Jatharagni and the Ayurvedic Model of Digestion

The central fire, called jatharagni, governs the digestion and assimilation of food. The other agnis (the fire component in the cells, tissues, and organs) perform the local process of digestion and nutrition. When agni is robust and healthy, then whatever a person eats, the system digests, assimilates, and absorbs it, then eliminates the impurities. But when the doshas are aggravated because of poor diet, an unhealthy lifestyle, or negative emotions, they first affect agni, which becomes unbalanced.

When agni becomes weakened or disturbed, food is not properly digested. The undigested, unabsorbed food particles accumulate in the gastrointestinal tract and other subtle sites in the body and turn into a toxic, sticky, foul-smelling substance called ama. (Ama may also be formed by bacterial invasion and cellular metabolic waste.) In the third (“spread”) stage of the disease process, ama overflows from its site of origin to other bodily channels such as the blood vessels, capillaries, and lymphatics, and clogs the channels and the cell membranes. When these molecules of ama clog the channels, the cellular intelligence (prana) which is constantly flowing between the cells gets blocked, and some cells become isolated.

An isolated cell is a lonely cell, and a lonely cell is a confused cell. Pathological changes begin to occur. But the root cause of cytopathological changes is the movement of these molecules of ama. So the ama has to be eliminated from the body by panchakarma or other means.

(See “Techniques for Cleansing and Purification” in chapter 4.) 4. DEPOSITION OR INFILTRATION The aggravated dosha enters an organ, tissue, or system that is weak or defective, due to previous trauma, genetic predisposition, accumulated emotional stress, repressed emotions, or other factors. These weak areas in the body can be described as negative locations, like potholes in the road. Smoking cigarettes, for example, creates weakness in the lungs; eating too much sugar creates weakness in the pancreas and blood tissue, and so on.

The newly arrived, aggravated humor (dosha) creates confusion within the cellular intelligence of the weaker tissue and overwhelms it, changing its normal qualities and functions. The quality of the aggravated dosha suppresses the normal qualities of the tissue and combines with it, creating an altered state, changed in structure and function. In this way, the “seeds” of disease begin to sprout. Up to this point, the disease has not appeared on the surface, but it can be detected by a skilled physician or recognized by imbalances in the doshas such as those mentioned above.