Agni, Srotas, Dhatus, Food Combining and Allergens

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Life span, complexion, strength, health, enthusiasm, corpulence, luster, immunity, energy, heat processes, and vital breath – all these depend on body fire (Agni). One dies if this body fire is extinguished, lives long free from disorders if it is functioning properly, and gets ill if it is deranged, hence Agni is the root cause of all. – Caraka Samhita

In this video, we are going to share a fundamental aspect of Ayurveda. This video, alongside a few more videos ahead in the second module or week, brings about the core information for Ayurveda for you to work with during the study of the Self Healing Journey program.

After watching the video, then you are ready to enjoy this text and also the text in the book.

I invite you to take some notes and enjoy it as much as possible. Once again: Life-span, complexion, strength, health, enthusiasm, corpulence, luster, immunity, energy, heat processes, and vital breath – all these depend on body fire (Agni). One dies if this body fire is extinguished, lives long free from disorders if it is functioning properly, and gets ill if it is deranged, hence Agni is the root cause of all. – Caraka Samhita

Caraka was an ancestral Ayurvedic Physician and Samhita means compendium or gathering of information, a sort of encyclopedia. In fact, this compendium is still widely used in Universities in India and is the main text for Ayurvedic scholars. It is said to have a remedy and understanding of all modern diseases. Imagine. The people that study it are the Doctors and Physicians, the ones interested in being Ayurvedic Doctors.

As an illustration, an Ayurvedic Doctor or physician should be very aware of the many and multiple possible origins that create a physical/mental health imbalance. For this, they need to study for a long time and dive deep into the essence of creation from the perspective of Ayurveda. Very wise humans.

So we are going to talk about digestive Fire.

According to Ayurveda the Power of the digestive fire is as important as the heartbeat or the brain waves. That’s quite a statement, don’t you think?

Digestive Fire is called Jathara Agni, but we are going to refer to it as Agni alone to make it simple. This type of Agni, Jathara is located in the stomach, duodenum, intestines, and pancreas. Agni also refers to the other several fires that digest the food further within the body and also the intellect and the capacity to digest life, situation, emotions, thoughts, etc.

This is the reason why we will be introducing a few key elements in the understanding of human physiology from the perspective of Ayurveda, like srotasas, the channels of communication that communicate, not being redundant, the entire organism, everything with everything. The Dhatus, which would be the tissues. The malas are the byproducts of each process of digestion, for example, urine or feces. And we will introduce the concept of Doshas or the playful energy that creates life briefly because there will be a video just for it.

We will start focusing on the Agni in the digestive system, what I called earlier Jatharagni.

The Self Healing Journey program is focused on maintaining, healing, and strengthening this Agni. No matter where your health is, you could be very ill or very healthy. This information is basic and fundamental to life.

From this understanding you could have any diet you wish, you will know what works for you and what doesn’t. You would even learn how to navigate the possible changes in diet and ingredients. You would be able to maintain your power and inner strength.

When the Agni is low, digestive disorders will arise. Then you know you need to focus back to your digestive system. That you need to bring focus to your food, your diet, your exercise, to everything that you are. Your thoughts and your mind. Health, at a physical and mental level, are indicators for you to organize yourself, they are not just symptoms for you to pop a pill and ignore, they are signs posted on your way for you to look inside and within and resolve. The Self-healing Journey is the way to do it properly, this is why is so empowering to learn this basic knowledge. Up ahead in Week#2, when we talk about each Dosha or Body Type, we will see the possible different imbalances and how to bring balance to each one of them.

There are 4 types of Agni are, they are related also to each body type. From now, already you can start looking at yourself by noticing how your digestive fire operates.

One Agni is irregular, sometimes strong, sometimes weak. Sometimes people go to the bathroom, sometimes, they don’t, sometimes they are hungry, sometimes, they are not. It characterizes also certain behaviors of the person, such as being more scattered or less structured.

Another One is sharp and powerful, it can pretty much digest stones. Normally these people are hungry regularly and they need to eat larger portions. They could be very driven, controlling, and “spicy people” I called them.

