the number of Tathwams as ninety six.

"In two kinds of bodies, then, God has formed;
When I speak the subtlety of the one that is subtle;
Sound, touch, form, taste and smell,
Buddhi, Mana and Ahamkara are!"
- Thirumanthiram

The third type of tathwam arises from the inherent movements of Rajas guna. The imbalance spontaneously brings forth the state of chittam.

Chittam is the 'whole' that carries the states of Bhuddhi, Ahamkara and Manas.

Bhuddhi is the cosmic intelligence that arises from the disturbance of the equilibrium of the gunas and gives a clear direction to the progressive evolution. Ahamkara is the cosmic 'I' sense and Manas is the cosmic mind.

Derived from the consciousness of Manas at this stage of evolution are the lndriyas, ten in number.

". . of the organs mentioned eight, The first five are indriyas, three are karanas."
- Thirumanthiram

These are the ten powers or faculties - five of knowledge and cognition and the other five of action, the Gnanendriyas or Karmendriyas called.

	GNANENDRIYAS Sense of Knowledge	KARMENDRIYAS Sense of Action
1	power of hearing	power of expression
2	power of feeling	power of reproduction
3	power of seeing	power of excretion
4	power of tasting	power of grasping
5	power of smelling	power of movement

The Tanmatrams also arise simultaneously at this stage, as they are the essence of all objects in their subtle and non-manifest form.

Without the Tanmatrams or the subtle elements of Prakrithi, the ten Indriyas would have no function to perform.

The tanmatrams are:
The essence of sound
The essence of touch
The essence of form
The essence of taste
The essence of smell

"Indriyas ten, ten also their tanmatrams; Secretly working vayus ten, Anthakarnas four, and Purusha, the experienced Jiva; All these entangle themselves again and again, In waking consciousness."
- Thirumanthiram

Up to now everything has taken place in the non-manifest realms of existence. Now an increase in tamas-guna and the realisation of its limiting nature causes the non-manifest essence to manifest now as the mahabhutas, the five elements. These are the acting vehicles for all the tanmatrams to manifest and express themselves.The ongoing evolution comes to rest with the Mahabhutas, the five elements of nature:

Ether (Akash, Akayam),
Air (Vayu, Vali),
Fire (Tejas, Thee),
Water (Appu, Neer), and
Earth (Prithivi, Nilam)

The five Mahabhutas evolve and emerge from each other one after the other. According to the cosmic order of creation, each mahabhuta is born with its own specific and distinctive nature, in addition to the characteristic nature it inherits and carries on from the previously evolved mahabhuta. In other words, each is born denser or coarser than the previous one.

Ether (Akash, Akayam):
Ether has the principle of emptiness, a vast void. With the special property of sound, it can be heard but not felt, seen, tasted or smelled; that is, a clear sound has no touch, no form, no taste and no smell. It is a sound beyond the reach of the other four senses.

Air or Wind (Vayu, Vali):
Air has the principle of motion. It functions as pressure or impact. Air's inherent quality of touch combines with the general quality of sound that air inherits from the ether; therefore, it can be felt as well as heard, i.e., as a pure gust of wind or air that has both touch and sound but is still beyond form, taste, and smell, i.e., it cannot be seen, tasted, or smelled.

Fire (Tejas, Theyu):
Fire has the principle of luminosity. Fire has the special property of form. It also has the general properties of touch and sound, which it inherited from the earlier elements. Fire can therefore be seen, felt and heard. A pure blue flame, for example, has form, touch, and sound, but is still beyond taste or smell; therefore, it cannot be tasted or smelled.

Water (Appu, Neer):
Water has the principle of liquidity. The element of water acts as a contraction. Its special quality is taste. But water has also inherited the general qualities of form, touch, and sound from its ascending elements; thus water can be tasted, seen, felt, and heard. A glass of pure water, however, is beyond the quality of smell, since it cannot be smelled.

Earth (Prithvi, Nilam):
Earth has the principle of solidity. Its function is cohesion and its special quality is smell. This is of course in addition to the general qualities of taste, form, touch and sound. Therefore, the element of earth can be smelled, tasted, seen, felt and heard. Earth is the only element that can be perceived with all five senses.

The relationship of the five mahabhutas, or sensory elements, to each other.

The five mahabhutas and their individual modality:
Akayam ether has sound
Vali air has sound and touch
Thee Fire has sound, touch and form
Neer - water has sound, touch, form and taste.
Nilam or earth has sound, touch, form, taste and smell

After these five Mahabhutas emerge, there is no further need for evolution and nothing new is created or born. Everything subtle to gross and tangible manifests itself from here! All manifestation is nothing but a derived state of these five elements. Everything that manifests has gone through this very cosmic phenomenon of evolution until it has come to rest in its own modified state of the inseparable yet distinctive Mahabhuta Tathwam.

Therefore, All manifestation must also pass through the cosmic phenomenon of involution to fall back into its origin, the Source, and come to rest.

This process of creation and dissolution of the macrocosm is individualised as microcosm or man!

The creation of a microcosm does not differ from the macrocosm.

