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Self Image and Self Definition - Ahamkara in Ayurveda
Ayurveda teaches us how to live longer, healthier lives by showing us the various elements and forces at work within us. Ayurveda teaches us how to manage these forces through diet, lifestyle, yoga, and therapeutic interventions, such as herbs and massage.
The elements that make up the individual human being are organized by forces called doshas. The doshas are vata (air, the movement principle), pitta (heat, the transformation principle) and kapha (water, the principle of cohesion). Understanding the doshas is the foundation of Ayurveda. All human beings have three doshas. The quantity of each is determined by our karma and genetics at the time of conception.
The factor that determines the strength of the doshas is our constitution. Every constitution is unique for the individual who possesses it. The constitution expresses tendencies, or potentials, which manifest when conditions are right. The factor that determines how these tendencies express themselves is a force called ‘ahamkara’ in Sanskrit.
Derived from Samkhya philosophy ‘ahamkara’ is the force that creates the sense of I-ness, ego, or our individual identity. It is the source of our likes and dislikes, our attractions and repulsions.
In Samkhya, ahamkara is described as one of four organs of the mind, and as such, its health is central to our wellbeing. We remember who we are, because ahamkara continuously refines and supports our self-definition. It provides us with a stable self-image, and allows us alter that self-image when change is necessary.
Ahamkara is our capacity to distinguish what we are and what we are not, what belongs to us and what does not. For example, it supports the body knowing what nutrients to absorb so that we can build health, and what substances are waste products or poisons that need to be rejected.
When ahamkara, our self-image, is weak, our ability to intuitively discriminate is reduced so that we cease to know what is appropriate for our health and wellbeing. We may become confused as to which kinds of exercises, foods, and even relationships are compatible and nourishing to us.
Ahamkara is our immunity, our ability to know what will harm us and what will nourish us, what belongs outside the body and what belongs inside. A weakened ahamkara leads to weakened immunity which may cause sickness in the form of influenza, cancer, or an autoimmune disease, (where the immune system begins to attack its own body).
To attain and maintain health we need to know how to maintain a strong, balanced ahamkara. We must learn to recognize how certain innate constitutional tendencies can encourage our ahamkara to express itself in negative ways creating illness and suffering.
Without some form of conscious self-development process guiding it, ahamkara will naturally tend move away from its center, the place where its balance resides.
We can use Ayurveda, yoga and any self-development process to improve our self-knowledge and self-image, to identify with healthy activities and beneficial habits. One key to this process is to bring ahamkara under the control of our consciousness through the practice of meditation.
Combining meditation with the knowledge of Ayurveda allows us to live a life in harmony with our individual needs. For example, a good self-image and sound self-knowing allows us to know the rate at which we can afford to live life in a graceful way. How much energy we can expend without wasting our life-force?
About the Author(s):
Dr Swami Shankardev Saraswati is an eminent yoga Acharya (authority), medical doctor, yoga therapist and internationally acclaimed author. As a direct disciple of Swami Satyananda Saraswati, he lived in the Bihar School of Yoga India for 10 years (1974-1985), where he trained to teach the highest practices of yoga-tantra.
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