Prakriti and Vikriti are basic ideas in Ayurveda that assist perceive a person’s inherent constitutional physique kind and their present state of well being. These ideas are used to advertise steadiness and wellness by means of personalised approaches to eating regimen, life-style, and therapy.
In easy phrases, Prakriti refers back to the pure structure we’re born with, whereas Vikriti represents our present well being situation
Each Prakriti and Vikriti are based mostly on the three doshas: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, which kind the physique’s structure. Every individual is a singular mixture of 1, two, or all three doshas.
This text delves deeper into the ideas of Prakriti and Vikriti, explaining their significance and functions in Ayurveda.
On this article, we have now defined the ideas of Prakriti and Vikriti intimately.
Understanding Prakriti
The phrase Prakriti is derived from three parts: the prefix ‘Pra,’ which means “origin”; ‘Kri,’ which means “to do”; and ‘Ti,’ which means “to accentuate.” Collectively, Prakriti refers back to the entity that manifests on the time of origin.
Prakriti represents the unique physique structure or the inherent mixture of doshas that an individual develops on the time of conception.
It’s the nature you might be born with and is exclusive to you. Every individual’s structure is predetermined at start and influenced by numerous traits, together with look, character, habits, and dietary preferences. Prakriti determines an individual’s bodily and psychological traits and stays fixed all through their life.
In line with Ayurveda, this occurs as a result of an individual’s Prakriti is decided at start by the panch mahabhutas (air, fireplace, water, ether, and earth), doshas (vata, pitta, kapha), and trigunas (sattva, rajas, and tamas).
Doshaja Prakriti
On the time of conception, the predominance of 1, two, or all three doshas determines a person’s Prakriti, often called Doshaja Prakriti.
Doshaja Prakriti is additional categorised into three classes: Eka Doshaja Prakriti, Dwandvaja Doshaja Prakriti, and Sama Doshaja Prakriti.
- Eka Doshaja Prakruti – Because the title suggests, people with a predominance of 1 (eka) dosha have an Eka Doshaja Prakriti. This sort is comparatively uncommon. Amongst these:
- Vata physique kind is taken into account inferior (heena).
- Pitta physique kind is taken into account average (madhyama).
- Kapha physique kind is considered superior (uttama).
- Dwandvaja Doshaja Prakruti – That is the most typical kind of Prakriti, the place a person has a mix of two doshas. There are three variations:
- Vata/Pitta (or pitta/vata) – Vata major and Pitta secondary (or Pitta major and Vata secondary).
- Pitta/Kapha (or kapha/pitta) – Pitta major and Kapha secondary (or Kapha major and Pitta secondary).
- Kapha/Vata (or vata/kapha) – Kapha major and Vata secondary (or Vata major and Kapha secondary).
- Sama Doshaja Prakruti – Among the many rarest Prakriti sorts, people with a Sama Doshaja Prakriti have a balanced mixture of all three doshas. That is thought-about the best (sreshta) physique structure. Nevertheless, it’s difficult to keep up as a consequence of fashionable unhealthy life and dietary habits.
Manasika Prakriti
Manasika Prakriti refers to a person’s psychological or psychological structure, which is decided by the mixture of the three Gunas Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. Because of this, an individual’s Manasika Prakriti will be categorised as Satvik, Rajasik, or Tamasik.
Understanding Manasika Prakriti is essential for choosing the proper strategies to help psychological and emotional well-being, corresponding to yoga, meditation, or tailor-made dietary and life-style practices.
Equally, understanding an individual’s Doshaja Prakriti helps an Ayurvedic practitioner perceive their character, temperament, traits, and general well being, enabling them to advocate acceptable remedies and interventions.
What elements decide the Prakriti of a person?
The formation of Prakriti is linked to completely different parts, corresponding to earlier karmas, the bodily and psychological well being of the mom and father on the time of conception, the mom’s eating regimen and train routine, social milieu, the observe of wholesomeness by the mom (throughout being pregnant) and baby within the postnatal interval, and a number of other others.
Owing to the above, the next are the first elements that decide the Prakriti of a person:
- Sukra-Shonit Prakruti (circumstances of sperm and ovum)
- Kala-garbhasaya Prakruti (time of the season of conception and circumstances of the uterus)
- Matu-ahar Prakruti (eating regimen and life-style habits of mom)
- Pancha Mahabhuta Vikara Prakriti (affiliation of the 5 primary parts)
Different elements that additionally affect the Prakriti are:
- Jatiprasakta (Race/caste/ Occupation)
- Kulaprasakta (household/ancestry)
- Desha-anupatini (geo-climatic elements)
- Kala-anupatini (time scale)
- Vaya-anupatini (age) – determines the dominance of dosha
- Pratyatmaniyata (individuality)
Methods to determine a person’s Prakriti?
