There is something intriguing about the way we approach health in the west.
We wait.
We wait for..
Fatigue to become exhaustion.
Stress to become insomnia.
Discomfort to become diagnosis.
And then we act.
We operate in systems built for anticipation, risk management, scenario planning, capital allocation over decades, yet when it comes to human health, we often function in reaction mode. Intervention replaces prevention. Crisis replaces calibration.
In India, a very different philosophy has existed for millennia.
Ayurveda does not begin with illness. It begins with rhythm.
Not dramatic cures.
Not aggressive treatments.
But attention daily, subtle, disciplined attention.
Ayurveda considers health not as a fixed state, but as a dynamic equilibrium between body, mind and environment.
What destabilises us is rarely spectacular. It is cumulative:
irregular meals, chronic stimulation, emotional suppression, seasonal neglect.
The word Ayurveda comes from ancient Sanskrit.
“Ayur” means life or vital force, and “Veda” means knowledge or science.
Together, Ayurveda translates to “the science of life” or “knowledge of living well.”
The term originates from classical knowledge traditions developed in India, where health was viewed as harmony between body, mind, and nature.
Globally, Ayurveda has become a major wellness sector, with the market valued around $20+ billion in 2025 and projected to grow strongly in the coming decade.
There are also hundreds of thousands of practitioners and growing global adoption driven by interest in preventive and natural health solutions.
Ayurveda asks a question that feels almost philosophical:
What if disease is not an accident, but a misalignment?
Misalignment with time.
With food.
With rest.
With one’s own nature.
And here lies its elegance: prevention is not medicalised. It is ritualised.
Warm water in the morning.
Eating in calm conditions.
Sleeping before midnight.
Adapting diet to the season.
These gestures appear simple, almost too simple for our technological era.
Yet simplicity is not naïveté. It is sophistication.
Ayurveda does not promise immortality.
It promises coherence.
And perhaps that is what our hyper-productive societies lack most.
Next week, we will explore a concept that modern science is only beginning to validate, the idea that digestion is the center of vitality.
Because in Ayurveda, everything begins in the gut.
Biren Shah
International Project Management Expert, Advisor of column Opinion India
https://www.linkedin.com/in/birenpshah/
Biren Shah