"What happens in the macrocosm,
Applies also to the microcosm."
- Awai Kural

We human beings can only realise our true nature when we face the task of overcoming each stage of evolution until we fall back into the origin, the source into the origin, the source.

All manifestations must also go through the cosmic phenomenon of involution in order to fall back and rest in their origin, the source.

"Where Tathwams are, there is the Lord of Tathwams,
Where Tathwams are not, the Lord of Tathwam is not.
Having realised the nature of Tathwam Gnana,
The Lord of Tathwams would arise there!"
- Thirumanthiram

The universe originally consisted of subtle atoms contributing to the five basic elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether. These correspond to the five senses of the human body and form the basis of all physical things in the world. It can be seen that there is a close relationship between the outer world and the inner system of the human being. The human form is a miniature world in itself.

"Andathil Ulladhu Pindam
Pindathil Ulladhu Andam
Andamum Pindamum Ondre
Arinthu Than Paarkkum Pothu"
- Sattaimuni

“Whatever is in the macrocosm is also in the microcosm;
Whatever is in the microcosm is in the macrocosm.
Macrocosm and microcosm are one
If one looks with right mind"

In the human body we find that earth is the first obvious element. It gives the body its fine form. It includes bones, tissues, muscles, skin, hair, etc.

Water is the second element and is represented by blood, glandular secretions, vital fluids, etc. in the body.

Fire is the third element and facilitates the digestion of physical food, mental impressions and experiences; it also brings emotions, strength, vitality and intelligence to the physical system.

Air helps absorb digested energy and is responsible for circulation, stimulation, and the respiratory and nervous systems.

Ether primarily shapes the mental and spiritual faculties of man.

An appropriate ratio of these five elements in combination with each other works harmoniously and creates a healthy organic mechanism, without which life is not possible.

According to the intrinsic nature of the five elements, each is derived from the others and therefore eternally interconnected and inseparable.

This mutual connectedness allows flexibility in their inherent proportions, as in various ratios and combinations, but never is an element non-existent. In other words, never can a single element be considered separate and apart from the others. Wherever one element is present in the body, the other four elements are also well represented in combination with the others.

The elements are divided into two halves, physical and subtle. (காயம், புரியட்ட காயம்)

The subtle elements are further divided into two equal parts, one of which is preserved and the other is in turn divided into four equal parts.

Pancha Bhuta (Five Elements)

To imagine the details of the Tathwam
Hear what I say to you lovingly and with compassion
Follow the five elements I speak
Earth, water, fire
The connecting wind and ether
Interwoven as elements, five
Find well through your mind's eye
Keep well, the obvious element!

Gnanendriyam (organs of knowledge)
Keeping the five elements themselves
If you imagine with the mind's eye, with narrowed eyes
You can see the growing mountain
The path to Chathura Giri would appear
Then assure, no one is equal to you,
If you surrender and experience the elements
The upright Kailash will appear
Listen to the true Gnanendriyam!

Graciously telling you, listen
Surotra is the ear itself
What is meant by Thokku is the body itself
The sword-like Satchu is the eye itself
The great Singu is the mouth itself
Agirana, the foot-like, is the nose itself
These are the compassionate gnanendriyam!

Thus, such five Gnanendriyam, themselves
Look at them with the kind eye of the mind
Satisfactorily experience the five stages
When you settle in the abode of the Guru
Without overlapping, Vaasi itself would exist
And dwell in the wisdom of light
Find refuge in these five stages
Then listen to the Karmendriyam!

Karmendriyam (organs of action)
Listen, the tongue, the feet, the hand
Organs of excretion and generation
All these five are Karmendriyam
When they become pure
The path of wisdom that will never be in vain
When you find clarity in these five
No more evil, and the Vaasi would arise
So concentrate on the five organs, intensely!

Aaimpulam (Five Senses)
Listen now to see the Aaimpulam
Together with the Sabda, the Sparsa, the Roopa
The Rasam and the Skanda, these five
The raptured Aaimpulam, as named
Coherently feeling the Aaimpulam
If you find clarity of mind
It would reveal to you the Chidhdhar on the path

O son! Listen to the analysis of the Aaimpulam!
Analyse each aaimpulam
Reach their root-core
See/recognise the aspect of Vaasi
Rise in this Vaasi with clarity
Reach the oracle of the cosmos to devour it
And if they dwell there with untainted consciousness
To receive therein further the need of anthakarnas
Openly telling, listen!

Anthakarnams (inner instruments)
O the Maharishi Pulasthiya, hear
The benevolent faculty of the anthakarnas
The manas without falseness is one thing
The sharp budhi is another
Hear, the ahamkarnam is next
Chittam, the purity of the Siva bonnet, is another
Master these four skills then
Will they function consciously!

Atma-tathwam
Understand the Atma-tathwam
What I have said so far is only one of twenty-four
Keep up the intention when you see the merits
Of Atma-tathwam, then the vaasi will arise
Incubate this vaasi after you find its essence
When the nucleus of Atma-tathwam is sighted
Which is like you, my son
Now you listen to the vidya-tathwam!

