Roga-arogya karana - causes of disease and health

This verse perfectly shows the causes of disease and its cure and prevention. The terminology of Kala (time) can be used in the sense of season, time of day, phase of the Moon, and natural cycles of weather (hurricanes, rains, windstorms). It also means time during an activity - worktime, the time spent on a specific activity, etc. For example the length and time of the day when a person watches TV, does sports, talks, rides a bicycle, takes part in business negotiations, makes love, exercises, etc., are all inherent in the word Kala. When the amount of time is minimal, excess or improper, it leads to disease.

Diseases originating in this manner usually are not acute, but chronic. The body gradually and slowly disintegrates and weakens with respect to its overall function.

Another factor of health and disease, according to Baghbath, is Artha, i.e. the objects of senses and sensual stimuli. For example, sight - what we see - i.e., our property, our loves, behavior of others (smiles, horror, terror), money, etc. Aural stimuli - what we hear - praise, criticism, secrets, noise, silence, etc. Smell - what we sense with our nose - various odours, whether pleasant or unpleasant, calming, stimulating, aggressive, etc. Taste - what we sense with our tongue - flavors we like and dislike, whether sweet, bitter, sour, pungent, etc. Touch - skin perceptions - the perception of pressure, heat, the sun, wind, cold, massage, steam in a sauna, wetness, fabrics, the manual handling of chemicals (when cleaning or washing). Improper use, no use, or excess use of stimuli and objects naturally leads to disease.

Nowadays, Artha is the main cause of illness. We come into contact with a wide range of cosmetic  products and hygiene products and we must work at jobs with chemicals and chemical products that become the root of many skin diseases. LCD screens or digital displays and cell phones are used around the world and constantly degrade the abilities of the human body, specifically, by destroying the eyes, and we tend not to move when using them, so they weaken the motor organs (legs, hips, shoulders), the breathing is shallow while watching a screen, and therefore the organs that manage agni in the body (liver, gallbladder, heart, kidneys) are not active. All organs are forced to work under very limited conditions and the result is disease. This is an indirect effect of visual input on the bodily tissues.

Karma means physical activity: talking, sleeping, walking, sitting, defecation, urination, sex, playing sports, chuckling, crying and whatever we do with the help of our body parts. Their little, wrong or excessive use is a natural cause of disease. The correct rate of use leads to health and happiness.

Further, Baghbath uses the terms samyak (correctly, balanced) and yoga (combination, dose, way, merging). The question is how to know what is appropriate, how to recognize samyak yoga. Ayurveda begins with that. What is appropriate? As was already mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, appropriate is dharma, artha, karma and moksha. This is the key to evaluate whether something is balanced or not. Any action, if is in accordance with the dharma, then its amount is naturally balanced. To work during working hours, to sleep in a bed when it is time to sleep, to breathe the air from trees in a garden, to rejoice with friends and talk about wise things and so on. In other words, if we do not allow our desires and interests to interfere with dharma, then the dose will always be appropriate. Inappropriate will happen automatically with our desires, wants, passions, search for happiness and emotions.

Everything that exists is yoga, a combination of different elements, it is the basic characteristic of the universe. The combination of time, matter and action is what we are discussing. When there is a disorder of this combination, then there can be different ailments depending on whether things are too loosely connected, too firmly connected, or connected in the wrong way. The quality of the combination is reflected in our health.

Time itself is not the same as the systems we use to measure it. There are right and wrong times in any process to act or not act, this is more about that kind of time. If the time of childhood is misused it affects the entire life. Here we understand time as phases: the time for a seed to sprout, to grow, to mature and bear fruit that contains more seeds, etc. Time has its own characteristics (guny), and its main characteristic is that it is constantly moving forward and is never the same, it involves constant transformation, it creates opportunities for things to arise and then decline. Time determines everything and it can be poorly managed by us. We must respect time and understand it as we live our lives, what the different times make possible.

Karma is about constant movement, and this is a spatial process that involves direction and change of position in three-dimensional space (up and down, toward a center and out of a center, forward and back). This is described in the Visheshika philosophy (1.1.7 sutra). We are connected to these actions and movements. When there is a disorder and movement is incorrect, the result is problems of various kinds. This also has to do with the idea of synchronized actions and their speed.  

Human beings excel at using things improperly, it can be difficult to find the right balance. When there is ayoga then there is pain and disease, this can be hina yoga (lack of use or underuse), mithya yoga (incorrect use) and ati yoga (exccessive use). We can have arms and legs that we never use this would be hin yoga. We use our eyes incorrectly, always looking at a computer and not into the actual space around us. Feet are for walking, not ice skating or strange gymnastics. Sometimes we don't even know what would be natural and what is unnatural. It is the mind that drives these deviations. What constantly comes to our attention are the things we believe we lack and therefore desire.