Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna
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The translator’s English as printed (Avinash Chandra Kaviratna). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
These quajities never establish themselves in the vulgar man who is resort of stupefaction and darkness.
* Lesson VII, p. 73 ante j on the inadvisability of suppressing the urgings of nature.— T.
CttA RA R. AS AM HIT A.
p. 401
Innumerable diseases, bodily and mental, have for their root that stupefaction and darkness.*12”15
Through fault of the understanding, one indulges in the five injurious objects 5 suptesseS the urgings of nature, and accomplishes acts that are highly rash.16
The man of Ignorance then becomes united with those condi¬ tions which are called by the name of disease.
The man of Knowledge, however, being purified by knowledge, never becomes united with those conditions.
One should never take any food, acting only from a desire for it or guided by ignorance. Only food that is beneficial should be eaten, after proper examination.
Verily, the body is the result of food.47^18
As regards the ordinances about food, eight particulars hatfe been set forth, called Hetus or reasons. Examining these in respect of their capacity to produce beneficial or injurious results, one should take one’s food.49
The man of learning or wisdom, by always abstaining from such diet or regimen as deserves to be avoided, is said to free himself from the debt he owes to the pious and the good.t50
As regards those diseases which are incapable of being avoided, men of wisdom, if they get them, should not repine.51 t The Hindu scriptures lay down that one, by taking birth, incurs several debts of obligations. These are the obligation to marry and procreate children. By doing this one pays off one’s debt to one’s ancestors. Then there is the obligation to study the Vedas and perform certain minor religious rites. By this one pays off one’s debt to the Rishis. One should sacrifice. By this one pays off one’s debt to the deities. By living well and taking care of one’s own health, one pays off one’s duty to one’s ownself and to the good and the pious. — T.
* What is said in these Verses is this : — the inclinations of men, it is well-known, have been planted in them for leading them to happiness. The question, therefore, arises, — Why do those inclinations sometimes lead some men to act in a way that brings unhappiness or misery? The answer to this is,— the desire to walk along the right or the wrong path is due to Knowledge or Ignorance. He that is truly wise acts after observation and reflection. He that is destitute of wisdom betakes himself to that which is immediately or apparently agreeable.— T.
5'
CM A RA KA -SAM HI TA.
p. 402
Here occur some verses containing a summary.
That which springs from food, the diseases that are born of food, the distinction between wholesome and unwholesome food, the distinction between happiness and misery, the susceptibility or non-susceptibility of body and mind to catch diseases, the particular groups of diseases that are born of the different Dhatus, the means of their alleviation, how faults going from the stomach into the ducts become excited and how they come back from the ducts into the stomach, the difference between the wise and the ignorant, what is beneficial for those that are hale and those that are ill, have all been declared in this Lesson on the ordinances about diverse kinds of food that is swallowed or drunk or eaten or chewed.1-1
Thus ends the twenty-eighth Lesson called ‘That on the ordin¬ ances about food that is swallowed or drunk or eaten or chewed’ ■in Agnivefa’s treatise as revised by Charaka.
LESSON XXIX.
We shall now expound the Lesson called ‘That on the ten ■substrata of the Life-breaths.’
Thus said the illustrious son of Atri.1
It has been said that there are ten substrata on which are established the life-breaths. They are the two temples, the three vital parts [viz. , the head, the heart, and the anal duct), the throat, the blood, the semen, ojas, and the anus.**
That man who knows these (ten substrata), the senses, the understanding, the cause of life, and (symptoms of) disease, is said to be truly learned. He is, besides, called a saviour of life+s
* ‘Ayatana’ is literally an abode or surface or ground plot. Here it is used to imply that on which the life-breaths (or vitality) rest. Besides the limbs or parts of the body named, blood, semen, and ojas are regarded as ‘ayatanas.’ Hence, I render it as ‘substrata’ instead of ‘abode’. — T.
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