Tridoshalakshana - Tridosha qualities

The ongoing development of the characteristics of the body depend on the kinds of forces at work (agni). These forces do not determine their own strength. The strength is determined by need, and the need is determined by the liking/disliking of the mind, which gradually takes over the use of the body as the being grows. The mind draws from the samskars of the individual, which are the experiences accumulated over the course of more than one life. Qualities must be combined by a combiner in order to reveal themselves, and the combiner for people is samskars, the same way a spark is created from the friction between two pieces of the right kind of material - so the spark itself is also not a "beginning", something had to cause it. All materials exist because of causation in this way.

The force of deviation, of change, in terms of a combination of qualities, involves the dosha of Vata. This verse is about the quality of Vata. The qualities mentioned are comprehensible, however we have to keep in mind that according to Ayurveda they are a part of our bodily elements. Vata is present in the body and acts within our circulatory system to the cellular level. It has the qualities of air and ether. It causes things to dry out, to harden, to cool, to roughen, to eventually disintegrate, to become light and easily mobile. Vata is therefore key to life, because it is the force of differentiation.

In Ayurveda, the Dhatus are considered the material level, but as such they are not capable of anything. Any ability of the Dhatus comes from the Tridosha. The Tridosha is the agent of the Dhatus creation, their life and quality. No known device can possibly measure the Vata qualities. These are, for example, minuteness, coldness, roughness, movement, lightness, dryness etc. These Vata qualities continuously affect the condition of our Dhatus in our body.

The entire universe is full of this force - we do not know stability, we know a universe that is always full of differentiation, deviation, and changes of direction, movement, relocation.