A questionnaire is usually used for Prakriti evaluation. It contains questions on your habits, look, physiological processes corresponding to digestion and excretion, in addition to your moods and general nature.
The evaluation entails a scientific examination utilizing three methods: scrutiny (Darshan), palpation (Sparshan), and questioning (Prashna). It examines three facets:
- Construction of the physique (Rachanaanusari) – Bodily traits.
- Physiological (Kriyaanusari) – Bodily features.
- Psychological (Manoanusari) – Psychological and emotional traits.
The variations in these traits collectively outline a person’s Prakriti.
To precisely decide your Prakriti, it’s endorsed to seek the advice of an skilled Ayurvedic practitioner. They will assess your physique kind based mostly on the solutions supplied through the Prakriti evaluation take a look at.
Whereas there are quite a few on-line questionnaires, quizzes, and exams out there, they need to be used with warning, as they might lack the precision of an expert evaluation.
Significance of Prakriti in Ayurvedic therapy
In fashionable utilization, the time period Prakriti typically refers back to the bodily structure, often called Deha Prakriti. This structure is decided by the distinctive dosha ratios that every individual is born with.
The Ayurvedic idea of Prakriti is important for sustaining well being, understanding illness, and guiding therapy. Ayurveda emphasizes that by understanding your Prakriti, you possibly can determine the elements that affect your well being and well-being, enabling you to guide a wholesome, pleased, and fulfilling life.
Understanding your Prakriti helps you keep well being by following the suitable eating regimen and each day routine. It additionally means that you can recognise what would possibly disrupt your steadiness, resulting in illness or sickness. With out this self-awareness, it’s possible you’ll wrestle to keep up steadiness, forestall sickness, or deal with imbalances to revive well being and wholeness.
Moreover, information of your Prakriti might help you in a number of methods:
- Adapting your life-style to forestall or handle dosha imbalances.
- Making use of preventive well being measures to keep up equilibrium.
- Customizing your eating regimen in accordance with your dosha to boost nutrient absorption, digestion, and elimination.
- Guaranteeing you eat the suitable meals in the suitable quantities and on the proper occasions.
- Personalizing your sleep patterns for higher relaxation and restoration.
- Selecting the best train routine to remain match and wholesome.
Understanding Vikriti
In Ayurveda, a person’s state of well being or imbalance is known as Vikriti. The Sanskrit phrase Vikriti, which means “after creation,” refers to an individual’s organic state, which will be influenced by their atmosphere from the second of conception.
A Vikriti evaluation in Ayurveda is used to determine how exterior elements have impacted an individual’s bodily, psychological, or emotional well being. Vikriti will be regarded as the manifestation of any present doshic imbalances.
After fertilization, the human embryo is uncovered to and influenced by its atmosphere. Optimum improvement happens when the embryo grows in a secure atmosphere. Equally, after start, a baby thrives in a perfect and nurturing ambiance, selling well being and well-being.
Nevertheless, in an atmosphere or life-style that’s lower than ideally suited, the three doshas can fall out of steadiness, inflicting a deviation from the person’s Prakriti. This state of imbalance is Vikriti.
In contrast to Prakriti, which stays fixed all through life, Vikriti is dynamic. It will possibly change from daily, with the seasons, or throughout completely different life phases. Thus, whereas Prakriti displays a person’s inherent structure, Vikriti represents their present state of imbalance.
What elements decide the Vikriti of a person?
To make choices to revive our equilibrium, it’s useful to know the traits of every of the doshas. This permits us to acknowledge what has gotten out of steadiness or what has amassed.
Vikriti or doshic imbalances can happen as a consequence of a number of elements corresponding to weather conditions, dietary habits, life-style, sleep patterns, frequency of train, stress, and lots of exterior elements.
The aggregation of a selected dosha will be felt throughout quite a few seasonal adjustments. We regularly purchase traits of the prevailing dosha all year long due to how intently tied our physiology is to the world round us. Because the seasons change, this accumulation is most noticeable.
For instance, your prakriti is Pitta which comes with good digestion and a secure thoughts. Nevertheless as a consequence of a seasonal change, your digestive system could flare and it’s possible you’ll expertise psychological fog, an indication of Vata vitiation. In such circumstances, although your Prakriti has not modified, the dominance of the vata dosha is figuring out the imbalances prompted in your physique.
Significance of Vikriti in Ayurvedic therapy
Understanding an individual’s Vikriti after which determining what parts of that individual’s atmosphere have led to the disruptions is without doubt one of the key goals of Ayurvedic therapy. The time period “atmosphere” right here refers to each the individual’s life-style and the inputs they get by means of their 5 senses.
To determine the basis signs of a illness, vikriti evaluation is step one in all Ayurvedic remedies.
