Ojas, Agni & Ama

In Ayurveda, food is considered the basis for the normal functioning of the three doshas. Ideally, the metabolized food energy is transformed into ojas (the life energy or nectar of life) as the finest end product of digestion. Ojas strengthen the immune system and thus serve the longevity and healthy functions of the body. The prerequisite for ojas to be created as the nectar of life is a good digestive fire, called agni.

Agni is the natural law of transformation. It permeates the whole of creation and ensures that everything changes and evolution can take place. Without Agni, no life is possible. In our body the main function of Agni is the digestion, absorption, assimilation and transformation of food and sensations into energy. Intellectual sharpness and discrimination are also determined by Agni.
If Agni is in a balanced state, sufficient Ojas is created. Our immune system is intact and we are healthy. However, if our digestive fire is weakened and slowed down, food is no longer digested properly and so-called āma is produced.

Ama, literally the «uncooked, undigested», refers to external and internal toxins produced by our own reduced metabolism and accumulated in the body. This ama enters the circulation and the whole body, where it can clog the fine body channels, srota. The metabolic waste products that accumulate in the body lead to a kind of self-poisoning that gradually impairs prāṇa (life energy), ojas (the immune system) and tejas (cell metabolism), which in turn leads to diseases. According to Ayurveda, ama, together with the unbalanced doshas, is the main cause of all diseases.

At Vedasudha Ayurvedic Hospitals, we try our level best to rid your body of ama so that it can function properly again. It is one of the main principles of Ayurveda that the key to healing is always hidden in the disease.