consideration the most general conditions of life: climate, seasons, cus-
toms, postures. Ecology was an integral part of this practical context.”^74
The volume of the Caraka-samhitÓ ̄adealing with the body is the
fourth volume, Íar ̄ıra-sthana ̄ (sar ́ ̄ıra:body). It has chapters on mind and
soul, embryology, anatomy, obstetrics, and pediatrics. In its fifth chapter,
PuruÓsavicaya Íar ̄ıra, “Individual and Universe,” is this verse that ex-
presses the cosmological and pragmatic significance of relationality:
If one realizes himself as spread in the entire universe and the entire uni-
verse spread in himself, he is indeed in possession of transcendental and
worldly vision. His serenity of mind based on wisdom never fades away.
CS 4:5.20Creativity
In Chopra’s articulation of Åyurveda, life itself is creativity, and healing is
a creative act. The body, its systems, and its very cells have creative intel-
ligence. At a quantum level, we are continually creating ourselves, physi-
cally and with our intelligence.^75 To illustrate the operation of creativity
in human physiology, Chopra cites Claude Bernard, who described how
the laws of physics and biochemistry “subordinate themselves and suc-
ceed one another in a pattern, and according to a law which pre-exists;
they repeat themselves with order, regularity, constancy, and they har-
monize in such a manner as to bring about the organization and growth
of the individual.”^76 Chopra conceives disease as diversion from the flow
of intelligence,^77 and he sees creative intelligence as a key to health, that
is, to creating conditions for new and more successful patterns in the
functioning of the body/mind. In his work on aging and longevity, Cho-
pra connects creativity with the universal force of creation. Invoking the
traditional Hindu view of the three forces by which the universe exists—
creation, maintenance, and destruction—Chopra writes:
The genes of every species include the code for creating new cells, main-
taining each cell for a certain time, and destroying it to make way for
another generation of tissue. This three-in-one intelligence is what you
are trying to affect when you consciously shape your life; it is up to you
which aspect—creation, maintenance, or destruction—is most domi-
nant.... As long as creation dominates your existence, you will keep
growing and evolving.^78As regards creativity conceived in the usual sense of realizing and ex-
pressing new meanings, Chopra recommends creative activity for elders
72 religious therapeutics