Are Ayurveda and Siddha Better Than Allopathy? - Sadhguru

Sadhguru speaks about Ayurveda and Siddha, two of India's ancient medical systems which are amongst the oldest on the planet. He compares the efficacy of Allopathy, Ayurveda & Siddha in various situations, and explains how they differ from each other.

Learn Sadhguru's free guided meditation http://www.ishakriya.com/

Yogi, mystic and visionary, Sadhguru is a spiritual master with a difference. An arresting blend of profundity and pragmatism, his life and work serves as a reminder that yoga is a contemporary science, vitally relevant to our times.

More Videos & Blogs on Website
http://www.sadhguru.org

Free Guided Meditation by Sadhguru at
http://www.ishafoundation.org/Ishakriya

Official Facebook Page of Sadhguru
https://www.facebook.com/sadhguru

Official Twitter Profile of Sadhguru
https://twitter.com/SadhguruJV

I had a chronic back pain,

so I started taking Siddha medicines for the pas one and a half months.

Now I am feeling better and am able to do my yoga practices.

Is there metal in Siddha medicines?

Can you compare to Western medicines (allopathy) and to Ayurveda

and explain how Siddha medicines impact our body?

Sadhguru: Essentially the difference between
Ayurveda and Siddha and Allopathy is just this.

Allopathy is purely chemicals, chemical manipulation
of the system, when it's an emergency, you must use it.

But if it's a long… you know if it's a chronic ailment,
which is going to be with you for a long time,

and you’re going to take
some medicine for a long time,

definitely popping pills
for long periods of time is not a good thing.

So Ayurveda is herbal;
herbs are also chemicals but in natural form.

It’s way better than taking it
in a synthetic form.

Ayurveda needs a certain amount
of application and knowledge because...

there are over three hundred thousand... okay?

Three hundred thousand Ayurvedic
formulations according to the ancient texts,

Three hundred thousand formulations you have to
understand if you have to really prescribe Ayurveda.

So prescribing or practicing Ayurveda
is a... it needs a lifelong involvement.

These days I see people come
from outside the country;

they study Ayurveda for one-and-a-half months,
and they are certified ayurvedic teachers

or doctors, practitioners,
which is a very dangerous thing to do.

Three hundred thousand formulations,

how to give it, to whom to give it, when to give it
is not a simple thing to understand; it takes a lot.

Above all you need a phenomenal understanding
of the body to be able to prescribe this.

Siddha is very different in the sense;
Siddha is essentially elemental in nature.

This there are herbs,
but essentially it's elemental in nature.

It comes more from the yogic science

because the fundamental of yogic science is in
Bhuta Shuddhi or in cleansing of one’s elements.

This is an evolution from the yogic science, and
Siddha vaidya was essentially formulated by Agastya Muni,

and they say Adiyogi himself practiced it,
and Agastya brought it to the south,

and only in the south, it lived nowhere else.

And it's elemental in nature,
which needs less study

but more internal mastery for the person
who practices it, which is again a problem today.

We hope these young people,
who are starting their sadhana at the age of six,

and they are going to be in sadhana
throughout their growing period.

These kind of people can take
to Siddha very effortlessly

because the necessary
sadhana is there within them.

Siddha vaidya cannot happen without sadhana!

Today they have set up colleges for
Siddha vaidya, which... it will not work like that.

They’re picking up bits and pieces
from the text and trying to practice that.

Quackery... Siddha quackery is happening;
Siddha vaidya is not happening

because Siddha vaidya has to be
practiced by a Siddha.

It is a Siddha who can practice
Siddha vaidya.

Siddha means an established one;

one who is firmly established within himself
because it's elemental in nature.

Because it's elemental,
it's not really a medicine as such.

You are dealing with the fundamental
material, which makes the body;

you are not trying to infuse
some other medicine into it.

So usage of metals is very much
prevalent in Siddha.

I know the western medicine will immediately
brand it as nonsense,

but in siddha, all the things that you consider
as poisonous are used as a part of their medicine.

Nine deadly poisons, you heard of NavaPashana?

All the nine deadly poisons are used as medicine.

Lead is very frequently used;
mercury is regularly used.

So Rasa Vaidya is very much
part of Siddha vaidya.

And for those of you who’re calling for God’s help
when I mention the word mercury,

mercury is not poisonous; it is just with
mercury oxides people have poisoned water.

It is irresponsible usage in the industry,
which has done this.

There is mercury in the soil, okay?

We did not import mercury from Mars;
it's always been in this planet. It is not poison.

It is mercury oxides,
which are irresponsibly used in industry,

and let out into the rivers and lakes,
which poisoned the waters on this planet.

Now they think mercury is poison.

No, mercury is not poison,
but if you drink it, it’ll kill you!

Not because you can absorb it as poison,
it is because of its sheer weight.

If you put it into the stomach,
it will not go through the pipe;

it will just drip through the stomach
because of its sheer weight,

because it's specific gravity is almost
fourteen times that of water.

Because of that, because of sheer weight if you place it
in your hands it just goes into your hand through the pores.

Similarly, if you put it into the stomach, it will go
through the stomach; it will not go through the intestine.

Because of that it may kill you,
because it bores holes,

not because it's acidic,
simply because of sheer weight.

But consumption of mercury is very
much a part of the yogic system

and very much a part of the Siddha vaidya.

I am still alive only
because of mercury, not otherwise.

So Siddha is a very completely different kind of medicine
system than anything that you’ll find on the planet

but it needs a Siddha to give Siddha medicine.

If you are not established, if you can't hold the mercury,
you don’t give mercury to somebody else. (Laughs)

Yogic system has always used mercury.

Mercury and yogis are always together.

You cannot... even you will see traveling
yogis will carry a little bit of mercury with them always,

if not in liquid form, in solid form,
solidified mercury.

People do practices, keeping it
in their mouth and doing things and whatever.

There’re various aspects to it.

Nobody try that here, okay?
We don’t want you dead. (Laughs)

It's not just bad things that kill you,
good things that you’re not ready for can kill you. (Laughs)