Kouruk (final)

Dear Aavesh,

The anecdote is legendary. In some versions of folk memory, the characters somewhat change. So, we have the divine physician-twin Ashwini Kumar, the bird being a `shuka-pakshi'. Thus `kah (who)' plus `aruk (without disease)' becomes `ko-ruk' in a fused compound that goes well with a bird's call. Ko-ruk is "who's without disease?"

He is `aruk', who's:

Hitabhuk: who eats only that which is beneficial, not harmful;

Mitabhuk: who eats never in excess; and

Ritabhuk: who eats in keeping with season (time of the year).

I tend to interpret the third Ko-ruk tenet this way rather than in ways that take `rita' for meaning right/righteous, as in "Satyam bachmi ritam bachmi…" (Atharva Veda).

That is how I have all along (for decades) understood this forceful exemplum, in the Indian wisdom tradition, on health -- which encapsulates everything we need to know if we are to keep illness at bay. The `ritabhuk' line of thought, in fact, takes us into a whole stream of Ayurveda.

Thank you for bringing it up,

RK