Another Agni is slow, it is not irregular, it is just slow and takes a longer time to digest. These people have normally one huge bowel movement a day and they are not hungry all the time. These people could have a tendency to move slower and have bigger frames in their bodies.

And then there is one that is well balanced and this type of Agni is the one that each person, no matter what body type they have, should be achieving. In other words, decrease each person’s tendencies to imbalance according to the nature of their Agni. For example a person with irregular Agni, we will try to find more regularity, for a person with a sluggish Agni, we would activate them and for a person with a very strong Agni, we would maintain it and keep it cool in order for it to not over burn. That is what we are going to work on during this program. But not just that, the understanding behind this achievement. This is what’s important because it is this understanding the one that creates health, empowerment, and beyond that, an increase in consciousness. This is why I mentioned in the determination video, that there is an aspect of the essence of nature or life that exists within this information or wisdom and it is there that the stillness exists. So if you do your practices then you will tap into it and that will change your existence for the better.

In other words, this is not just information to be read. This is wisdom to be lived. This is universal law.

In Ayurveda it is said that Every person knows better than anybody else, even the doctor, how is the power of their own Agni. In other words, you know better than anybody else, what’s going on within yourself in your digestion. This statement is crucial. Because the modern way of medical approach puts the responsibility of health in the hands of the doctor, whereas Ayurveda as a Medical Science and Science of Life, puts it back in your own hands. And also humans now live in a way of disconnection with their natural urges and flows of their bodies and they have been taught some pieces of information that are not correct. Besides the peer pressure to eat and drink what is in fashion. And also includes that many foods are processed and are favoring the industrial money-making machine. There is nothing wrong with industrialization and making money, but when you sell products that knowingly are not good for the health of others, I wonder.

Anyhow, this information will guide you not from theory but from the gut feeling, which is intuition, which benefits from wisdom.

Every individual has a different type of digestion that depends on their body type, types of food that are eaten, environment, age, and overall health. Agni is shown in life with results, that’s how you measure your Agni, in other words, how good your digestion is and your overall health.

Food is needed for the nourishment of our bodies. Using food just to bring the imbalances back to balance is not enough, we have to nourish all the tissues as well as the subtle energy and the mind. The imbalances should be reduced and the balance should be maintained. So food has a huge mission in itself.

So lets’ say this differently; the doshas, are the bio-energies that create the body and run the body. Bio would be like biology, more related to the physical and Energies and more subtle, so both aspects, gross and subtle. The Dhatus are tissues in which these creating and moving bioenergies play.

There are two levels for the Dhatus to exist, one is at a functioning or energetic level and the other one is at a material or physical level. The Dhatus exist also in order, in the same order in which the nutrients that you get from the food that you eat travel through the body of the person, which normally takes around 40 days or so.

After one eats and digestion is completed the first nutrient liquid is produced which is distributed by the heart to the entire body to start nourishing it. This is called Rasa Dhatu. Sometimes equivalent to the lymphatic system. Rasa Dhatu is basically the liquid component of the body. The plasma or serum that circulates throughout the body, therefore it permeates the whole body. Then…
The blood keeps life in every part of the body. The blood brings the essence of life to every part. If there is no blood supply then it would not live. It brings oxygen to the body. The blood is the next Dhatu, it is called Rakta Dhatu. The next Dhatu is
Mamsa: similar to muscle tissue, all organs and every part of the body is made of mamsa, except for the bones. The next one is
Medda: similar to fat tissue, which is involved also in lubrication and it Provides the baseline for the formation of
Ashti Dhatu which is the bony tissue. The Solid framework of the body.
And then
Majja Dhatu which is similar to the bone marrow, that which fills up the bones. And finally
Shukra Dhatu: is present for any process of regeneration. For wound healing and also reproduction.

So these are the Dhatus. Again. I am going to mention them in English, although the correlation with the English version of the Dhatus is limited to what Ayurveda sees. this is due to the limitation of the English language when related to Sanskrit’s original meanings which include all creation. Let’s keep this in mind.

The first Dhatu is lymph, the second is blood, the third is muscle, the fourth is adipose tissue or the fat or the lubrication and fluids, the fifth is bone, the sixth is the bone marrow and nervous system, and lastly the regeneration which involves reproduction and regeneration of the body. This last one shows us how Ayurveda differs from the modern medical approach of categorizing the body by organs, Ayurveda has a holistic, all-inclusive approach to its understanding, one single Dhatu or tissue relates not just to the reproductive system, but also to the regeneration of tissues.

