Ayurveda has two basic aims: First, to preserve the health of healthy people and to help them attain the four principle aims of life (virtue, purpose or wealth, pleasure, and release or liberation from cycle of rebirth); second, to treat illness and disease [9]. Thus, the ayurvedic definition of health by Sushruta: One whose doshas are in balance, whose appetite is good, whose dhatus are functioning normally, whose malasC are in balance, and whose physiology, mind and senses are always full of bliss, is called a healthy person [10].
Health, according to ayurvedic theory, is defined as: uninterrupted physical, mental, spiritual happiness and fulfillment; a true balance of organs/systems, psyche and spirit, and balanced and creative relationships with fellow creatures and nature as a whole, family, friends, work, climate, ideals and customs, truth and ourselves [9], the universe and ourselves; balance and harmony of the three doshas. According to the Caraka samhita, well-being is a “disease free state” to be pursued for the attainment of “virtue, wealth and gratification” [10]. A person whose self, mind, and senses are harmonious and cheerful is healthy. In Sanskrit, svastha means healthy; sva means self and stha means established: established in self. Self has three parts-body, mind and spirit [11]. To be healthy is thus to have mental, spiritual and physical peace, along with social well-being.
On the physical level, health is the “continued maintenance of the best possible working of the human body under normal, and sometimes even abnormal, environmental conditions” [12]. A healthy, peaceful person is totally satisfied with the physical body and experiences no strain or tension; because of this ease, she is partly not aware of the physical body and is able to move/ live beyond the body.
