Yoga’s four-part therapeutic paradigm not only identifies the com-
mon healing functions of Yoga and medical science, but also conveys that
Yoga offers health of a superior kind. The meanings connoted by the
term ‘health’ depend on our metaphysical conception of the human
being. Yoga regards the person’s true nature as consciousness, while the
body, senses, and mind are considered evolutes of primordial matter,
prakÓrti, the ground of entanglement in materiality, ignorance, and suffer-
ing. In Yoga, the true Self as consciousness takes priority over the
psychophysical self in establishing the meaning of health. We ordinarily
speak of health in reference to the well-being of the body and mind, but
at its basic conceptual level, health means wholeness and well-being. De-
terminants or criteria of physical health derivable from the texts of
Åyurvedic medicine are applicable to Yogic liberation—notably, whole-
ness, integration, identity, and freedom. These Åyurvedic determinants of
health are integral to grounding the claim that in classical Yoga, libera-
tion is healing in an ultimate sense.
Wholeness and Holiness
Wholeness in the context of human health connotes a state without im-
pairment and suffering. A holistic perspective recognizes the interdepen-
dence of factors constituting person and environment, and that influence
states of health and illness. Yoga’s prescription for liberation is paradig-
matic of holistic treatment of the dimensions of the person. Practice of
the eight components of Yoga cultivates human physicality, psychology,
morality, and spirituality by integrating the functions within and among
134 religious therapeutics
Yoga’s Therapeutic Paradigm in the Yoga-s ̄utras
Heya To be eliminated:
The ailment to be eliminated: duÓhkha: suffering. YS 2.15, 2:16
Hetu Cause of the ailment:
The cause of the ailment is misidentification of Self.
(knower) and non-Self (knowable). YS 2:17, 2:24
H ̄ana Removal of the ailment:
Knowledge of appropriate remedy. YS 2.25
H ̄anopayaMeans of elimination of the ailment:
Therapy, remedy, medication. YS 2:26, 2:28, 2:29