ĀYURVEDA: Rtucharyā [Part 1]: Introduction to Six Traditional Indian Seasons According To Āyurveda

Transcript

welcome to healthy ayurveda.com i'm dr mike daly wall vedic sage today we'll discuss which essentially is seasonal considerations or certain routines adopted for seasonal variations ayurveda explains that the individual is a miniature reflection of nature and that such changes that occur with various seasons will naturally have an influence on the individual by analyzing four basic qualities which are predominant throughout the six seasons we can extrapolate the corresponding changes within the individual and its influence upon doshas we can then adopt certain seasonal lifestyle considerations which is retucharia so a few things to be mentioned these are general basic guidelines which are to be applied when conditions are met and these are considerations for the healthy individual for example summer in antarctica certainly will not have qualities mentioned in the classics as being hot sharp and dry and therefore attempting to apply such seasonal considerations would be futile the six traditional seasons discussed in the ancient text of ayurveda are vasantha which is similar to spring grishma which is comparable to late spring or early summer varsha which represents the rainy and monsoon climate of late summer which is similar to late summer or early autumn hemantha which represents late autumn and or early winter and finally shishida which represents the dead of winter for simplicity we can divide all six seasons into two broad categories these two broad categories being adana kala which is comprised of shishida vasantha and grishma which reflects the phase of the year which the sun appears to be traveling north we know that this is the time for which the sun appears to travel in a northerly direction from the tropic of capricorn up to the tropic of cancer and this is when the sun is directly overhead at noon on june 21st which is summer solstice and the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere this northerly direction for which the sun travels is called and is a period explained as extracting strength or that which weakens the individual this is because during this period the days gradually become longer summer solstice being the longest day of the year and is the phase of the year which provides more solar energy that which expresses hot sharp and dry qualities and therefore is dehydrating and tends to make the body more weak or less energetic on the contrary when the sun travels in a southerly direction from the tropic of cancer down towards the tropic of capricorn this period is called this sarga kala and is the phase of the year which comprises varsa which is the rainy and monsoon season which is similar to the end of summer and or early autumn and this phase of the year also includes hemantha which is the early phase of winter this period of the sargala is hydrating as the power of the sun becomes less and the gentle qualities of the moon become more predominant so as we follow the six seasons of the year we'll focus on the predominant qualities of each season and discover how these changes influence doshas and the strength of agni for example overall strength of the individual is considered most strong during the early and late winter when agni is robust strength being moderate during the equinoxes of spring and autumn and strength is the least during summer and the rainy and monsoon season so as the qualities of the atmosphere change throughout the seasons so too the influence of doshas change upon the body for example vata tends to increase during grishma or early summer season vanta becomes aggravated during varsha or during the rainy monsoon climate of late summer and vanta tends to become pacified during shadow during the late autumn or early winter similarly pitta increases during varsha or rainy monsoon climate of summer pitta tends to become aggravated during shadowed or autumn season and pitta becomes pacified during early winter or hemantha and lastly kapha increases during early and late winter kapha becomes aggravated during vasantha or spring and kapha becomes pacified during krishma or early summer okay guys this is just a basic introduction of the six traditional seasons according to the ancient text of ayurveda in the next videos we'll take a closer look at each season taking into consideration seasonal routines for each respective season hope you guys have enjoyed and until next time be well