Re : Ayurveda is a complete science.

[Guest guest]

Dear Rajeev,

Thank you for your deifinition of openness.

 

1) The first criterion in your definition is documentation.

There are plenty of texts available on various topics of ayurveda.

Some like Charak Samhita etc. are well known while many are unknown.

If you expected the ancient acharyas to publish their knowledge in

English with notations for your ready reference than you will be

disappointed. But slowly and surely many of the texts are getting

translated and coming in the public domain. If you care to

acknowledge it even the intention to form the group is also the

same. Right now you may have to browse through the entire archives

to get to the information you need but much of it which is not

readily available else where is available through this group website.

 

2) Your second criterion is de-mystification. I am not sure what you

exactly mean by that but if you mean that each and every point

should be clearly explained, then it already is. I repeat my

previous statement that if you try to understand ayurvedic terms

using modern parameters per se than what you will get is garbage. If

you try to read text written in a vernacular font (like devnagari)

in TIMES ROMAN font than what you see is garbage, but to deny that

the information is not present or that it is unscientific or

mystified would be foolish with a capital "F". Many people come in

with a biased mind and then accuse ayurveda of bias. The style which

most ancient ayurveda texts follow is the style in which most

ancient Indian texts of any field are written. So we have the granth

or samhita first which has to be read in its entirety. Then we have

the tika which is an explanation of the difficult parts. This tika

can be by many different persons. Then we have what is known as

paribhasha etc. etc. But many people like you randomly pick up a

sentence from the main granth, try to examine it on modern

parameters and when it doesnt fit simply label it

as "unscientific", "not clear", "mysterious" etc.

 

3) The third criterion is standardization. The world had changed

much since the time many of the texts were written. Style of study

has also changed. You can't expect thousands years of experience to

be standardised in one or two months. Efforts towards this have

started and are in full swing. Visit the rasa-shastra department of

any ayurvedic college where post-graduate degrees are offered and

you will get information on the same. Allthough there is much to be

desired in terms of finance, infrastructure etc. you cannot claim

that no efforts are made. Even many pharma companies like

Dhootpapeshwar (they have done very good work in field if gold

bhasmas), Himalaya etc are doing good work in this field.

 

As regards your last query on kajjali, I do think you already have

information on what it is, where it is used etc. You will have to

define "convincing explanation" for us to give you one.

This reminds me of a story which is attributed to many people. But

lets just say that a religious preacher was giving a discourse on

god and his kindness etc. Among the listeners a person stood up and

said, "I am a man of common sense. I only believe what I see. I will

believe that there is a god only if you can put him up in front of

me on the table." The preacher replied, "I would love to do so, but

first I will have to be convinced that you have common sense. Please

put it up on the table so that everyone here can be convinced that

you have common sense".

 

Lastly for a person who claims to have done a lot of study on

ayurveda, please refrain from making loose statements like "ayurveda

relies heavily on heavy metals". Even if you would have gone through

the archives of this group, you would have come to know that use

of "metal bhasma" (as opposed to metals) is only a very small part

of the vast range of medicines used in ayurveda. In fact people are

looking upto ayurveda because much of its medication are herb-based

(as opposed to herbal).

 

Cybervaidya

 

> Openness points to efforts towards documentation, de-

mystification, and standardization.

> Today westerners are shouting against use of Heavy metals in

ayurvedic medicines and ayurveda heavily relies on them. I am eager

to read a convincing explanation on the use 'kajjali" in many

ayurvedic medicines.