Vidya-tathwam
Speak the Vidya-tathwam, listen!
Nothing but the Kala, the Niyathi
The covering Kalai, the Vidya
The pleasant ragam, the purusha
And the maya, all these are seven
Be aware of the Vidya-tathwam for the good
Keep the body of space
Then listen to the aspect of Siva-tathwam!

Siva-tathwam
Listen to the nature of Siva-tathwam
O my gracious Pulasthiya, mindful
O son of the ruling Suddha-vidya, Iswara
Then the sadakya, sakti and siva
All these five are called Siva-tathwams

This order of thirty-six tathwams
Know that they are the instruments of body-consciousness
Realise this, O my son, begin to see yourself!
Concentrate on yourself
Observe the source of body consciousness
Stand without wavering; then the glory of the Tathwam
Of the Tathwam will reveal itself, be mindful
If you keep mindfulness in it
The other dependent Tathwams will appear
Who will know in the five elements
All these ninety-six Tathwams have come into existence!

Aspect of the earth
The derived forms of the five elements, listen!
O son, the aspects of the earth elements become
The hair, the bone, the skin
The tendons of the nerves, the flesh, five in number
The glorious aspect of the earth, as said
Understand it and dwell in it consciously
Then the aspect of the water element
Oh, my good Pulasthiya, concentrate on it!

Aspect of the water
To speak the aspect of water; to see
The softest plasma, blood
The coherent sperm, brain and bone marrow
All these five are the aspects of water
The meaning of these aspects of water
You see with clarity by perceiving yourself
If you perceive them as self-knowledge
Then I would continue with the aspect of fire!

Aspect of Fire
Listen to the aspect of the fire element
Nothing but hunger; sleep
Overwhelming mating, fear and laziness
All these five together are aspects of fire
Recognise this razor sharp aspect of fire
Be mindful of the inner nature of yourself
When your mindfulness is established
Then it leads to the aspect of air!

Aspect of the air
Oh! listen to the aspect of the air itself
My pulasthiya! The walking, the running
The sitting, together with the lying down, and
The standing up, all become completely five
Understand the expansive aspects of the air element
Continue to focus on the unfoldment of your inner self
When you concentrate with the grace of the glorious Guru
Listen to the aspect of the ether!

Aspect of the Ether
The exclusiveness of the aspect of the ether itself
Which clearly tells you its nature, Listen!
The enmity, the possessiveness, the covetousness
The envy and the pride, all these five
To see them as they appear in the base
When you establish them as the self itself
The dwindling vaasi is magnified
These are the twenty-five functions of the holy five!

Ten Nadis
The five pairs of nadis, are ten
I will tell you now, listen carefully!
The eternal Ida, Pingala, Sulimunai
Shining Gandhari, Atthi, Perfecting Aswini, Alampu, Purudan
Violent Gudham and the Singuvu
All these self-presented ten positions
Are the airy aspect of the earth element itself!

As for the course of the airy aspect of the air
Listen attentively, speak its flow
The rectilinear Prana, and the Apana
The realistic Udana, and the Samana, O son
The non-outpouring viyana, all are five
Have become the fiery air itself
When you find the swirling fiery air
Then listen to the nearest elemental airs!

Listen to the Nagan, Koormam, my son
Girigaram, Devadattam, Dananjeyen
All these are known as the five elemental airs
Amazing! Experience the directional air
Understand the basis of the directed air
When you dwell compassionately in Sivayoga
No more evil, all can be accomplished
Listen now with intention to the airy aspect of the ether!
O son! Listen to the airiness of the ether itself
Compassionately speaking, listen attentively!

The razor-sharp Arthaedeana is one
The mixed Yukthiedeana is one
The intertwined Ulagaedeana is the third one
Experience the airiness of the ether with clarity
Stand in the secret inner vortex

Then understand the source of sound!
Visualise the source of sound
The indwelling Vaasanam and Kemanam
The straight Visargam, Anandam, all five of them
See these rooted five arising from Vaasanam
Seeing the core of rooted support
To follow the course of other instruments
Listen to the thing now spoken from the heart

Listen son, the Rajas, the Tamas
And the kind Satvic characters are three
Understand these three characters
Listen to the order of the airy aspect of Vindu
The devouring Sandhi, Madhimai, Vaikari
And Sukuma, all these four are sound
See these layers of sound, the four themselves
Look devotedly at the base itself!

Find in this base itself
The inner thirty-six physical instruments
Combined with outer sixty instruments
When you see clearly the inner and the outer
These ninety-six appearing Tathtwams
Can be experienced in your heart itself
They are nothing at all, only the garbage of tathtwams
The divine play of Pathi, Pasu and Pasa, between themselves!
- Sawmiya Sagaram

In fact. medicine is to dissolve the veils of ignorance that overshadow the illumination of pure consciousness. These veils are nothing but our physical ailments and diseases, our mental blockages, the various abnormalities, the prana disturbances and last but not least the original ignorance of our existence.

The unique and distinctive features of the medical aspect of the Chidhdha tradition have taken shape based on this fundamental understanding. The Chidhdha system of medicine has revealed the sacred keys to dissolve the veils of illusion that shroud our true nature and lead us to a life of pure consciousness.

