Pitta Dosha and its role in human success

[Guest guest]

Here is a sloka from the Gita where the Lord describes in essence the

human condition and its dilemma – also giving inherantly the

suggestion to its possible solution.

 

"When one's desire is not gratified a person becomes angry, the

desire gets transformed into anger, one loses his memory, his

understanding becomes clouded and his intellect gets perverted under

the heat and passion of this state. From anger comes delusion, from

delusion loss of memory results, from loss of memory the destruction

of discrimination occurs, from destruction of discrimination we

perish."

 

Here we can see clearly that it is excess Pitta Dosha and Raja Guna

that separates us from our true self and brings us to a state of

alienation, erratic passions, and cravings. When the body is

afflicted by excess acids which are selfgenerated and do not need any

external reference – although external input certainly contributes to

the problems – we find ourselves under the influence of these acids

and anger, irritability, and projection captures the consciousness .

Just as when Vata Dosha is in excess we will find our minds under the

influence of fear and anxiety. Excess Kapha Dosha will bring

lethargy, heaviness, emotionalism, and dullness.

 

The human body can generate huge quantaties of acids under stress and

overreactiveness. This is the reason why people are often surprised

to find that even though they take many anti pitta substances and

reduce pitta in the diet - still acids remain dominant. I have seen

this problem even in yoga practioners who have not learned how to

stop excess internal created acids. When the muscles tense under

stress the circulation is deminished then acids, vata, and kapha

accumulate this is how the excess doshas work together to create

internal acids and fermentations - therefore diseases - including the

ultimate disease that the Lord is referring to - alienation and

delusion.

 

Pitta Dosha because of its relationship to heat has the quality of

radiating and moving up (under the influence of vata). It is

projective and also very rapid in its action – this projection is

what causes the loss of memory – when one is in the state of

projection one loses self-awareness. If we lose self awareness the

potential for finding true causes gets perverted and we find

ourselves under the influence of delusion or unrealistic analysis.

Loss of self-awareness precludes proper attention to the real issues

and sets us on a spiral of projective blame and denial. In the case

of anger one is projecting the excess acid condition of the mind onto

the world. If the issues of health and happiness always remain

external then we might remain alienated from the solutions.

 

When the Rasa is in an acidic reactive condition – there will be no

possibility of calm clear analysis – this is only possible in the

sattvic condition. Likewise when the mind is under the influence of

the Tamasic Guna the mind will be to dull, lazy, and unengaged to

realistically solve the problem. This is the reason why many

intelligent people find themselves unable to solve life problems – it

is because they have confused cleverness with intelligence – the two

are very different.

 

Since excess heat and passion are the cause of this alienation then

it becomes clear that the answer to the problem is to reduce the

Pitta Dosha and its afflicting effect on the quality of the mind and

emotions. This will need to be accomplished by moving toward a more

sattvic – cool, stable, and intelligent (less reactive) quality of

the mind. The fastest path to achieve this is to remove the excess

acids from the body with light nourishing non Pitta forming diet,

anti pitta medicines, ghee, water, and veerachana.

 

Important elements in acid accumulation besides excess pitta forming

foods and substances are too much food, bad food combinations, cold

foods, etc. – practices that cause the food to become stagnant in the

stomach and therefore the fermentation process is slowed and the

chyle remains to long in the stomach. All of those practices create

large quantities of acids in the stomach and the intestines. Because

of the acidic chyle and stool the PH balance in the intestines become

too acidic and create a cascade of problems. Keeping the bowels clear

is essential because of these issues – this helps keeps the acid

excesses moving out of the body. Water is useful because it helps to

keep the stools from getting thick and dry. Water of course also

helps to dilute the excess acids in the blood and Rasa – dehydration

is a very negative effect when the blood and Rasa are acidic. This is

a major cause of many overheating processes such as anger and

overreaction. Condensed acids irritate the nervous system and further

exacerbate the reactive condition of the sympathetic nervous system.

Also when we are dehydrated the problems of ama become much worse

because as the hydration is lost the ama becomes even more thick and

sticky making its blocking qualities more acute.

 

One of the foundation concepts of Ayurveda is recovery of the Rasa.

This concept is synonymous with recovery and health in the practice

of Rasayana. The best cure of all problems of the Rasa is to remove

excess Dosha including - and maybe especially - removal of excess

pitta Dosha. So shodhana therapies have been used since ancient times

for this purpose – but shodhana is only the therapy for the old Dosha

accumulation – most importantly we must observe sattvic diet and life

style to keep new accumulation of Dosha.

 

As we age all of these problems become more difficult to treat and to

control. Therefore we should make sure that excess pitta Dosha should

be guarded against at all cost. The alienation that one feels from

this excess pitta dosha personally and socially as a result of anger,

irritation etc. are the cause of personal alienation, breakdown of

relationship, and animosity toward others. Socially it is the cause

of nationalism, wars, and all conflicts.

 

Only one of the sattvic types has any anger at all and this will be

very carefully expressed in an appropriate impersonal context. This

is a lower sattvic type - none of the higher sattvic types has any

anger at all – purified minds and bodies never project excess heat

onto the world because they do not have excess heat. They are by

definition calm, clear, intelligent, and observant of the personal

and the impersonal facts – the opposite of angry.

 

Therefore the Lord's exposition of the role that excess heat plays in

human failure and destruction gives a clear way out of this problem –

purification of the Rasa – achievement of sattvic condition – these

are the ways out of projection, anger, alienation, loss of memory,

and delusion.

 

 

{if any one is interested I will post on the various sattvic types

and their manifastations – also it is interesting to study the

various pitta and tamasic types. One good book for western readers on

dosha and its influence on personality and personality issues is

Robert Svoboda's `Prakruti'}

[Guest guest]

Vinod,

 

Thats very nice elucidation. I am sure we all can use your offer to further

elucidate on Sattavik and Tamasik types and their manifestations.

 

Vinod

[Guest guest]

I have a book called Prakriti, Your ayurvedic constitution by Robert Svoboda,

would this be the same?

Bonnie