Ayurveda states that maintaining a good digestive fire is of ultimate importance. It says that all diseases in mankind show a problem with digestion. There is not a single disease that has a normal Agni. This is the reason why there are many different diseases. So the Agni itself could also change within the same disease but in different persons. This is because of age, environment, body type, etc.

In order to understand the concept of Agni better, we need to talk about the organs that are involved as well as the channels, the approach in this case again, varies from the one in modern medicine.

During the last 100 years, modern science has been very interested in the study of the human organs and the physiology and it developed also certain tools such as the microscope and with this help, they studied the function of the organs and achieved a level of accuracy. Although there is a certain degree of limitation in their study. because no matter how much you link the information and how much you study it, there will be a gap or a place up to which it becomes unknown, mainly because it is focused from a material or anatomical view. Ayurveda sees the functioning of all organs as a work that needs to happen in harmony and together. They are all interdependent and interlaced with each other.
Modern science cannot answer questions about the nature of life itself for example. The subtle concepts of mind, consciousness, and intellect cannot be explained with the help of chemistry.

Human life is not just a combination or sum of many organs working together. Can you see this? It is not that there is a liver and kidney and a pancreas and lungs and a heart and a large intestine and small intestine and then you put them together and then they work and make a body. There is an underlying sacred connection between the body of a person and their mind and presence. The concept of Prana or life force, mind or satwa in Sanskrit, or the self, called ahamkara and the soul, called atman are all parts of the existence of a human being. Again, Life Force, Mind, The Self, and The Soul. They are all subtle entities that keep life happening in a human.
The emotions that we hold and that we experience are related also to the doshas and their imbalances. Whenever we eat under the influence of a strong emotion food is not properly digested. So here we go deepening into the digestive fire again.
The channels of communication within the body include the concepts of doshas, which are these bio-energies that are moving around, making things happen, and Dhatus which are the tissues, we just talked about, like the lymphatic system, the blood, the muscle tissue, the fatty tissue, the bone tissue, the bone marrow, and the reproductive and regenerative tissue annnd the malas, which are the byproducts or waste products that the body produces in its functioning. So simply said, there are communication channels related to all of these aspects. The communication channels are called Srotasas in Ayurveda and they relate to a holistic approach to seeing the body as a whole with the mind.

Srota means a space in which it is allowed to flow.

The human body it is said to be a minutare form of the Universe. In the same way that there are patterns for the winds and the waters on the planet, similarly our bodies have functions with our own waters and our winds.

Prana, the Life force, when it materializes in this dimension and plane, it takes the form of 5 elements, just for the record, called, panchamahabuttas or 5 elements. We will talk more about them later, they are Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space, in which it all is happening. The space element is represented as a cavity in which anything can exist. This includes hollow organs, blood, and lymph vessels.

Srotas are also pathways that can be seen all the way to the microscopic level of the cell. Srota is not necessarily a confined space, it could be an open space. Material could flow through the srotas unidirectionally for example the urine. Or it could be bidirectional for example the esophagus or the mouth from which we could eat or vomit. The pores or mucous membranes also are bidirectional in flow. For example.

The ancient texts state that apart from the digestive tract from the mouth to the anus, there are uncountable channels, millions of channels in the body, and the number cannot even be stated. Here is another difference with modern science.

Micro-channels within the body run through all the systems. The internal communication of the body within all the possible cells and all the organs is carried through these channels of communication.

Srotas also carry and contain nutrients.

Srotas are not just carrying lifeless material, they also communicate the information that is carried from the natural deep intelligence all over the body to the sense organs and the mind. They also function as pathways for the Life Force to come into the body, both as breath or air and also as energy traveling both through subtle and physical channels to nourish the entire body.

There are also Srotas that function to remove the outgoing waste materials, such as sweat, urine, and feces. These channels are not just pathways that remove, but they have deep functionalities that nourish all the cells of the body. The waste materials also function as nourishing before it is expelled out of the body.

