Definition of health and disease

Every situation in our lives is a combination of other situations. It is like a mosaic of beads, different moments. Each moment has its own space, time, state of mind, Atma, and all the panchamahabhuta. Each such moment is a tattva. Our age is achieved by the accumulation of these moments. We can understand these moments as the circumstances, the given conditions where our life happens, and we can also understand them as what is immediately happening at any given time. We should reflect on what the term "moment" means. Any moment will always involve these nine elements - space, time, state of mind, Atma, and the five mahabhuts. When the mind is focused, then Atma can be present. 

Our chronological age is a moment that involves our convictions, our experiences, and what we believe to be true up to that point. It is a compilation of all the other moments in our life. We can also identify other blocks of time where there are accumulated experiences, such as the experience of the class where Govind is repeatedly speaking and the students are listening. Each of our lives is a combination of all of these moments with their nine aspects and the differing characteristics of each aspect. This very simple equation is one that Govind considers the very basis for understanding the next four or five verses of Ashtanga. We must understand the concepts of what a person is, what age is, what experience is and what moments are. For this reason, it does not make sense to attempt to forget anything - what has happened, happened, it made its impression, and by attempting to forget it we focus on that impression even further, we revive it in the present. The age that we achieve is like producing a kebab - the slices of meat pressed onto the revolving spit and roasted together are the same process through which moments pressed together produce our age in life, and each moment involves the nine elements. We must grasp this metaphor thoroughly in order to understand the rest of Ashtanga. It is the same as the rings in a tree.

The nine elements themselves are comprised of different qualities (guny), that is their basic composition. In this sutra what is discussed is the doshas, which are comprised of the mahabhutas, which involve the gunas. The word rogh means pain, that something is out of place. For example, if you expect a bus to come at 17:00 and it is late, that causes anxiety because the bus is out of joint, running late, throwing off the regular system of transportation. This pain can also be mental, it does not have to be physical, and it can be social, when a group doesn't function together. The characteristics go against the grain of how things usually run. For this reason, rogh is usually translated as disease - what is happening is not going according to plan. The gunas that have come together do not work properly. We also can cause ourselves pain by revisiting the past in the present. However, when the doshas are balanced, then there is no pain or disease, and this is usually translated as health (arogh). There are, however, differences between being without disease and being healthy. The state of non-disease is an outcome, and being healthy is a process (kriya), not an outcome/product. Svastha is the term for being healthy. 

When elements are balanced, then there is organization and symmetry. If we take the example of sports, there are always opposing teams, and if one wins and the other loses, the winning team will be more happy than the losing one. This is the nature of the interrelation of opposites (vaiṣamjaṁ), and this kind of disjuncture causes disease. The mahabhutas and their gunas can be in balance or out of balance. Sámjaṁ is when they are in balance, in harmony, in unison. This is like when we build a wall - if all the elements are balanced from the beginning, the wall will stand, but if not, the wall may not even be able to proceed and exist. When, from the beginning, there is balance, growth is guaranteed. This applies to all aspects of our lives, from the physical to the spiritual. This growth or decay apply to the outcomes of disease and non-disease as well. 

When growth happens, it means that all of the preconditions for growth have been properly met. Similarly, whatever is on the surface of the skin is an expression of everything that has proceeded deep within the body beneath the skin. We should not only be involved with what is on the surface. Agitation, alarm, things shaking, things being torn apart, is always a sign of disease,