Everything that manifests is composed of the five elements. The food we eat is no different and is composed of a number of these five elements. The Chidhdha system of medicine shows us not only the influence that food has, but also how we can use this external factor to heal rather than harm. The revelations in this regard encompass all aspects of the individual being and are so detailed that they expose the ignorance that robs man of his true nature.

At birth, a child receives its nourishment through breastfeeding. This is the first form in which it receives temporal energy. Thus, man acquires his energy mainly through his dependence on food.

The quality of a person's dependence on food and how it affects him makes him either healthy or sick. So the food we eat is the gateway for various influences. The functions on which life itself most depends are associated with the greatest degree of pleasure and enjoyment. No human being forgets to eat, drink, or sleep. They are all connected with pleasure; they delight us.

Whereas, it is the nature of the stomach to reject anything that is repugnant to it. It spontaneously rejects it and thus saves itself. Nevertheless, it is quite possible to become accustomed, by minute tastings, to the ingestion of arsenic, tartar, and other things which are extremely injurious to the animal tissues and to all the functions of the main organs; it is quite possible for a person to maintain such a course gradually until he has acquired a certain tolerance for things which are fundamentally injurious to his health and life. And as with physical things, so it is with moral. By gradations of wickedness, by not regarding them with disgust in their first forms, in their sharpest developments, one can, as it were, weaken one's conscience and bring it more and more to the level of wickedness until it loses its sensitivity and discernment.

God gives an example of how to please people. The eye and the ear are opposed to a nature that tends to give pleasure. We can say that this is a mere connection of things through a process of evolution; but the tendencies of evolution have their origin in God, and so it can be said that the eye has been adapted through these means to like beautiful shapes and colours, and the ear to feel sweet pleasure in sounds.

How much wiser are men about machines of iron and steel than about machines of flesh and bone. The relation between the pump and the capacity of the boiler, the relation between the furnace and the size of the stacks, the relation between the cylinder or steam produced and the work to be done-all these things the engineer had in view.

He constantly monitored each part, opening and closing the valves on each side to keep each part in its proper condition. The stoker gave or withheld food to keep the machine in the condition in which it worked best, depending on whether it was going uphill, downhill, or on level ground, and depending on the number and weight of the waggons being pulled.

How many people watch their stove to make sure they do not put in too much or too little fuel? People shovel food into the stove without paying attention to what it does to their holiday when they are resting, when they have less air and exercise than on other days, and when their stomachs can not digest as much food as on other days, they eat a double portion. If it is a day when they face heavy taxation and work, and when they can least afford to go without food, they often become anxious and neglect eating because they like it. Our food is a means to an end. It is simply the fuel with which we are to generate the steam for the purposes of life. A person should eat on principle and also pray on principle.

The importance of the stomach for the head. Your head is a machine, while your stomach is the furnace with which steam is generated, and if you do not take care of the furnace, the machine will not work. No machine, no matter how well designed, is of any importance if the motive power with which it is to be moved is not adapted to it. And the driving force of the head is what the stomach does for him.

Each food carries the properties of the various elements so that when we eat it, it influences and nourishes our body, mind and consciousness. Accordingly, foods are divided into satvic, rajasic, and tomasic foods based on their influencing properties. In other words, both our physical body and our mental state are affected by the influence of the three gunas (sattwa, rajas, tamas) through the food we eat.

Not only the food we eat, but also our human body is composed of the five elements in certain predetermined proportions. These elements, interpenetrating each other, appear in us as three different humors, as three bio-regulatory forces that determine our innate constitution already at birth.

In its earliest stages of development, a living body first forms a three-layered structure with the help of the main type of energy, prana, the vital life force. This structure then develops into the fully formed living body and its internal organs. In medical terminology, these three layers are called ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm - the outer layer, the inner layer and the middle layer.

The crucial reason that the formation of a body begins with these three layers is because these three layers are necessary for the body's threefold bio-regulatory forces of Vatha, Pitta and Kapha to manifest. Although these three layers are transparent in the early stages of formation, they become opaque later.

Not only the structure of our human body, but also the structure of everything in the universe, both visible and invisible, with form and without form, from the single atom to the entire universe, is formed by the main life-forming energy, prana.

This matrix of primordial patterns forms our entire cosmos with us in it, and the connection between us and prana is inseparable. In this interconnected web of primordial energy, the cosmos, prana connects everything external and everything internal into one. Thus, everything, including our breath, can influence and change everything else.

The formless life force is always acquiring bodies in this world. This cycle of body acquisition and birth continues until man reaches a state where he develops the preference to remain without a body: as pure life force, as silent spirit.

This original cosmic energy has its own meaning and pattern of life. It returns to the source from which it originally emerged. Energy or prana is what connects our formless state to our formed state.

Just as the life principle within us uses this energy to structure our body, this life principle is released by the withdrawal of this energy from the body. This happens involuntarily, much like the involuntary process of our breathing. But the nine gates (the nine body openings) to the mansion called our body are always open. It is the built-in structural principle of the energy pattern of this universe that controls or prevents the ever-working prana within us from dissipating through these openings.

Before the various cells in our body are formed, the life force, through its own flow, first forms a basic structure of invisible channels called nadis. Depending on this flow, the nadis have different names.

