Tridoschic Theory – Ayurveda

by Robin VossAP

What are the five doshas?

The word dosha comes from the Sanskrit root dush, which is equivalent to the English word “dys,” as in dysfunction. Besides viewing the dosha as an error it can create, Ayurveda views the dosha first and foremost as a buffer between the microcosm and the macrocosm, governing any permutation or combination of the five great elements; Ether, air, fire, water and earth. The three doshas, ​​namely Vata, Pitta and Kapha, are the body’s protection mechanism and are present everywhere in the body. Doshas protect our health and warn us with warning signs before causing actual illness. The combination of ether and air forms vata, fire and water form pitta and water and earth form kapha. In Ayurveda, Dosha explained It is divided into five subtypes according to its function and location.

How do we explain the dosha?

The three doshas, ​​Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, are biological regulators that manage our psychological and physiological functions and thus allow for embodied life. They are invisible forces that can only be manifested in the body by inference, but without them no one could exist on this planet. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, discussed a similar concept called “humors,” whereby the wastes generated by the five great elements he called wind, bile, and phlegm, highlighting their physical properties that actually function as containers for their immaterial essence.

We are all born with a certain genetic blueprint of the ratio of the three doshas, ​​and it is mainly influenced by the genetic information of our parents and ancestors at the moment of conception. Well-being is a state of perfect balance between Vata, Pitta and Kapha corresponding to that genetic code, which in Ayurveda is called Prakruti. Usually one or two doshas are dominant at the time of fertilization and a unique individual is formed. The Doshas control and balance each other through their opposite qualities. Throughout pregnancy and throughout life, our doshas are constantly bombarded by influences such as time of day cycles and seasons, by age, stages of digestion, where we live, lifestyle and diet, relationships, emotions, and even star changes; The planets and astral bodies have an influence on it. So when life happens, there is the inevitable fluctuation of prakruti, which is called vikruti – the currently changing state of the potions that causes fluctuations in our health.

Balancing the doshas

When the doshas are balanced, we have properly functioning bodily processes, strong digestion and clear understanding, well-formed and disposed tissues, happy and pure senses and a joyful mind well included in consciousness. There is clarity, happiness, joy, peace and love. When there is improper digestion, the body’s intelligence is affected and the three doshas are likely to go out of balance due to their excessive or low quality or quantity. When the dose drops below the level represented by a person’s Prakruti, it creates a dangerous, even life-threatening, situation that requires immediate attention. When the doshas increase, they begin to move from their locations within the digestive system into the circulatory system which moves throughout the body affecting the functioning of the body’s systems to eventually change the structure of certain tissues, disrupting their balance and causing disease by settling in a ‘weak space’. It is best to address doses as soon as warning signs appear. So we have to learn about our individual model praktuti/vikruti in order to read our “own book”, so that we can properly understand what is good for us.

The instinct of plants and animals keeps them in sync with the seasons and other cycles of time, but we humans, having evolved into more awareness, must create these rhythms if we are to enhance our well-being. Seasonal cleansing is one of the tools we have to tune into the rhythm of the universe and support the elimination of doses as they accumulate naturally and universally at times throughout the year in all breathing beings.