Waste materials depend on the liquids and solids that we consume. Long-term use of wrong diet and behavior will lead to a disruption in the channels that carry the waste material. This will lead to self-contamination. For example when a person needs to be in dialysis because their kidneys stopped functioning.

We will talk more clearly about the Doshas later but for now.

Doshas are a manifestation of the soul. The soul chose or brought these essences of vibration of the energy to this life based on energetic imprints, out of the doshas the Dhatus manifest, they are living tissue, and out of the Dhatus, we get the malas or the waste products. And they are all connected with and by the srotas. Making a one body and mind. Does that make sense?

When a dosha is imbalanced or vitiated, is called in Ayurveda, they lodge themselves in the most impaired channels, if the channels are healthy, they will never allow the vitiated doshas to move on to the Dhatus, though they are protecting the body. When the doshas lodge themselves in these impaired channels, this leads to disease. Once again, let’s see the term Dosha as bioenergy. For example. Let’s imagine heat accumulating in an area, I would create irritation, infection, and similar symptoms.

Everything in creation, living and non-living is transforming. From a piece of metal to the leaf of a tree, to rock, to a human or an animal, everything is going through a process of transformation. That’s why they say, that change is the only constant in the Universe. All this transformation happens in the entire creation due to Agni, once again, here we go mentioning the Digestive Fire or Fire. and in human beings, it is the same Agni that transforms the food into something that can be used by our body and that can digest a thought for it to be understood. Or the one that can process the living of life. In other words Digestion.

Digestion has three stages according to Ayurveda.

The first stage is the one that starts one starts when we see and smell the food, salivation occurs at this moment, and the saliva is there to assist in tasting the food, the quality of the saliva is important in this case, if it is too heavy or sticky, then food could taste bitter or not taste at all. When the food is then eaten then it goes down to the stomach and over there it will continue a process of moistening, different foods, depending on how hard or dry they are will have different requirements of moisture or digestive juices. We could summarize this first stage as a lubrication stage, where fluids are added to the food. This could take from 1-2 hours to happen. This stage is said to be sweet in taste. With the earth and water elements. It could bring imbalances such as heaviness, lethargy, and brain fog.

The second stage is the digesting part with strong enzymes and acids combined with the food, here comes into play a process of separation of the nutrients from the waste material that will be carried out eventually, once the entire process of digesting and extraction of all the nutrients has been completed. The moistening of the food in the previous stage protects the body from the digesting action that is taking place with the fluids or acids. This could take like 1.5-5 hours, once food enters this stage, then we feel lighter in the stomach. This stage is said to be sour, with the elements of earth and fire more present. It could also present imbalances such as heat, acidity, and heartburn.

The third stage of digestion happens in the large intestine. here the food has a pungent, bitter, and astringent taste. And it is here that the food is separated in Ahar Rasa or the nutrients and then wastes or malas. This stage could be from 3 to 18 long. Distension, excessive gas and dryness could happen in this final stage of digestion.

The nutrient part is absorbed by the colon, then it passes through the liver, and then into the right side of the heart, then to the lungs to be oxygenated, and then to the left part of the heart to be distributed to the whole body and the tissues. The wastes are then taken to the kidneys for urine and the gross non-liquid part is taken out through the feces. The wastes continue to nourish the body all the way until they are out.

It can be beneficial to observe where and when is it you feel different symptoms from the time you have eaten to the moment you feel those symptoms in order to learn more about the possible source of your imbalances at an energetic level of the dosha.

Agni depends strongly on all possible factors that relate to a person. For example, the season, the smell of the food, the ambiance around, the taste of the food, the mood when eating it, the time of the day, the level of appetite, condition of your own health and they could seem trivial, but they are really not at all trivial whatsoever, they are completely important in maintaining and creating a strong and clear Agni or Power of Digestion.

After the process of digestion of food has been completed. The final form is called ahar rasa, which is technically still food, at this level it is not the Rasa Dhatu yet or the lymph. It is a fluid, which is digested further to create the first Dhatu, Rasa. Each Dhatu has its own digestive fire and they all depend on the strength of the main digestive fire.

