The verse and its meaning · Ayurveda · Ayurveda — The Day and the Seasons

Winter's Hungry Fire

Ashtanga Hridayam, Sutrasthana 3.7

बलिनः शीतसंरोधाद्धेमन्ते प्रबलोऽनलः । भवत्यल्पेन्धनो धातून्स पचेद्वायुनेरितः ॥ अतो हिमेऽस्मिन्सेवेत स्वाद्वम्ललवणान्रसान् । दैर्घ्यान्निशानामेतर्हि प्रातरेव बुभुक्षितः ॥ अवश्यकार्यं संभाव्य यथोक्तं शीलयेदनु ॥

Meaning · English

In early winter, in those who are strong, the cold shuts the body in, and the digestive fire grows very strong. Given too little fuel, that fire, driven by vata, would cook the body's own tissues. So in this cold season take sweet, sour and salty tastes. The nights are long now, so one is hungry already in the morning. Having seen to what must be done, follow what is set out next.

Vagbhata gives his own reason. In Hemanta, early winter, the cold closes the body in, like a lid on a stove. The heat held inside makes agni burn strongly. Agni is the digestive fire, the body's power to digest food and turn it into itself. He speaks of people who are strong. A fire this strong needs fuel. If it gets too little food, vata fans it. Vata is the moving, drying principle in the body. The fire then starts on the dhatus, the body's own tissues. That is why he asks for sweet, sour and salty tastes now. In this system's terms, these tastes are nourishing and settle vata, so they give a hungry fire enough fuel. The nights are long, so hunger comes with the morning. He asks a person first to see to what cannot wait, such as the body's morning needs, then to follow the winter routine laid out next. The calendar is India's: a cool early winter after the monsoon and autumn. A reader far from India can follow the spirit, meaning their own first cold weeks, rather than the dates.

1. On the next cold morning, if you wake hungry, eat a proper breakfast within an hour of rising instead of letting the hunger pass. 2. At one meal today, include all three tastes. For sweet, rice, bread or porridge. For sour, a little lemon or yogurt. For salty, food salted as you usually would. 3. Before breakfast, first attend to your morning necessities. Then sit down and eat without rushing.

Parts of this match what doctors know about cold weather. In the cold, blood vessels near the skin narrow and keep heat in the body's core. That loosely fits the picture of being shut in by cold. Staying warm uses extra energy, and many people feel hungrier in winter. The image of fire cooking the tissues has a fair modern parallel. When food falls short, the body draws on its own stores, first fat and later muscle. Agni maps only loosely onto digestion and appetite, and vata has no modern match. Modern nutrition has no evidence that sweet, sour or salty tastes as such suit a season. It speaks instead of enough energy and protein. People with high blood pressure or kidney disease are usually advised to limit salt in every season. Studies on whether breakfast itself matters give mixed results.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Two Halves of the Year · Ashtanga Hridayam, Sutrasthana 3.4
• Next: The Colder, Drier Stretch · Ashtanga Hridayam, Sutrasthana 3.17
• All of Ayurveda · Ask Krishna about it

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