Health Care and Medicine: The Vedic Way

There is a Hindi saying which goes like this:

ghar-ghar gay, gräm- gräm gaushälä, yahi hai hamari nirog shälä
[A cow in every house and a cowshed in every village will make for a disease free home.]

Cows, it is said, have a symbiotic relationship with human beings. They are very affectionate and are meant to live and to relate very closely with humans. Not only are they “human like”, being the most advanced animal embodied living entity in the mode of goodness which will take a human form in his next life, but all auspiciousness comes when one keeps a cow at home (and of course the opposite is also true: a home without a cow is considered most inauspicious). We thus find another important slogan which conveys a clear message for those fortunate to know about the Vedic way of life:

jä ghar tulsi aur gäya tä ghar vaidya kabhi na äye
[In a home which has a Tulasi plant and a cow, doctors don’t come to that house.]

The approach to health and medicine in the Vedic culture is vastly different from the modern day medical practice. Maintaining good health and taking needed medicines not only relate to the body but indeed encompass such things as the environment in which we live, our intake of food, the spices we use, the company we keep, the time we sleep and rise, and much more. If one can maintain good health then naturally one will need less or no medicines. For this reason, the Vedic lifestyle promotes “sattvik living” or leading a life in the mode of goodness. Such lifestyle in the mode of goodness was best practiced within an agrarian setting where one lived and worked in a natural environment, free from passion, anxiety and various kinds of pollutions we commonly find in our modern metropolis. One’s food, one’s occupation, one’s personal hygiene, one’s daily schedule, one’s environment, one’s friends and relatives, one’s leisure time, and especially one’s primary preoccupation in life, spiritual emancipation, would all help enhance a hale and hearty body, a peaceful mind and most important, a healthy and progressive spiritual consciousness.