Every time something is digested in the body two products arise, one is the final product or nutrient and the other is the waste material, out of the digestion of Ahar Rasa, this fluid, two products arise, one is breast milk and the other is menstruation.

The organs of digestion are the mouth, stomach, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, intestines, etc. Ayurveda has a holistic approach in which this is happening all at once, the whole body is working.

Agni is related to everything in the body and the mind, the importance of Agni is supreme. That is why if we have an excessive food intake, or we eat at an improper time, or we have a harmful improper diet, we would impair our digestive fire. These impairments could be long or short-term, depending on the causes.

But more important than anything else is to keep the digestive fire running smoothly and powerfully.
Many times, depending on where we are at with the status of our Agni, we might have to fast in order to allow food to be digested, in fact, it is not really food that needs to be digested, but non-digested food, which is called Ama. Ama means toxins, and when the digestion cannot digest everything that we ingest, which includes everything we drink, even water and everything that we eat, then this non-digested food becomes Ama, which is gluey in nature and creates havoc in the Agni.

Fasting in these cases allows the body to process and cleanse itself. Overeating, eating over food that has not been fully digested yet, or over drinking water, in some cases, people drink a lot of water and not necessarily when the body is thirsty and calling for it. Instead, they are constantly drinking water, which has to be digested. It becomes more like a reflex, which in fact, creates an excessive unconscious movement that alters at an energetic level. Creating more thinking and more restlessness and lowering the digestive fire.

The finest qualities of a human being such as intellect, creative talent, and sensory perception can also be affected by the food one eats. Ayurveda for example states that cows’ milk and cows’ ghee increases intellect. It also brings calmness to the sensory organs, on the contrary for example using milk and acidic foods or taking stale foods has the opposite quality of reducing these subtle human qualities.

The capacity of a person is very important. The person having a good digestive fire can then digest the foods that don’t relate to or antagonistic foods.

When the digestive fire gets weak, it can be experienced in a subjective way by each person. Every person has their own capacity and it should be respected and it should be known. If a person finds that their digestive capacity has been interrupted they should find ways to recover it quickly by reducing the quantity of the food they eat or use easy to digest food to balance that particular situation if this rule is not followed then there could be other consequences, which is basically food that has not been digested will turn into what is called Ama or toxins and they create problems at the level of the Doshas. These doshas can spread in the body and also get accumulated in their respective locations. Doshas are energy, that goes from subtle to thicker (grosser).

Ama is a particular concept in Ayurveda. It is basically food that has not been digested and that can even become putrified in the intestines. It remains unabsorbed because it has not been digested completely. Ama is the root cause of many diseases and also of the clogging of the channels in the body. these channels include the main ones carrying food, but also the channels of the Dhatus and Srotas. The srotasas that have been compromised in the past due to a disease or a weakness are the most vulnerable of all. Ama or the toxins can get mixed with other doshas, other Dhatus, or malas.

Most of the time the first cause of accumulation of ama and therefore of the doshas, Dhatus and malas is excessive eating, the first treatment is fasting, or consuming really easy-to-digest food, in small quantities, gradually build up the Agni by eating very easy to digest foods moving towards the heavier ones and more nourishing.

Fire can only be increased by increasing its fuel, in the case of digestive fire, its fuel is food, which has to be increased in order to increase the Agni, but it has to be done very gradually and carefully. And then the digestive fire becomes very stable.

So if Agni is low, then fasting would be a good direction to follow, digesting the ama and building up the digestive fire again are the main ways of doing treatment or in this case self-treatment.

It is very important for each person to learn about him or herself, about their own digestion. If a person is not hungry at all on a regular basis, they really need to apply themselves and observe why. Emotions, thoughts, life situations, weather, people surrounding the person, foods that are eaten, etc. I have met people that have told me they are never hungry, think about it. Then this person should fast a little bit and reduce the amount of food eaten and take very easy to digest food in order to little by little get the ama dispersed or digested and then increase to the point that appetite shows and once it shows little by little, adding more food and so on.

It is true that there are certain schedules more favorable to take foods, eat or drink, but Agni should be ready to digest the food at those times. You should be hungry, otherwise don’t eat. In other words, the Agni should be ready to receive that food to digest it.

