Rasayana or Jara Chikitsa is a part of Ayurvedic treatment dealing with preservation of youthfulness and longevity of life. Here are some important features of Gerontology or Jara chikitsa in Ashtang Ayurveda.
Rasayana Chikitsa
Rasayana Chikitsa is the branch of Ayurvedic science, which deals with various aspects of preventive health care. This branch of Ashtang Ayurveda aims at achieving a long and healthy life. It includes longevity, improved memory, health, youthfulness, glow, complexion, generosity, strength of body and senses. Rasayana improves the metabolic activities and results in best possible bio-transformation. Jara Cikitsa or Rasayana Tantra is the rejuvenating therapy, which promotes rejuvenation in a healthy person and cures the disease of an unhealthy person.
The philosophy of Ayurveda is to establish good health, rather than just curing diseases. Rasayana is an active step towards achieving this philosophy. It prescribes treatment for repairing wear and tear of the body, due to aging or diseases. It rejuvenates the tissues of the body giving the person undergoing the treatment a young look. Not only physical and mental, Rasayana provides spiritual aid to the body as well, thereby bringing the body out of its state of natural or man made loss. It also claims at holding back the process of aging. Rasayana-chikitsa basically boosts the ojas (vital force of life) and the immune system.
Rasayana chikitsa helps a person to maintain good health or to establish impaired or lost physical or mental health. The Jara chikitsa regime comprises of a very strict diet. Amalaki, haritaki, trifala, brungaraj, ashwagandha, punarnava, chitraka are few out of the long list of herbs that are called rasayanakar. The Rasayana medicines are believed to have aphrodisiac qualities as well. In short Rasayana chikitsa is rejuvenation of the soul. It provides a long, disease free and vigorous life to the person, who undergoes this therapy seriously, as it helps to bring life back to normal.
Three Modes Of Rasayana
Rasayana basically promotes the nutrition through three modes. They are:
- By directly enriching the nutritional intake of the body through increasing the consumption of satavarai, milk, ghee, etc
- By improving agni i.e. digestion and metabolism through bhallataka, pippali etc, thereby promoting nutrition.
- By promoting the capability of srotas or microcirculatory channels in the body, through herbs like guggulu, tulsi, and so on
Types Of Rasayana Chikitsa
The first type of Rasayana Chikitsa is mainly for people, who cannot dedicate long hours and are short of both enthusiasm and effort. Such types of patients are given a short package of rasayana, so that they continue their routine life simultaneously. In the process, patients generally undergo a dietary change and also a change in their regular lifestyle. The medicines, given in the therapy, are carefully chosen, bearing in mind, the patient�s age, sex, prakruti (constitution), habits, living conditions and diseases acquired in the past and also present state of the body.
The second type is a more complicated process and involves total reformation of the body. In such a therapy, the patient is isolated from his/her routine life and is kept in a kuti (hut), which is specially designed for rasayana-chikitsa, under the observation of an ayurvedic specialist. The whole lifestyle of the person is continuously monitored. It is believed that when the person comes out of the kuti, his/her body is completely rejuvenated. All the old tissues are replaced by new and lively tissues. The therapy can be termed as the reincarnation and reinvigoration of the soul.
