Ayurveda, the science of life, is part of the ageless Vedic heritage of India. Speculations about its origin take us back several millennia before the Common Era. The extensive literature on this subject has one common emphasis — that the essence of Ayurveda is to preserve good health, which is every human being’s birthright.
Ayurveda prescribes lifestyle changes, with emphasis on
tranquillity of mind derived from universal compassion, as an insurance against
the occasional illness. In this system, disease is only an accident. Just as
road accidents are rare if one follows traffic rules, disease would be an
exception if one followed the lifestyle prescribed in Ayurveda, which is not
hard to do.
The human body has a powerful inbuilt immune system that
could correct most, if not all, ills that we are heir to. In the unlikely event
of this mechanism failing, and only then, should doctors interfere; and that
too to help the system when possible. In fact, the concept of immune deficiency
syndromes had been developed in ancient India.
Methods of boosting body immunity are the mainstay of
Ayurvedic therapeutics; the panchakarmas — detoxification through controlled
use of emesis, purgation, sweating, and other such methods —form one such
technique.