Sometimes people work with very strict schedules that do not allow people to eat whenever they are hungry, so they need to eat regardless of the state of their digestive fire.

Another option seen with people is that they eat all day long, not giving the proper space to digestion, and digestive fire to process the food, digest it and rest while preparing for the next meal.

In this case, when food has not been digested and new food comes into the digestive system, this new food cannot be digested, in a way, a new food has been created by the mixture of both the previous and the one just eaten. And the body has to start all over again, hampering the digestive fire gradually.

Added to the previous. One must be conscious of the following possible causes of imbalances in the body and most important in the Agni:

Change in the location where you live.
Change of seasons.
Eating too much food.
Eating too much heavy food.
Many different causes of acidity symptoms: Excesses of hot drinks, like tea, coffee, soft drinks, and sour fruit juices. Large quantity of water. The excess of liquid cannot be fully digested, the channels that handle fluids in our body can handle a limited amount only the excess has to come out.

To treat this condition stop the cause first, the tea, the coffee, and other liquids, and gradually reduce the water intake. You could do some fasting to allow the body to digest the excess of Ama.

Flatulence happens due to the fermentation of food. It is advised to leave some space in the stomach for the air to move and for the food to churn. In other words, do not overeat.

It is important to reduce the amount of sour foods taken. Not to abuse the intake of juices

Taking food spaced out is very good, not taking too frequently, about two or three times a day is enough, when really hungry. Wait for the previous portion to be digested.

The symptoms are warning signs of the body. They need to be addressed promptly.

Ayurveda says that we should drink water only as much as we need, and it is expressed by the feeling of thirst. Some people compare the feeling of thirst with dehydration and this is not always true. Thirst is good and it shows us when to drink.

Drinking excess water could lead to swelling, rhinitis, and joint pain even. It could also decrease the digestive fire.

People with a low appetite should not drink water, or take only a little water, or only when thirsty.
A thin person should drink after meals and an obese person should drink water before meals.

Unwanted food creates indigestion, in the same way, that unwanted water could create indigestion. Which could create ama/toxins.

If you have excess thirst it is best to find the reason, there could be excess heat in the body that is creating this desire for excess water.

Practical aspects of digestion:

We need to observe our digestion.
Observe the amount of food eaten.
Symptoms of food that is completely digested. These symptoms are very subjective and can only be felt by the individual himself or herself. When you get up in the morning look for the following: when food has been fully digested, there is a feeling of freshness and lightness, the stomach doesn’t feel heavy, and natural urges happen. There is normal hunger and thirst instead of abnormal craving for food or water, which normally has to do with excess Pitta and sometimes is mistaken for hunger or appetite and it is not. If you wish to know if you are really hungry, then drink some hot water and it will make you burp, if the burp is smelly that means the food is still being digested which means that you are not really hungry. And then you should wait until it is digested.
If your Agni can digest the food completely then good Rasa Dhatu is generated therefore the body will feel more energetic, even when less food has been taken, this is because the food was digested properly and absorbed, and almost no ama or toxins were produced.
Fasting can be observed up to when weakness arises. Because this is when the body will start eating Dhatus (the tissues), this is the time to stop the fast and it varies from person to person.

I believe this brings a good panorama of the importance of the digestive fire, which is the origin and base for all the fires in the body. Which are present in each Tissue or Dhatu and the intelligence and the emotions. Very important topic.

The rest of the program will be addressing Agni at all levels. Agni improves with a completely holistic approach to health, including the mind. It is not a physical thing alone.

In weeks #6-7-8 you will find detoxification techniques and we will go deeper into the topic of fasting and how to flush the digestive system. These techniques are offered so you can recover your Agni quicker.

At some point, some herbs and probiotics are suggested in order to increase the Agni and to clear unwanted toxins in the system.

This first week will show you the basics to get yourself grounded in building a strong Agni. In week #2 we will talk about Ayurveda, doshas, and body types. In week #3 we will talk about nutrition and in weeks #4-5 we will talk about the mental aspect, which affects the mind in a subtler way.

Enjoy your Self Healing Journey. Many blessings, until next time.

Sending many blessings,

Leo Cordero

INSTRUCTIONS

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