The Ayurvedic definition of health is that state in which the structure and function of a particular individual is operating optimally and the individual is in a state of physical, mental, and spiritual equilibrium. Both Charaka and Vagbhata elegantly describe the Ayurvedic state of health:
Disease manifests as the opposite of some or all of the criteria for health listed above. It is a state of dysequilibrium of the doshas, dhatus, agnis, and malas; the individual is out of harmony both internally and with relation to the environment and experiences unpleasant sensations and misery in some form (duhkya).
Ayurveda asserts the truth of the principle of svabhavoparamavada, which states that every living being has an inherent tendency to move in the direction of self-healing and balance. The balance toward which we naturally move is our prakriti or our unique and natural proportion of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha inherited by us at birth. The disease state is known as vikriti, which represents a deviation from that natural proportion of the doshas. According to Ayurveda, if one lives a natural, simple, and clean life there will always be more momentum in the direction of health than towards disease. There is an inherent tendency in Nature to move from vikriti to prakriti and systems of medicine are merely strategies to assist this gentle, yet inexorable, self-healing progression.
Yet despite the powerful natural inclination towards health, we nevertheless observe many individuals acquiring illnesses of many different types. We have already stated that it is a disturbance in the doshas that leads to the manifestation of disease. In other words we can regard the doshas as the agent of disease. But what causes the doshas to become disturbed? These factors are said to be the ultimate cause of disease.
Ayurveda recognizes the closely intertwined relationship between describing the pathological process in a person and assessing the disease state. Ayurvedic medicine demands an extensive and precise examination of the disease process and of the individual in whom it is manifesting. There are in fact no short cuts to take to arrive at a correct diagnosis. No computerized diagnostic tools or technological imaging techniques can ever produce an accurate picture of the disease process. In order to reach an understanding of both the nature of the disease as well as the disease process in the individual, Ayurveda has evolved a unique simultaneous approach to diagnosis and pathology. This method is known as rogi-roga pariksha.
Ayurveda is indeed the only medical system, which describes an elaborate strategy for assessing both the patient (rogi) and the disease (roga). In contrast, allopathic medicine focuses intently on only the disease. Patients in modern hospitals are even often identified only by their particular disease as exemplified by the common query on morning rounds: "How's the gastric ulcer patient doing in Bed 34?". The Ayurvedic physician never regards his patient as some form of "disease entity" and always keeps in view the complete human being. In every patient there is a human being; in every disease condition there is also health. For in actual reality even when a person has a disease of some kind, he or she has certainly not lost his or her entire health. Aspects of health always remain with a person along side the disease state. This important reservoir of health is the foundation of his eventual recovery according to the principle of svabhavoparamavada-the tendency for the body to eliminate the root of a disease and to heal itself when properly supported.
In Ayurveda, attention is paid to the nature and directly observable attributes of the disease process itself and to the pattern of doshic disturbance in the individual. Understanding the disturbance, or "vitiation" of the individual's normal doshic is the essence of Ayurvedic diagnosis and forms the basis for the therapeutic approach.
