Ayurvedaâs basic foundation is consciousness. Originally, consciousness is flat -- nothing is happening. It is unbounded and infinite. Eventually consciousness creates fluctuations. It creates those vibrations, and the original vibrations it creates are the laws of nature. These laws of nature are the Vedas. Veda means knowledge. These laws of nature are structured in consciousness, they are not man-made. They are eternal, they are everywhere. These laws of nature function through the structure of DNA through different species.

DR: So each species is a unique expression of consciousness, manifest in matter.

HS: Different species are different languages . . . All DNA is basically the same, the same four bases that repeat themselves. But the majority of DNA is not active. The part which is active is activated through these laws of nature, through these vibrations, through these Vedas. Which will be different in different species. Then, as the consciousness is charging up the DNA, what happens? These vibrations, or fluctuations of consciousness, get materialized. That ultimately produces the body, whether it is an animal body, or plant body, or human body. Or the planets, the cosmos, or whatever. This is how it is produced, by the materialization of the fluctuations of consciousness.

Now, in the human body, different Vedas, or different laws of nature materialize at different rates, and that creates different structures. Like a liver, or a kidney. Each one of them is working at a different vibration. If these fluctuations or vibrations are distorted, and they are not in the right frequency, either due to psychic disturbances in the mind, or due to food, drink, the environment, or other influences -- whatever it is -- it distorts the vibrations of these organs.

Iâm taking you one step higher now, okay? Iâm talking on a different level. When the vibrations donât work properly, that structure which was originally formed has different vibrations. Now it is not working at the same vibration, so it is diseased.

DR: So that the goal would be to restore the proper vibration?

HS: Thatâs right. And that is where this Vedic approach to health comes in. Youâve got 37 different areas of Veda and Vedic literature, with divisions and subdivisions. Each one of them has been identified with a certain area of physiology and anatomy in the human body. Similarly, the different cosmic counterparts -- the planets, the constellations -- each have been identified with certain areas of the system. So when the cosmic counterparts are not aligned properly, or the different areas of physiology are not working properly, disease is produced.

DR: If the principles of Ayurveda are eternal, has the practice of Ayurveda changed through the centuries?

HS: The practice of Ayurveda was distorted and dismembered, and was not used in totality. Foreign forces [the British and earlier invaders] asserted their own influence, and suppressed the old way of knowledge. But Ayurveda has been completely revived by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, with Vedic scholars and Ayurvedic scholars. That is why it is known as Maharishi Ayurveda.

When you talk about the human body, the primary thing is consciousness. Consciousness has to work properly. That is where meditation, Transcendental Meditation, comes in. All of the research on meditation shows so much profound benefit. Because when the mind functions properly, the physiology reflects that.