Why do we practice Yoga & Ayurveda together?

Yoga and Ayurveda are vast topics, particularly when one considers both their traditional and modern developments and the great variety of topics and practices that each can cover. Yoga is not just asanas and Ayurveda is not just herbs, however important these may be! They cover the whole of life.

Ayurveda or the “Science of Life” is a 5,000-year-old medical practice from India. It is a traditional holistic science of mind-body-spirit wellness that is preventative in nature and it helps in managing ailments through addressing the root cause of disorders. Ayurveda uses various tools in disease management such as herbs, therapies like Panchakarma bodywork, and Yoga.

Yoga has become a household name in the West to enhance fitness, reduce stress and cultivate inner peace. Traditionally, it is a form of Sadhana, or spiritual practice for the purpose of self-realization. Yoga is not perceived in the West to address ailments per se, and this is largely due to the fact it is practiced separately from Ayurveda. Yoga in a therapeutic context is essentially Ayurvedic in nature.

In the words of Dr. David Frawley, esteemed scholar of Ayurveda, Yoga and Vedanta and director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies:

Using Ayurveda along with Yoga helps us gain complete harmony and balance in body and mind so that we can discover our true Self that is one with all. All Yoga teachers should learn the fundamentals of Ayurveda and all Yoga students should seek Ayurvedic guidance to enhance their Yoga practice.

Ayurveda and Yoga are sister sciences that have evolved from the Vedas, part of the same ancient healing tradition with common goals of preserving our health and raising consciousness.

Both Yoga and Ayurveda are historically closely related and have developed in parallel since ancient times. They have diverged in modern times, over the last hundred and fifty years, particularly outside of India, in which Yoga without Ayurveda was for a long time the norm. However, Yoga and Ayurveda are becoming reconnected again, not only in India but throughout the entire world. Their reintegration is the reintegration of consciousness, life, healing and transformation!

Yogic and Ayurvedic Lifestyle

Ayurveda is not merely a medical system aimed at the treatment of disease, but a healthy and natural way of living, and of developing one’s highest potential in life. Ayurveda begins with right lifestyle, including daily and seasonal health regimens, designed for each individual based upon their nature, constitution, environment, and life circumstances.

Yoga also begins with a certain lifestyle, most commonly defined through the yamas and niyamas, the principles and practices of a yogic way of life. The eight limbs of classical Yoga form the practices of a higher lifestyle promoting prana, creativity, higher development of the senses, mind, and awareness. They are helpful, if not essential for any higher well-being for the human being.

An Ayurvedic lifestyle implies Yoga or conscious living, and a yogic lifestyle implies Ayurveda and living in harmony both with nature and with one’s own nature. The two inherently go together.

What Ayurveda Provides for Yoga

Ayurveda provides many benefits for enhancing Yoga practice. Yoga first of all requires adaptation at an individual level for its maximum efficacy. Ayurveda provides the principles of individualized adaptation primarily through its theory of the three Doshas of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Knowing one’s doshic type helps one in the application of the Yoga practices, asanas, pranayamas and other factors. Ayurveda also helps us adapt diet, herbs, and clinical practices to compliment our practice of Yoga. We could say that Ayurveda provides a basis for Yogic living or Yoga life, which is Yoga according to Ayus. Yoga/Ayus.

What Yoga Provides for Ayurveda

The benefits of Yoga for Ayurveda are similarly enormous. Yoga provides for Ayurveda an entire line of lifestyle, physical, psychological, and spiritual treatment measures that help bring out the higher dimension of Ayurveda. Not only does asana have tremendous healing benefits that need to be explored, so does pranayama.

We can call asana the external medicine of Yoga, much like external treatment measures in Ayurveda like a massage that similarly works on the musculo-skeletal system. We can call pranayama the internal medicine of Yoga, much like the taking of herbs, which has a more primary effect upon the circulatory, nervous, respiratory, and digestive systems. Pranayama helps us increase our energy and vitality and can help correct other pranic imbalances in the body and mind.

Pratyahara or Yogic relaxation aids in Ayurvedic healing, showing how we can draw in our mental, sensory, and physical energy for rejuvenation. A good example of this is the practice of Yoga Nidra.

Dharana or Yogic concentration is the main way to develop our intelligence, buddhi or prajna so that we can avoid mistakes of judgment that can end up causing disease and suffering. Increasing our attention span, it can aid in our work and study, particularly in the computer age.

Meditation or dhyana is the sovereign way to take care of spiritual suffering, which is rooted in the disturbances of the mind.

Raja Yoga, which implies all eight limbs of Yoga, is particularly good for psychological ailments and also is a great aid for the rejuvenation of both body and mind. That is why to practice Yoga effectively, one may need to remove the toxins or doshas of the body and mind through Pancha Karma.

Yoga and Ayurveda for Wholistic Living

The human being is a whole person, which extends to the entire mind, body and beyond. Even if we may somehow be physically limited or impaired, we still want to be treated like a whole person. This principle of wholeness is the Atman or Purusha, the higher Self that pervades and upholds both body and mind. It is that same consciousness principle that is the principle of wholeness in the world of nature and is responsible for the integrity of the ecosystem and the linking together of everything in the universe like a single organism.

Yoga begins with the principle of wholeness as establishing consciousness as the foundation of all that we do.Ayurveda recognizes the wholeness and integrity of body, mind and the natural world through the power of Prana.Wholistic living implies living in the wholeness of our own nature, which is linked to the wholeness of the entire universe.

A New Integration of Yoga and Ayurveda

A new integration of Yoga and Ayurveda must consider both the traditional and modern bases and applications of both systems. It should take an integral mind-body approach, and aim both at primary well-being and be capable of the treatment of specific diseases as well.Yet it begins with Yoga/Ayur or Yogic living, which is Ayurveda. This integration of Yoga and Ayurveda can revitalize each of these great Vedic sciences, and help humanity enter into a new era of healing. Yoga and Ayurveda can help us heal ourselves and our world, nature, mind and spirit.

References:

D, Fawley. (1997).Ayurveda and the Mind: The Healing of Consciousness. Lotus Press

D, Fawley. (2021). Yoga and Ayurveda

A Complete System of Well-Being. Banyan Botanicals. https://www.banyanbotanicals.com/info/ayurvedic-living/living-ayurveda/yoga/yoga-and-ayurveda/