The central channel, Sushumna Nadi, is called Vatha Nadi because it carries out the main vitalizing principle.

The Pingala Nadi is called Pitta Nadi because it carries out the solar principle that gives vitality, growth, metabolism, etc. to the embryo.

The Ida Nadi, which is also called the Kapha Nadi, provides sufficient nutrients to the body organs and keeps the body temperature in check.

Prana, the life energy, creates and maintains the genetic structure and is in turn sustained by it. All physiological functions receive their impulse from the subtly functioning prana within. Prana first creates the triple layers or structure before anything else. From this comes the human body.

The first triple structure of Prana is the base upon which the three bio-regulatory forces of Vatha, Pitta and Kapha are formed. The three doshams or tri-doshams determine the constitution of the human body for the entire life. The presiding influence of the pranic life force directs cosmic events and also takes the lead at the individual level - the formation of the microcosm - of our human body by determining the occurrence and formation of the three life-forming forces of a human being, vatha, pitta and kapha doshams.

The ten vital airs play an extremely important role in all bodily functions. The upward moving vital air is called prana and the downward moving is called apana. Apana is responsible for all bodily excretory processes such as urination, etc., as well as for reproduction and menstruation.

Nature is an endlessly flowing phenomenon; always changing, always moving like a river. That is its inherent nature. And when this flow of existence experiences a blockage, it responds with an alarm. Our body is not separate from this flow of existence and its inherent principle. Illness and disease are the result of our own insensitivity and unhealthiest.

This flow of natural existence that nourishes life is 'Vaasi' (alive) and the blockages as 'Viyadhi', (deviant from one's nature), disease.

There are 16 circulatory channels in the body that are responsible for the formation, transport or excretion of certain substances in the body. Three channels are for absorption, such as: respiration, digestion, and fluid absorption. The next three channels are responsible for excretion, such as: urination, defecation, and sweating. The next seven channels are one each for the seven basic tissues of our body and the rest for the mind. A woman's body has additional channels that are for menstrual flow and breast secretions. The circulatory channels in our body include the functions of the mind and emotions and integrate this relationship as body-mind-soul.

The Chidhdha system is reverently regarded as a 'Karpaga Vriksham,' a wishing Tree, because in its imperial vastness it contains all things that man can know and experience; it deals with the whole of existence. In human terms, it deals with both worldly necessities and spiritual knowledge. However, the medical dimension is considered the first important door to this mystical tradition and is its hallmark.

There are three bioregulatory forces of Vatham, Pittam and Kapham or the Three Doshams, which make up the substance of the human form and govern the physical, emotional and mental aspects of human functioning.

Five elements are present everywhere. None of the five elements is absent anywhere in the entire cosmos at any time. All five coexist at all times, taking on various roles as catalyst, supporter, ground, base or field of action or amplifier of the others, etc., to emphasize the quality most needed. Even in the human body, none of the elements ever ceases to exist.

TRIDOSHAM - THE THREE BIO-REGULATING POWERS
"The embodied form has plasma, blood,
Flesh, fat, bone, marrow, generative fluid -
All seven thathus are formed.
Mixed with Rasa, they then begin to become
Entry of vatha, pitta and kapha.
Through the past birth karmas, Vatha rules first,
Then Pitta rules for 33 years, then Slethumam, 37 years the body rules.
After the period of Slethumam,
If the body lives another 100 years, then Chittam rules,
Buddhi, Ahamkara let the human being
Experience the remaining karmic happiness and suffering.
After that, the activity subsides, the thinking subsides;
And one succumbs to dejection ... "

". ... This body - elements five, senses five, karmendriyas five Gnanendriyas five, Karanas four. ..."

- Pancha Ratnam
Each person is born with an innate constitution that has a predominant influence of one of the three doshams. This remains constant throughout the lifetime of the individual. The doshams are neither visible nor abstract, but can be sensed and felt.

The three doshams are in constant motion and ever-changing dynamic balance with each other and are necessary for life to occur. They are the bio-regulatory principles ... and are called:

Vatham,
Pittam, and
Kapham.

A person's health can be defined by the harmonious and balanced functioning of these 3 doshams.

We as humans are expressions of the five elements of nature - Ether, air, fire, water and earth.

For an evolutionary understanding of each element, we should know that each element emerges from the previous one in a successive and progressive order. The evolutionary order of these elements, whether around us or in our bodies, is as follows: Space - Air - Fire - Water - Earth.

From space emerges air, from air emerges the element fire, from fire emerges water, and from water emerges the element earth.

The evolution of the five elements, which begins with space, progresses only when a disturbance in the space of non-resistance gives birth to something new. In this way, the element of air is born. When the mobility of air is constricted or restricted, it generates heat, which is the birth of the third element, fire. When the intensity of heat diminishes, coolness is born, which is the birth of the fourth element, water. And as the coolness or water continues to cool, it becomes further constricted and solidifies as the final element, earth.

Each of them carries a special quality, a specific eminence, a characteristic that distinguishes it from the others. As evolution begins and progresses and the second element is born from the first, the second element inherits the outstanding quality of the first element and becomes associated with its own specific eminence. When evolution progresses and the next involute is born, it inherits the outstanding characteristics of the first and second elements that precede it.

