hygiene, diet, and activities appropriate to one’s individual constitution,
and nourishing to one’s vital energies. At the foundation of such a life is
the Hindu principle of self-knowledge. Åyurveda prescribes self-
knowledge at an empirical level. The Åyurvedic foundation of self health-
care is knowledge: knowledge of the principles of nature that govern
health, and knowledge of one’s own psychophysical nature and require-
ments for optimum well-being. Moreover, self-knowledge in Åyurveda
functions within a context of religious meaning: the Self that one cares
for is a spirit supported by a physical body.
Åyurveda recommends that we adopt ways of living that support
our vitality, rather than compromising it. One means of doing this is to
regulate one’s life in accordance with the qualities of the seasons and
times of day. Time is a significant factor in Åyurveda’s conception of the
causes of disease and health:
The causes of disease relating to both mind and body are three-fold:
wrong utilization, non-utilization and excessive utilization of time,
mental faculties, and objects of the sense organs.The body and mind constitute the substrata of diseases and happiness
(i.e., positive health). Balanced utilization (of time, mental faculties and
objects of sense organs) is the cause of happiness.
CS 1:54–55In Åyurvedic self health-care, the factor of time especially concerns at-
tunement with qualities of energy that prevail in particular cycles of the
day and year. Information about daily and seasonal regimens is available
in the Caraka-samhitÓ ̄a^94 and other primary sources, but there are good
contemporary works on Åyurvedic health maintenance that make
Åyurvedic principles more accessible. For an example of the Åyurvedic
approach to living in accord with daily time-cycles, and in order to ap-
preciate Åyurvedic principles more concretely, consider some of Chopra’s
recommendations for daily routine.
Appreciation of Åyurveda’s prescription for daily routine requires
reference to the three doÓsasor vital principles, v ̄ata, pitta, and kapha,
whose basic natures are motion, metabolism, and stability, respectively.
These doÓsasgovern a three-phase cycle between sunrise and sunset,
which is repeated during the hours of darkness between sunset and sun-
rise. By waking before sunrise, “you take advantage of V ̄ata’s qualities of
lightness, exhilaration, and freshness. These are infused into your body
just before sunrise and last throughout the day.”^95 For evidence of this,
80 religious therapeutics