Prakruti vs. Vikruti: Using Your Constitution to Understand Relationships

Using this knowledge of prakruti, if your spouse is upset and angry you can say to him or her, “Honey, it’s not you, it’s your pitta!” That will open a new dimension of understanding of emotional reactions in the relationship. Use the knowledge of your prakruti as a baseline, to see where you should be. Then look at your vikruti, your current imbalances, as a clue to help you restore balance, using the food charts, yoga postures, herbs, recommended exercises, and the like, presented throughout this book. For instance, if your vikruti shows more pitta than your prakruti, you will want to follow the guidelines for pacifying pitta.

If you have a disorder that is caused by excess vata, pitta, or kapha, follow the guidelines for pacifying that dosha. For sinus congestion, for example, follow a kapha-reducing diet until the condition subsides. If your prakruti and vikruti seem about the same, then choose the diet and lifestyle guidelines for your strongest dosha. Finally, remember that “balance” does not mean equal amounts of vata, pitta, and kapha; rather, it means maintaining your proportion of the three doshas, according to your constitution.

It is not a static state, but a dynamic equilibrium that needs constant renewal. Chapter 3 Why We Get Sick W hat is health? What is disease? Are sickness and health just a matter of luck, or of which bacteria you happen to encounter in your daily life?

What can we do to maintain a positive state of health and avoid getting sick? These are questions that the five-thousand-year-old tradition of Ayurvedic medicine has considered in depth. The answers, drawn from deep insight and generations of practical experience, can help us prevent illness from developing and heal it if it arises. Let’s begin by examining the Ayurvedic understanding of health.

Then we will look at ten potential causes of illness and how you can counteract them. Once you are aware of the factors that can either maintain health or disturb your body’s equilibrium and set the disease process in motion, you can organize your life for health and balance. Finally, we will consider the Ayurvedic understanding of how illness develops, from its earliest, invisible stages until it is fully grown. The Definition of Health According to Ayurveda, health is not simply the absence of disease.