This kind of development continues until the last of the five elements, which carries the four previous qualities as well as its own.

- Space or ether expresses qualities of non-resistance, a yielding nature, a sense of rising and expanding, openness and allowing.
- The element of air expresses strong mobility, movement, coldness, roughness, subtlety, dryness, light, and is volatile in nature.
- Fire expresses heat, is pungent, hot, emits light, has an odour, and is liquid by nature.
- The element water is fluid, relatively mobile, but heavier than its predecessors; fastening or sticky, smooth, can be static or form spheres, and has the property of coolness.
- The fifth element, earth, has the properties of stability, form, hardness, bonding, cementing, retaining, storing, holding, contouring, solidity, static, and is granular in form.

The cosmos is a result of mixing five natural elements, and so is our human body. The human body is the miniature image, a microcosm of the macrocosm. Our body is a combination of the five elements expressing their qualities, and all human functions are also based on these elements.

These five powerful forces of nature work in pairs in the human form! The principle that brings a man and a woman together, as a pair that supports each other, is that which combines the forces of nature so that they combine in proportion or in idyllic combinations. In this way, under the eyes of the presiding cosmic intelligence, three pairs are created in proportions that reinforce their respective characteristics and outstanding qualities and allow for optimal functionality, with one element acting as the basic support to reinforce its complementary partner.

The human body houses these three pairs, which act as imperatives of human existence from conception to death. Just as each element expresses a particular quality, so do they animate paired and complementary functions.

Vatham:
The element of air mingling with the element of space is called Vatham;
where space, as an ideal field of non-resistance, provides the perfect opportunity for the free movement of the air element.

Together as Vatham, they assert qualities such as rapid movement, mobility, and an ephemeral nature that tends to leave a kind of void; a typical energy-consuming quality. Each of their proportions determines how active the power of Vatham is, just as the amount of ether (or space) affects the ability of air (wind) to gain momentum.

Vatham enables the expression of the other two doshams (pittam and kapham). It regulates bodily functions such as breathing, blinking of the eyelids, movements of the muscles and tissues, pulsation of the heart, all movements of expansion and contraction, and the movement of every impulse in the nerve cells.

Psychologically, Vatham controls feelings and emotions such as freshness, nervousness, fear, pain, tremors and spasms. And its most important function is the control of the movements of body, mind and speech.

Pittam:
The connection between the fire element and the water element is called pittam. The connection of the water element with fire provides the presence of something denser and cooler than fire itself, which naturally enhances its burning properties. Pittam is the bioregulatory force created by this dynamic interplay between the elements of water and fire. They do not merge into each other, but modulate or control each other, providing a living process of life.

It shapes digestion, transformation, assimilation, absorption, nutrition, metabolism, body temperature, skin coloration, the shine of the eyes, etc. - all this belongs to a quality that involves the action, manipulation and balance of energy and discernment.

Kapham:
The dynamic interaction of the elements of water and earth creates the bioregulatory force Kapham. The union of this duo strengthens the element of coolness, which cancels the influence of the fire element and produces qualities such as putty, bonding, form and shape, strength, etc.

The invigorating qualities of Kapham are stability, consistency, firmness, contouring, structuring, cohesion, lubrication, and support - they rarely leave one feeling empty. Kapham can be thought of as a stirring force that keeps water and earth from separating.

Kapham cements the elements in the body and provides material for the physical structure. This dosham maintains physical resilience, endurance, strength, resilience and earthiness.

The element of water is the predominant component of Kapham and this body water is physiologically responsible for the body's biological strength, natural tissue endurance and resilience. Kapham lubricates the joints, moisturizes the skin, helps heal wounds and fills the spaces in the body. It supports memory, energizes the heart and lungs, and maintains immunity.

Psychologically, Kapham is responsible for feelings such as attachment, greed and persistent envy. It is also expressed in the tendency to serenity, firmness and love.

Our human body is built, functions and expresses itself on the basis of the three bioregulatory forces Vatham, Pittam and Kapham, the three natural inhabitants of our body. Our actions and mobility depend on Vatham; Pittam regulates our processes, functions and transformations; and the power of Kapham builds the structure and substance of our human body.

Together they exemplify the constitution of the individual known as Prakrithi. The Prakrithi of the individual can also be described as the resultant pattern that emerges from the three pairs of combinations. This pattern or imprint gives the individual the ruling quality. The imprint of the constitution is valid for the whole life and cannot be changed, and any apparent change is attributed to a deviation from one's prakrithi. In other words: When this deviation dissolves, the individual immediately falls back into his innate patterns, his prakrithi.

For example - Vatha-based activities: Walking, running, belching, hunger, sex, sleep, etc. The Vatha duo, primarily air, supported by the space element, is responsible for mobility or propulsion; primarily for energy-consuming actions in the body. This confirms the presence of these two natural elements in our human form.

In order to survive, each individual must ingest and digest food. And another common ability of humanity is vision. These types of bodily functions confirm the existence of the Pittam pair in our human form: the element of fire and the element of water.

