Rasayana (literally, "the Path of Juice"), involves replenishing both the quality and the quantity of the body's fluids. Aging means loss of juice; just as old leaves dry out and blow away, bodies become shorter, smaller and stringier as they age. Joints dry out and leak; plasma volume decreases, as does total body weight; mass is lost from the bones by osteoporosis. The medieval Ayurvedic author Sharngadhara notes that with each passing decade the body loses, one by one, childhood, growth, lustre and complexion, intelligence, skin health, strength of sight, virility, valor, discrimination, the use of the sense organs of action, the use of the other senses, and finally, if one reaches the goal of one hundred twenty years of age, one's life itself. Rasayana's aim is to produce top-quality bodily tissues, eliminate senility and other diseases of old age, lengthen life, and enhance memory, intelligence, youth, lustre, sweetness of voice, strength of body and senses, and beauty.


Copyright © 2000
Robert Edwin Svoboda