One approach to determine the underlying causes for sickness or illness is to correlate the ratio of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha in an individual at any given second with their physiological composition. One can evaluate it to the individual’s inherent prakriti and take a look at operational indications like digestion, elimination, or sleeping patterns.
As soon as understood, the purpose is to remodel the setting.
Figuring out an individual’s Prakriti is essential for understanding their basic tendencies, however understanding their Vikriti is essential for making a therapy technique.
Distinction between Prakriti and Vikriti
Now that we have now understood some primary ideas of Prakriti and Vikriti, we will summarize the distinction between the 2 beneath:
- Our intrinsic structure is called Prakriti, and the imbalance that develops after we don’t dwell in accordance with that construction is called Vikriti.
- Prakriti refers back to the mind-body variety or structure. Vikriti interprets to the current state of affairs.
- Within the Ayurvedic perspective, one’s Prakriti is usually considered from the attitude of dosha predominance within the physique structure. Alternatively, the vikriti is appeared into the imbalances or vitiations occurring within the doshas structure inside the Prakriti.
- Understanding our Prakriti helps us grasp what our basic nature is. Studying our Vikriti gives us with the flexibility to take cost of our well being path.
- To find out prakriti, elements corresponding to circumstances of sperm and ovum, time of the season of conception and circumstances of the uterus, eating regimen, and life-style habits of the mom, and affiliation of the 5 primary parts are seen. Whereas, the elements appeared into when figuring out vikriti are – the basis reason behind the dysfunction, vitiating variables, vitiated elements, structure, location, time, power, and signs.
How do imbalances in Prakriti and Vikriti manifest?
Doshas play an essential position in the case of imbalances within the physique and thoughts. Although most of us are a twin doshas structure (bi-doshic physique kind), the Prakriti relies on the dominant dosha.
So, when your dominant doshas are vitiated it may possibly result in a ton of bodily and psychological sicknesses, illnesses, or illnesses. Furthermore, the imbalance can be prompted when the second dosha overpowers your dominant dosha.
For instance, you’ve been recognized as having a Vata-Pitta physique kind with vata because the dominant dosha. Which means that you’ve a Vata Prakriti. When your Vata is imbalanced, you’ll expertise restlessness, fatigue, poor circulation, bloating, joint ache, and so forth. There may be an opportunity that the pitta dosha has turn into imbalanced and also you would possibly expertise signs like indigestion, acidity, pimples, pores and skin rashes, anger, irregular sleep, and so forth.
Nevertheless, you also needs to perceive that we could or could not be capable of hyperlink our imbalances to our organic construction. There are additionally probabilities that you simply might need a vata-pitta prakriti with each doshas dominant when in comparison with the kapha prakriti.
In such circumstances, if an individual reveals indicators of sudden weight acquire, it could counsel that they might be experiencing kapha vitiation.
The manifestation of imbalances in Prakriti and Vikriti additionally relies on the present life-style, seasonal adjustments, and the atmosphere you might be dwelling in.
Merely put, the imbalances within the prakrit and vikruti are manifested within the type of bodily and psychological issues on account of vitiated doshas.
- In case your vata is imbalanced, it could result in extreme issues with circulation, broken tissues, crackling joints, improper digestion, constipation, extreme weight reduction, psychological chaos, or insomnia.
- In case of pitta imbalance, ulcers, extreme sweating, sunburn, acidity, hair fall, vertigo, egoism, a rise of destructive feelings, and so forth could also be skilled.
- Individuals with a kapha imbalance will discover lethargy, weight acquire, lack of urge for food, oily pores and skin and hair, despair, lack of motivation, stubbornness, and so forth as signs.
One other level to recollect is that in case your vata will get vitiated, there’s a excessive chance that the opposite doshas would possibly get affected as nicely. It is because Vata is liable for circulation inside the physique and between the organs. So if the circulation is blocked, the organs won’t be able to work on the optimum stage.
Conclusion
To sum up, Prakriti is the mixture of doshas you might be born with, influenced by elements such because the circumstances of the sperm and ovum at conception, the well being of the mom’s uterus, and the time and season of conception.
Vikriti, alternatively, refers to your present state of being, which is dynamic and adjustments in accordance with your atmosphere. It’s usually thought-about an imbalanced state of the doshas.
An Ayurvedic practitioner diagnoses your well being situation based mostly in your Prakriti and Vikriti by means of a collection of questions. This helps decide which doshas want consideration to revive steadiness.
From the traits of Prakriti and Vikriti, it’s clear that the purpose of Ayurveda is to amass the information obligatory to acknowledge when a Vikriti imbalance arises, serving to to forestall sickness or illness. Ayurveda additionally aids in creating practices and rituals that preserve our Prakriti balanced.
