Decoding Ayurveda

Before proceeding we must lay down caveats. Meulenbel DECODING AYURVEDA Before proceeding we must lay down caveats.

Meulenbeld, the great Dutch scholar of Ayurveda, has asserted that we should not even attempt translating Ayurvedic concepts into scientific terms, for that would risk degrading them.

In keeping with this, Ayurveda must, at all costs be accorded its own integrity; as Shankar explains (see pages 3-5) not to explain its features in reductionist terms, for that would be merely to equate them to parts. Worse still, it would attempt to ‘explain them away’.

And to those who may suggest we should provide ‘definitions’ of Ayurvedic terms, I offer this caution: we should be beware of attempting to ‘define’ any Ayurvedic concept, particularly in terms of modern scientific terminology.

Each Ayurvedic term transcends limits of different areas of modern science; trying to ‘define’ that concept in particular scientific terms, is effectively trying to restrict it to areas of application defined in reductionist terms,.