Ritucharya - Seasonal Ayurveda
Dr Kanika Verma
Ayurveda has a concept of Swasthvritta “ Sphere of Health “ There are so many disease-causing factors among all of us but some succumb and fall sick, some recover and some do not. There are many people who will not fall sick at all in the similar circumstances. Diseases occur when there is a suitable environment for them to occur.
In order to understand the approach of Ayurveda towards health and disease prevention let us imagine leaves falling from a weed and our task is to keep the place clean. There are 3 ways to it. Either we can keep collecting the leaves or we can cut the weed down or we can make the soil (environment) unsuitable for its growth. In this illustration collecting the leaves is the maintenance of the disease, cutting the weed is killing the microbes or cancer cells etc, making soil infertile is turning the body environment inhospitable preventing disease growth. Ayurveda works on the route cause i.e. treating the soil.
The most important external factor for aging identified in Ayurveda is the seasonal change. The seasons tend to disturb the homeostasis (constant state of the body). That is why we have a seasonal cough and colds. Although these small disorders help the body to overcome and adjust to the seasonal changes, they come at a cost. Exposure to seasons guides the physiology of the body. Seasonal changes result in physiological jolts in the process of maintaining homeostasis in the body. These jolts cause minor diseases which are overcome rapidly by the body, but in the due course of time, these constant changes accelerate the aging process.
The concept of preventive healthcare is just like having the mirrors of a car in the right place and applying brakes at the right time, and gradually, to minimize wear and tear. If we prepare the body for the changes that are going to come, then there is no sudden collision with the seasonal changes. The human body is a very complicated machine that requires regular servicing. Vitamin pills, exercise, and annual health tests are not enough.
The word ritucharya emerges from the combination of two words - Ritu (season) and Charya (conduct). Therefore, Ritucharya is the Ayurvedic preventive seasonal regimen that helps to protect the body from seasonal disorders and also ageing in the long run.
When I first starting clinics as an Ayurvedic physician, I was finding incomplete results with Ayurvedic medicine. Initially, I felt it may be due to low quality raw materials or sub-standard manufacturing processes of the herbs. But one of my experiences with an overseas client in Norway opened my eyes to the basics of Ayurveda. The Norwegian client had no access to classical ayurvedic medicines, so I had to heal him with optimising diet and lifestyle alone. I found incredible results, something that I could not achieve even with medicines.
Ayurveda says that the fundamental treatment is Nidan Parivarjanam or elimination of the cause and wrong food/lifestyle is the fundamental cause for almost all disorders. So, with a compatible diet and lifestyle, we can have a long disease-free life. One of the crucial factors is seasonal change. Ritucharya is the detailed knowledge about the compatibility of diet, lifestyle during different seasons, and their sandhikaal (transition period). The importance of Ritucharya lies in its amazing ability to ensure a smooth metabolic transition from one season to the other.
Rituacharya is an amazing and deep topic, this book is the perfect place to start to obtain your understanding of this grand science. I hope that it helps you to make better health choices.