Obviously, we can trace a number of forms, bonds, consolidations or stabilizations within the human form to the Kapham pair, earth with water. All this confirms both the coexistence and the guidance of the five elements in our human body. In this case, all people on this planet should look the same, walk the same; there should be no differences in size, skin colour, hair, habits, behaviour, character, and so on. But that is not the case. No two people are the same. Each is an individual unto himself, and this uniqueness is defined by a typicality peculiar to him.

One or two of the three pairs exert a stronger influence on the others. This dominant influence is prakrithi. Our own prakrithi is always at work, influencing; painting its unique shade on each couple and its expression. That is, our prakrithi colours each function, activity or aspect, giving it a unique shading or flavour.

So, although each of us walks our own path, everyone's path remains typical of them, based on their prakrithi.

Prakrithi is the perfect design; that idyllic blend that ensures a paved path and platform upon which the necessary lifestyle and life mission can be carried out to its completion. Ultimately, everything we learn about our deeper self improves not only our health, but also the quality of our physical life.

To understand Prakrithi is to learn the skill of true self-expression. And while each of us can look within ourselves for support to learn this, it is often difficult to get the hang of. Driven by our own individual prakrithi, we eventually understand our personal choices and what it means to protect ourselves from influences that do not support our growth. We begin to understand the care we need to give to our inner state and the love it gives us. Recognizing our prakrithi gradually leads us to understand the meanings and lessons our illness expresses, which creates a sustainable hope and empowerment from within to reject the 'illness" from our body-mind.

Each Prakirthi type and its two variants - in balance and/or imbalance, known as Vikrithi. In both cases, it expresses its distinctive nature.

The harmonious balance of the doshams has a positive and constructive effect on the mental and emotional states of an individual, while their imbalance manifests itself in the form of negative traits, characteristics and attitudes.

There is a distinct difference between today's modern approach and the cures and remedies shown by the ancient Chidhdhars - not only in treatment but also in theory.

First and foremost, all the formulas of Chidhdha medicine have been developed in a highly specialised way. They act not only on the specific disorders emanating from this condition, but aim to have a completely rejuvenating effect on the entire body Thathus (components).

This approach is based on the concept of the three doshams. (Mukuttram in Tamil)

Chidhdhar theory does not limit its attention to the disease, but goes to the root to eliminate the basic causative factors.

The meaning of medicine in Chidhdhar language is: 'REFUSING THE DISEASE'. As revealed by Chidhdhar Thirumoolar, this is unique to the Siddha system of medicine:

"Maruppthu Udal Noi Marundhuenalakum
Maruppthu Ula Noi Marundu Enalakum
Maruppthu lni Noi Varathiruppa
Maruppthu Savai Marundu Enalakum"

"Rejecting the disease of the body
Rejecting the disease of the mind (psyche)
The rejection of further as prevention
The rejection of death itself ensures the true medicine"

According to the exact way of life prescribed by the Chidhdhars for more than 2000 years, there are both medicines and a method to cure all diseases caused by a small deviation from the exact way of life.

The representation of things is seen in the present, because the thing showed itself to the high souls in a divine way, and the final cause of these things is God, who can do these and greater things.

There are five ways:
1. through a vision 2. in a dream 3. in a mystery 4. through figures. All these four ways happen through the dissolution of the body, whether in sleep or in wakefulness.

Fifth way: when the sense of all present things is taken away, so that we neither see with our eyes, nor hear, nor touch, and the whole mind is raptured into these visions. Therefore, the last way is the best, which does not come about by resolution, but is a speaking with God without changing the state of the body at all: which happens to few. All correspondence with God, all familiarity, all speaking with Him, draws all knowledge of things to come from that eternal wisdom, because of its perpetual presence, divine familiarity, and greatest friendship with God, in which divine and unheard-of joys must exist.

When we see dances, plays or other remarkable things, through all these ways, through the determination of the body, a kind of oracle is made in which God speaks. This happens to very few people. We have called this enlightened prople as Chidhdhar.

If we want to ascend there, to make ourselves Chidhdhars, there must be no flaw in our soul, no deception, no fraud, no wickedness. The purer a person is in these things, the more likely he is to be admitted to these eternal joys.

Chidhdhar laid aside all ambition and covetousness and devoted himself to the careful study of nature and the knowledge of languages and arts. He was so open-hearted that he not only willingly revealed all his secrets, but was overjoyed when he met someone who could understand him. In his studies, he used or invented such a method to discover unknown things in nature that not only the common people but also some scholars considered him a magician.

And yet, we find this man, who thus talked with God, evident that he, who saw the likeness of the God, is learned in all the wisdom of physics and natural magic.

Man is a creature of habit; driven by the inclinations of his nature, he shortens the time of his life.

The rising morning, the shining noon, the shadowy evening, they all tell him in passing that his temporal existence is short, his way to eternity fast!

The greatest Chidhdhars have discovered that they live; but whence they came and whither they go is by nature utterly hidden; that impenetrable darkness surrounds us on all sides, and that only in revelation can we seek the only source of comfort and explanation.

