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The state of complete integration is best expressed by the Sanskrit word svastha. Often translated as "health," svastha literally means “to be established in one’s self.” Whatever our health issues, the deepest healing comes when we learn to abide with ease in our true nature.

There are two levels, or points of view, in which we experience svastha. One level is the relative, or personal; the other is the ultimate, or cosmic.

On the relative level, each of us is a unique human being with combinations of characteristics unlike any other. An Ayurvedic physician relies on the Ayurvedic system of categorizing phenomenal perceptions to identify our mental, physical and emotional nature and imbalances according to three types of basic life energies. Once we understand our own nature and needs, we can apply simple Ayurvedic principles to create balance in our bodies, minds and lives.

On the ultimate level, we don’t focus on our personal qualities and characteristics so much, but on WHO WE REALLY ARE AT OUR ESSENCE. Realizing this is the final healing. Ayurveda is based in Samkhya philosophy which states that all phenomena are composed solely of divine consciousness. This means everything. Everything we see. All we touch, taste, smell and hear. Our bodies, our minds. Even thoughts and imaginings are composed only of consciousness, arising from and falling back into the ocean of divinity, unceasingly.

Considering this, who are we? As energetic matter, we are divine! As individuals, we are free, playful, and temporary manifestations of divine energy. Each of us is akin to a wave, rising from the sea of cosmic awareness, temporarily taking a certain shape and possessing certain qualities, but still, never made up of anything but the waters of the vast divine ocean. This awareness is the complete cure for all imbalances. From this expanded viewpoint of higher (rather than relative) truth, differences, challenges and imperfections are not significant. What is seen, what one rests in, is the ocean, rather than remaining solely fixed in identification with the individual wave and her associated qualities.

The goal of Ayurveda is to support both the relative and ultimate health of each person. To be anchored in one’s self – as a particular person with certain physical features and functioning and emotional tendencies and thought patterns AT THE SAME TIME that we are ALSO anchored in the ONE SELF, in our awareness that we are, ultimately, only divine energy dancing on the surface of the vastness.

These two kinds of health are really one, or at the very least, they can deeply influence and support each other. As a wise woman once said, “It’s hard to meditate with a stomach ache.” On the relative, “bottom up” level, it’s important to take care of the needs of the body and mind we have, as individuals.

From the “top down” side of our healing process, as we expand our view to take in the bigger picture, we are released from the stress of imagining ourselves separate from the ocean of life, and our physical struggles often lighten up effortlessly.

Practically, both ends of the spectrum, the relative and ultimate, are naturally involved as we learn to dwell in complete wellbeing - svastha.