Ashtānga Hridayam

Why do we want a medical system or a healing system? What is the reason for that? And we can actually look at one of the scriptures of Ayurveda to get the answer to this question.

It comes in the second verse of a scripture called the Ashtanga Hridayam.

And this particular Ayurveda scripture is renowned for its poetry.

And so what is said in the second verse is that a person who desires a long life which is the means for fulfilling the aims of life for a human being should commit to the teachings of Ayurveda.

Ayurveda had a complete clinical framework for this transition for over five thousand years.

It was documented in the classical texts, the Charaka Samhita, the Ashtanga Hridayam.

And this time period, what I find the most beautiful about it, is that Ayurveda never framed this as a disease or a deficiency or something that was withering away.

It framed midlife, perimenopause, menopause as a season.