For me, personally, practicing Āyurveda is political.
Hear me out.
From my experience as a westerner, and I am speaking to my own lived experience, the idea of living in connection with nature and/or the spiritual order is considered woo woo, anti-science, and just plain weird.
I get a lot of raised eyebrows when I am asked what it is that I do.
You see, capitalism makes a commodity of every. single. thing. in existence.
Including the body, Mind, and spirit.
I have even noticed that counter cultural or spiritual movements will not be accepted in the west unless they can be commodified.
(I’ll get into this more in another post).
From the moment we are born, society tells us that we are not the authority on our own state of being.
Something outside of us, something foreign, is responsible for illness, whether it be in the body or in the mind (or in society).
There are germs outside of us, lurking everywhere, in nature, and in our homes, that could be making us sick, too fat, too thin, too hungry, too sad, the list goes on…
We grow up in a state of anxiety about health, physical and mental. Disconnected from the natural order and from our own internal compass, we look at the people around us as a measuring stick for normalcy. We turn to the internet. To products. We bleach away the ‘toxins.’ We turn to the powers that be. And we medicate, in perpetuity, without understanding the long term impact of what we are taking. And we do all of this while continuing to pursue lifestyles that go against our inherent nature.
The body becomes something to be feared, something that could turn against us.
This is disconnection by design.
Because disconnection breeds discontent, and that’s profitable.
It is said that Āyurveda first came about when the people moved from the forests to the cities.
Mysterious illnesses began to show up in the population; these were diseases of disconnection. The seers realized this, and so the wisdom of nature was looked to in order to heal the people, and thus, Āyurveda was born.
It is separation from the natural order and from our soul’s purpose that allows the body, mind, and being to be commodified.
Because a society that is divorced from nature, from its own inherent sense of right and wrong, from true aligned purpose, is sick, so when we become sick, we are only left with the tools of capitalism to help us heal. In fact, indigenous medicine systems all over the world have been suppressed and attacked throughout history. The British burned the Āyurvedic texts and cut the hands off of the Vaidyas so they could not read the pulse or pass their knowledge on. This is disconnection by design. So that we are ONLY left with the tools of capitalism to help us heal.
Now I realize that I have to include a disclaimer here, because I want to be clear that I am not saying that Āyurveda exists in opposition to Western or Allopathic Medicine. Not from my perspective it doesn’t. Western Medicine exists for a reason -it is also a part of the manifestation. It exists alongside Āyurveda and other indigenous medical systems and spiritual knowledge, and carries its own innate wisdom. There is value to be found in all paths, and as such, Western Medicine does have value. It has done a tremendous amount of good in the world, but it isn’t the only answer. The value is knowing when, why, and how it is to be used. In an emergency, it can be the quickest line of defense available to us, and can save your life. But, it shouldn’t always be the first line of defense when it comes to illness, especially diseases of disconnection.
So for me, Āyurveda is connection to the natural order. It is, at its essence, a spiritual path. The true practice of Āyurveda requires that we live in concert with nature. And in order to do this, we must revere her. We must see her as part of us. And this really changes the way that we interact with the world. Because if nature is a part of us, she cannot be commodified. She must be cared for, nurtured, and listened to, inside of us, and outside of us. And because capitalism colonizes our minds, bodies, beings, and the natural order in itself, walking this path is a form of resistance.
