Ayurvedic Medical Science: A Tantric Perspective PDF Print E-mail
Health
Written by Ramesh Bjonnes   

A few years before my first journey to India and Nepal, I received my initiation in Tantric meditation at a retreat in a pine forest in Sweden by an Ananda Marga monk in saffron robes. He had recently arrived from India. In accordance with ancient tradition, the charismatic monk whispered a mantra into my right ear and told me it was never to be uttered aloud, except back to him or another teacher. Later on that auspicious day, I heard several stories about Shiva, not the well-known Hindu deity, but the historical Shiva, a living person who, like the Buddha, was an enlightened yogi.

According to the oral history of the Tantric tradition, it was Shiva who systematised Tantra Yoga, developed the musical octave, and who also enhanced Vaedyak Shastra, the ancient system of yogic or Tantric medicine, which is basically the same as what we today know as Ayurveda, or the ancient science of Indian medicine.

In the book, ‘In Search of the Medicine Buddha’, author David Crow quotes a contemporary Ayurvedic alchemist, practicing this ancient art and science in Nepal, who says— “Lord Shiva was the first Ayurvedic physician.” Indeed, it is common knowledge among Ayurvedic doctors in Nepal and India that there is a historical and spiritual interrelationship between Tantra and Ayurveda. Furthermore, when I was in India, I was taught that Shiva was the preceptor of the first group of Ayurvedacharyas, or the teachers of Ayurveda. When I studied Ayurveda at the California College of Ayurveda, a school that maintains that Ayurveda is a Vedic science only, I learned that Lord Dhanvantari was “the God of Ayurveda and of healing”. Lord Dhanvantari is said to have been a high caste king of Varanasi, which during Shiva’s time was called Kashi, and who taught an Ayurvedic form of surgery.

From a Tantric perspective, it makes sense that Dhanvantari taught surgery because that was part of the science of Tantric Ayurveda. Dhanvantari could not have been a follower of the Vedas, but, since Vedic dogmas prohibited high caste Brahmins to touch people of a lower caste, and thus prohibited them from performing surgery. As it is said in the tradition of Tantra, it is more likely to conclude that Dhanvantari was a Tantric and also Shiva’s first and main apprentice in Ayurveda. In other words, as Shrii Shrii Ananadmurti claims, Dhanvantari was most likely the world’s first Ayurvedacharya.

Contemporary Ayurvedic writers, including Deepak Chopra, David Frawley and Vasant Lad, have, in their books, revealed some of the sublime wisdom found in Ayurvedic medical texts, including the famed Carakasamhita. Yet these writers wrongly inform us that this medieval Ayurvedic masterpiece is solely based on the Vedas, while, in fact, its ancient roots also trail back to Tantric teachings passed down through the ages since Shiva’s time. “Indian medical science as revealed in the Carakasamhita and Susrutsamhita is basically Tantric,” writes N. N. Bhattacarya in his acclaimed book ‘History of the Tantric Religion’.

Tantric and Ayurvedic Medical Science in Ancient India

According to Ayurveda, disease occurs when the balance of the body is lost due to an increase or decrease of the body’s three humours—vata, pitta or kapha. Medicine is applied to restore balance. If the amount of vata or pitta decreases, medicine is applied to increase it; if the amount of vata or pitta increases, medicine is applied to decrease it. This, in simple terms, is the Ayurvedic system of medicine. Rudimentary forms of Ayurveda were brought to India by the Aryan people about 7,000 years ago. It was around this time that Shiva further developed the Tantric system of medicine that incorporated Ayurveda. This system of medicine also includes surgery.

For thousands of years, the Indian medical system was a mixture of these two schools of medicine—Tantric and Vedic. Thus, in the Ayurvedic teachings popularised in the West today, it is difficult to distinguish which feature is Tantric and which is Vedic. During the age of the Mahabharata, in about 1500 BC, surgery, Ayurveda, Vaedyaka Shastra, and even a rudimentary form of homeopathy existed in India. During that time, Lord Krishna developed another branch of medicine called Visa Cikitsa. Due to certain Vedic religious dogmas, however, the Tantric science of surgery was largely discontinued because, due to dogmas based on the intricate caste system, it was forbidden to touch dead bodies.

From the ancient Tantric seers, we have learned there were eight main branches of medicine, which forms the basis of the eight main divisions of Ayurveda:

1. Salya Tantra: Healing of wounds in the lower limbs through surgery.
2. Salakya Tantra: Healing of wounds in the upper limbs through surgery.
3. Kayacikitsa Tantra: Healing of internal and external diseases.
4. Bhutavidya Tantra: Healing of mental diseases.
5. Kaumarabhritia Tantra: Healing of children’s diseases.
6. Agada Tantra: The science of toxicology.
7. Vajikarana Tantra: The science of sexual balance and vigour.
8. Rasayana Tantra: The science of rejuvenation.

In contemporary Ayurvedic books, we learn that the medical source for this ancient science is the Carakasamhita. This book, however, is actually a revised version of an earlier work called Agnivesa Tantra, written by the Tantric sage Agnivesa. These ancient Tantric yogis were also skilled in the art of alchemy and, much like today’s homeopaths, used many altered toxic substances, including mercury, for healing and transformation.
In Tantra, the body is seen as the microcosm of the universe. Longevity and health are thus achieved through spiritual union with Cosmic Consciousness and in living in harmony with the complex, yet orderly, natural forces in the cosmos within and beyond us.

Ramesh Bjonnes studied Ayurveda at California College of Ayurveda. He is a freelance writer and the co-founder of the Prama Institute in North Carolina, USA. www.pramainstitute.org