Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution – A Book Review

“One of the first things I learned in India was that medicine is an art… but Ayurveda (literally the ‘science of life’ or ‘the knowledge of living’ or the art of longevity’) encompasses far more than mere therapeutic art. Ayurveda addresses everything that makes life worth living,” says Dr Robert Svoboda in the introduction of his book, “Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution”, first published in 1988. Dr. Robert Svoboda is the first Westerner ever to graduate from a college of Ayurveda and be licensed to practice Ayurveda in India. During and after his formal Ayurvedic training he was tutored in Ayurveda, Yoga, Jyotish, Tantra and other forms of classical Indian lore by his mentor, the Aghori Vimalananda. He is the author of over a dozen books and has served as Adjunct Faculty at the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque and at Bastyr University in Kenmore.

Ayurveda is a system of health and healing that was developed in the Indian subcontinent over 3000 years ago. It is a part of the Vedic system of knowledge, wisdom, tradition and practices, with Atharva Veda (one of the four Vedas) being seen as its primary source.

Today the word Ayurveda is used widely across the world in a number of different fields – wellness and spa offerings, nutrition and skincare, herbal remedies and even cosmetic care. More often than not, Ayurveda is a used as a source, from which the information pertinent for that particular offering is taken and often modified and used as a measure or marker of authenticity. It speaks to the depth and breadth of Ayurveda that can be such a wellspring for so many diverse fields and interests. But understanding Ayurveda and all that it can offer you at a personal level is not easy to decipher from these piecemeal servings of Ayurvedic wisdom and traditions. And this is where “Prakriti” by Robert Svoboda steps in as a great, comprehensive introduction to the Ayurvedic understanding of the body and its definitions of what constitutes health and wellbeing.

Svastha: Established in the Self

Svoboda also takes the reader into the framework within which Ayurveda evolved. And that is the Vedic worldview, which is the foundation of Hinduism. In this worldview, “every embodied individual is composed of a body, a mind and a spirit. India’s rishis therefore organised the wisdom, which became the Science of Life, into three bodies of knowledge. Ayurveda deals mainly with the physical body, Yoga deals mainly with the spirit, and Tantra is mainly concerned with the mind… Ayurveda is most concerned with life’s physical bases and concentrates on inducing the right relationship of body with mind and spirit.” Thus, Ayurveda, a system of healing and health, is not mere medicine. It involves a deeper understanding of the physical body, and of the body in correlation with the mind and spirit.  For those of us who grounded in the Western or Allopathic understanding of the body, this is an important distinction.

The approach to physical discomfort and diseases in Ayurveda is an interesting one. First, disease is seen as “Nature’s way of forcing you to slow down”. Secondly, disease is seen as a manifestation of an imbalance that has not been addressed at the correct time. “Individual balance or harmony has a vertical dimension that is the dynamic interplay of the individual’s body, mind and spirit; its horizontal dimension is the equilibrium between the individual and his or her environment.” Thus, Ayurveda locates disease in disharmony or imbalances – between body – mind – spirit, between the individual and his environment, between the individual and Nature. To be healthy in the Vedic worldview is to be “Svastha”. And that means “Sva (Self) + Stha (established) = established in the Self”.

Darshana: To See

“Ayurveda is a philosophy which allows physicians to see patients the way Nature sees them” as per Svoboda. And Nature sees the body as a combination of the Panchmahabhutas or the five elements which are the building blocks of life in the Vedic worldview. These five great elements are – Akasha (space), Vayu (air), Agni (fire), Jala (water) and Prithvi (earth). Each bhuta or element is a principle and form of existence in itself. The balance and flow of these basic elements in our bodies and mind informs our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. In Ayurvedic the balance and dominance of these elements in our body is what creates our Prakriti or physical constitution.

Prakriti & Dosha

The Panchmahabhutas or five elements condense to the three Doshas: Vata, Pitta and Kapha, explains Svoboda. “Vata, which is the principle of kinetic energy in the body, is mainly concerned with the nervous system, and controls all the body movement. Kapha, the principle of potential energy, controls body stability and lubrication. The tissues and wastes of the body, which Vata moves around, are Kapha’s province. Pitta controls the body’s balance of kinetic and potential energies. All of Pitta’s processes involve digestion or ‘cooking,’ even if it is the cooking of thoughts into theories in the mind. The enzymatic and endocrine systems are Pitta’s main field of activity… These three are forces, not substances… Vata, Pitta and Kapha are called doshas because the word dosha means ‘a thing that can go out of whack.’ When Vata, Pitta and Kapha are out of balance with one another the system is bound to lose its own balance.” And that in Ayurveda is a lack of Svastha, or health.

Svoboda goes on to explain each of the dosha and their interactions with each other, their functions and the impact of the excess or depletion of each dosha in lucid detail. He also places into context other aspects of Ayurveda that are nowadays commonly referenced in popular culture. This includes the Six Tastes (which are also understood in the terms of the Panchmahabhutas), Digestive function and waste elimination, all of which must be in harmony with each other for health to be maintained. The Ayurvedic understanding of the body is one that extends to the cellular level. But perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this exploration of the body and its functions is Rasa. This “Sanskrit word means, among other things, both Taste and Emotion. This suggests that Taste and emotion are identical forces on different planes of existence, that Taste is the body what emotion is the mind.” Thus, Ayurveda is a practice of not only keeping our bodies but also our minds healthy in a sense. Svoboda often correlates the physical process of the with the processes of the mind.

But to return to the body, our Ayurvedic Prakriti is the metabolic pattern we are born with, which is inherent in our bodies. It expresses itself in a multiplicity or ways, from our physical traits such as eye colour or skin type to the emotions we tend to gravitate towards.

In each Prakriti or Dosha type all three of doshas are always present but the sequence or order in which they dominate and to what extent determines our Ayurvedic Prakriti or what we call our Self.  As Svoboda says, “Your constitution (prakriti) is that of metabolic tendencies which determine how your body and mind will instinctively react when they are confronted by a stimulus. Many of the traits your prize in your personality arise from and are dependent on these metabolic tendencies. Many of the qualities that you dislike in yourself also arise from these tendencies. Knowing your constitution allows you to know body and mind better.”

When we can understand our Prakriti, we can learn what harms and what heals our body and by extension, our mind. If we honour and work with our Prakriti, we can learn to keep our doshas in balance and thus ourselves health.

It is this aspect of both Ayurveda and the lucidity with which Svoboda explains it that make the book an invaluable companion on your personal Ayurvedic journey towards health and healing. The book does not offer prescriptions or remedies. It serves as a gateway into a deeper understanding of your body through the Ayurvedic understanding. Ultimately, what “Prakriti” helps us to better understand our physical body and to an extent our emotional selves.