What are the five principles of Ayurveda?

What are the basic principles of the Ayurvedic system?

To understand the body, and all of creation for that matter, through the Ayurvedic lens, one must first be introduced to the concept of the five great elements. All organic and inorganic matter in the universe is made up out of ether, air, fire, water and earth. These are, rather than elements of the periodic table, elements that represent the state of matter. Earth is solid, water is liquid, fire is transformative, air is gaseous and ether is the field in which matter appears and the potential from which it stems. These elements are therefore stages in the creation of matter, ether being the most subtle and earth being the most gross, illustrated by the following analogy. 

What are the 6 qualities in Ayurvedic medicine?

Let’s look at a tangible example and how this elemental way of thinking can be converted in the Ayurvedic principles of health. The earth element is that which gives a solid structure to the cucumber, water is the cohesive factor that holds it together, fire enables it to ripen, air facilitates its growth and ether gives space in which the cucumber can manifest and develop to ultimately sustain other life by being broken down into small particles when we consume it in a delicious salad. 

Because everything is made up out of everything, we classify substances according to their elemental predominance. So we could say, the same cucumber is promoting the water element within our body, because it yields those cold, liquid, unctuous, heavy and dispersing qualities that are related to the water element to our system.

Now how does Ayurveda utilize the elemental and qualitative principles in healing? The qualities inherent to the cucumber are in general excellent to consume for the person with burning sensations during the summer, because of the cucumber’s opposite qualities to those present in this particular individual. However, these qualities would be detrimental for the person with a runny nose in the midst of winter. Ayurveda’s approach to treatment is viewed through the lens of the five great elements and operates according to the natural law: like increases like and opposites balance. In Ayurvedic eating principles as well as medicine, substances are classified by their taste, which are six in number; sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent each taste represents a combination of two elements, their energetic potency; cooling or heating energy, their post digestive effect and any special effect there might be, which cannot be defined by logic alone.