The seasons are a souvenir of life: spring, which brings to life the newborn flowers; summer, which ripens the luscious fruits with its soothing warmth; autumn, which gives abundance to mankind with its golden harvest; and winter, which intones the requiem of the departed seasons with its icy mantle. First comes the creeping childhood, then the joyful boyhood and the rising youth, then the determined and industrious manhood, and finally the cold and waning old age, symbolising the winter of existence and the brevity of human life.

The earth produced its fruits for man without culture; there was neither irregularity nor inconstancy of the seasons. In a state of innocence and under a mild and clear sky, there was nothing to cause disease; spring was ceaseless - protected by the immediate presence of the Almighty and still innocent of violations of his law, he was happy in the pleasures granted him by the spontaneous benevolence of nature. But he took his destiny into his own hands. He violated the holy laws of his Creator - and took upon himself the punishments for his transgressions! His days are now shorter and burdened with disease; spring is no longer constant; for him, "the earth now brings forth thorns and briers." And for him the world has been afflicted with earthquakes, barrenness, storms, and fluctuations of the seasons, which spoil the fruits of his labor and bring deadly disease and suffering.

Among the moral causes that have shortened man's life, civilization, which has perfected man and robbed him of his primitive coarseness, seems to have enervated him: It seems to have led him to purchase advantages at the expense of a variety of diseases and ailments which were foreign to the first inhabitants of the world, and with which savages, yielding only to the impulses of nature, are not yet familiar. By uniting with his fellows in large assemblages, man seems to have loosened to some extent the firm bonds of his earthly existence; society, widening the circle of his needs, giving more energy to his passions, and producing such as are unknown to the natural man, seems to become a terrible and inexhaustible source of mischief.

Who was once lord of the soil you now possess has disappeared, and his bones have mingled with the dust of his dwelling. But Nature has furnished our mountains, fields, and meadows with the means of curing our diseases, to supply us with our own medicines without our having to avail ourselves of foreign articles; and the discoveries of each succeeding day convince us that she has graciously furnished man with the means of curing his own diseases in all the various countries and climates he inhabits. Not a day, not a month, not a year passes that we are not shown the surprising cures by roots, herbs, and simple remedies found in our natural kingdom, while all foreign remedies have utterly failed; and the day will come when calomel and mercurial medicines will no longer be needed, and we shall be independent of foreign medicines, which are often difficult to procure, frequently adulterated, and invariably command a price which the poor cannot pay. The uncultivated wilderness of our country is rich in herbs and plants that possess medicinal properties, and there are probably thousands of them whose virtues and properties are still unknown.

Professional pride and native avarice, contrary to the true spirit of justice, have in all ages and countries, from self-interest and want of liberality, delighted in concealing the divine art of curing diseases under complicated names and difficult or meaningless technical terms.

Medicine is there to fight death and disease, and that, of course, is its most important task. Death is the enemy. But the enemy has superior forces. In the end, he wins. And in a war you can not win, you do not want a general who fights to total annihilation.

You want someone who knows how to fight for territory that you can win and how to give it up when that's not possible, someone who understands that the damage is greatest when you fight only to the bitter end.

Increasingly, it appears that the military leaders who push soldiers forward keep saying, "Let me know when you are going to give up." Doctors tell the terminally ill that :comprehensive treatment is a train you can get off at any time - you just have to say when" But for most patients and their families, that's too much to ask. They continue to be plagued by doubts, fears and despair; some are deluded by the notion of what medical science can do. Our job in medicine is to deal with people as they are. People die only once. They have no experience to fall back on. They need doctors and nurses who are willing to have tough discussions and say what they have seen, help people prepare for what's coming, and save them from the camp-like oblivion that few really want. The story is going around the world. As incomes rise, private health care, usually paid for in cash, is growing rapidly. Doctors everywhere are all too willing to raise false hopes, prompting families to empty their bank accounts, sell their seed crops, and divert money from their children's education for pointless treatments.

There are three stages of medical development that peoples go through in parallel with their economic development. In the first stage, when a person lives in extreme poverty, he dies at home because he has no access to professional diagnosis and treatment. In the second stage, when a person's economy develops and he reaches a higher income level, he has more medical options available to him because of greater resources. He turns to the health care systems when he is sick. At the end of his life, he often dies in the hospital rather than at home. In the third phase, when a man's income reaches its highest level, he has the resources to take care of his quality of life, even when he is sick, and the number of deaths at home increases again.

Piety toward God should characterise everyone who engages in the administration of medicine; and no one should ever administer medicine without first asking the Almighty for the success of his ordinances-for where is the man who can expect success without the help and blessing of Heaven?

All efforts based on years of experience and study vanish at the touch of death; and the hold which the physician claims on life is as frail and weak as that which his patient possesses: the next moment may be his own, and the remedies which have so often been applied with success in the cases of others will surely fail him at last in his own case. In an unexpected moment a wave in the troubled sea of life will wipe out all his efforts, and he, in his turn, will be compelled to pay the debt which nature has exacted from thousands of his patients.

We will all shortly finish our allotted time on earth, even if it is unusually long, and leave behind us all that is now familiar and dear to us. Numerous races of men will follow us, without knowing that we once lived, and who will not retain even the remnant of a vague and empty memory of our existence!