23/09/2026
Every so often, I return to the very first verse of the Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdayam, one of Ayurveda’s foundational classical texts.
It begins with an invocation to the “incomparable physician”, understood as Lord Dhanvantari, or the supreme healing consciousness and its opening word is rāgādi: attachment, and the other afflictions that arise from it.
Rāga can mean attachment, desire or the pull towards something. The ādi in rāgādi points towards the other inner disturbances that may follow, such as anger, greed and jealousy.
The verse tells us that these afflictions do not remain only in the mind. They stay closely bound to us, spread through the body and give rise to restlessness, confusion and discontent.
I have always found it extraordinary that one of Ayurveda’s great medical texts begins here.
Not with the doṣas, food, herbs or treatment, but by asking us to look at what we hold onto within ourselves.
Sanskrit is such a beautiful, layered language. A single word can hold several shades of meaning, and each time a verse is explored within the wider context of the text, something deeper can reveal itself. A straightforward translation is a helpful beginning, but it rarely carries the full depth of the original.
Over time, this verse stopped being something I simply studied and became something I recognised in everyday life: how wanting things to be a certain way, resisting what is changing or holding tightly to what feels familiar can disturb our peace.
It became less of a verse to understand intellectually and more of a gentle mirror.
I am deeply grateful to the many Vaidyas and Ayurvedic teachers I have learnt from over the years, who have helped me look beyond the literal words towards what a verse is quietly pointing us to.
This is part of why Ayurveda has never felt like medicine alone to me. There is a spiritual thread running through it, a way of living that asks us to know ourselves more honestly, to live with humility and to remember that we are not separate from nature, but part of it.
On Ayurveda Day, I offer my gratitude to this timeless wisdom and to all those who have helped to preserve and share it.
Happy Ayurveda Day 🌿