Charaka says of all the treatments in Ayurveda Basti comprises the main component. By cleansing the colon and then applying herbal medicines there that nourish and heal the colon and improve its absorptive power we nourish the entire body. Charaka gives the analogy of nourishing a tree by its roots to get good flower, leaves and fruit.
Rasayana (literally, "the Path of Juice"), involves replenishing both the quality and the quantity of the body's fluids. Aging means loss of juice; just as old leaves dry out and blow away, bodies become shorter, smaller and stringier as they age. Joints dry out and leak; plasma volume decreases, as does total body weight; mass is lost from the bones by osteoporosis. The medieval Ayurvedic author Sharngadhara notes that with each passing decade the body loses, one by one, childhood, growth, lustre and complexion, intelligence, skin health, strength of sight, virility, valor, discrimination, the use of the sense organs of action, the use of the other senses, and finally, if one reaches the goal of one hundred twenty years of age, one's life itself. Rasayana's aim is to produce top-quality bodily tissues, eliminate senility and other diseases of old age, lengthen life, and enhance memory, intelligence, youth, lustre, sweetness of voice, strength of body and senses, and beauty.
Published with the kind permission of Dr. Robert Svoboda
Robert E. Svoboda, B.A.M.S. is the first Westerner ever to graduate from a college of Ayurveda and be licensed to practice Ayurveda in India. He graduated in 1980 from Tilak Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya in Pune, where world-renowned author and Ayurvedic Physician, Dr. Vasant Lad, B.A.M.S., M.A.Sc., was one of his professors. Since that time he has traveled extensively around the world, lecturing and conducting workshops on Ayurveda. Dr. Svoboda has traveled to more than fifty countries in the world, understands six languages and has authored several books. Dr. Svoboda consults with people privately.
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