health is exemplified by Jung’s conception of seeking greater wholeness
through bringing to the light of consciousness and integrating into one’s
awareness restricted and restricting forces of the unconscious.
Freedom is an integral concern in embodied human life and for med-
icine and the healing arts. Åyurveda is concerned with perpetuating free-
dom—medical, but also spiritual. Cromwell Crawford identifies the fol-
lowing three themes in his analysis of medical and religious elements of
Hindu medicine:
- Spirituality represents a dimension of health (as do the body and the
mind). - Spirituality... is not isolated from the mind-body complex, but em-
braces and empowers every cell and fiber of the organism. - The relationship of spirituality to health is reciprocal—health pro-
motes spirituality and spirituality promotes health.^92
Concern for freedom is at the heart of Hinduism—freedom from suffer-
ing, and from all that interferes with realizing one’s true nature.
Åyurveda’s province is the art and science of medicine; its first priority is
not religious liberation, but the immediate issues of health and sickness
of the body. Although Åyurveda is not primarily a mokÓsa- ́s ̄astraor sci-
ence of liberation, liberation is among the Hindu aims of life that
Åyurveda seeks to serve, along with material well-being, enjoyment, and
righteousness. The Carara-samhitÓ a ̄ refers to the goal of liberation [e.g.,
CS 4:5.6–7], and advises against skepticism regarding the existence of the
other world [1:11.6–33]. However, Åyurveda’s immediate focus is free-
dom in embodied life: freedom from physical and psychological afflic-
tions, and freedom to achieve one’s aims. “The happy person... has
achieved desired results of all actions and moves about where s/he likes”
[CS 4:30.24]. One’s ultimate aim might be earthly health, wealth, and en-
joyment, or it might be spiritual liberation, but either goal is assisted by
the wholesome life and strength attainable by application of Åyurvedic
principles.
ÅYURVEDIC RELIGIOUS THERAPEUTICSFascinating controversies surround the religious and scientific origins and
development of Åyurveda. In the words of Kenneth Zysk, Debiprasad
Chattopadhyaya rightly argues that
78 religious therapeutics