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→The process of reduction in life span and dissolution of universe
== The process of reduction in life span and dissolution of universe ==
== The process of reduction in life span and dissolution of universe ==
This process of reduction of life span and quality of living beings is also believed to be the initial origin of disorders. This association between causative factors and their effect of quality of living being is also applicable in todays time. The cause and effect relationship of lifestyle related factors and health has been put forward excellently. The chart describes this process.
This process of reduction of life span and quality of living beings is also believed to be the initial origin of disorders. This association between causative factors and their effect of quality of living being is also applicable in todays time. The cause and effect relationship of lifestyle related factors and health has been put forward excellently. The qualities of living beings and their gradual degradation in yugas is described below
=== Virtues, qualities and life span of living beings before Satyayuga ===
* Human beings
In the first ''yuga'' (''kritayuga'' or ''satyayuga''), people were gifted with vitality equal to those of the sons of Aditi (i.e., devas or Gods) – they were exceedingly pure and unhampered in their powers to perceive the Supreme, the God-like sages, the Divine Law, the religious sacrifices, and the sacrificial rituals. Their bodies were firm like the essence of mountains - compact and stable; they had clear senses and complexions. They had movement, strength and valor like those of the wind; they were with well-formed buttocks, endowed with handsomeness, body-size, cheerfulness and corpulence. They were devoted to truth, honest behavior, compassion, charity, self-restraint, moral discipline, spiritual endeavor, fasting, continence, and religious vows. They were free from fear, desire, aversion, infatuation, greed, anger, despondency, pride, disease, sleep, indolence, fatigue, languor, sloth and spirit of acquisition; and lastly they were bestowed with longevity.
* Crops and herbs
For the benefit of these people of noble minds, qualities and deeds, the crops grew with inconceivable ''rasa, veerya, vipaka,'' and ''prabhava'', and the virtue of the earth during the dawn of this golden age was charged fully with all excellent qualities.
==== End of Satyayuga ====
At the end of the ''satyayuga'', however, some affluent people started gaining heaviness in their bodies due to over-indulgence in food. They started suffering from fatigue in lieu of this. Fatigue gave rise to laziness, and laziness made them to accumulate things; accumulation led to the attachment for these things and attachment resulted in greed.
=== Virtues, qualities and life span of living beings before Tretayuga ===
Human beings
With the onset of the ''tretayuga'', greed gave rise to malice in its wake, malice led to falsehood, and falsehood led to passion, anger, vanity, hatred, cruelty, aggression, fear, grief, anxiety, distress and the like. Symbolically, during ''tretayuga'', one-fourth of ''dharma'' (religious duties) disappeared, resulting in reduction of the life-span of human beings by a quarter.
Crops and herbs
Similarly, there was reduction in the attributes of earth etc., by a quarter. Because of the reduction of these attributes there was diminution by one quarter of the unctuousness, purity, tastes (''rasa''), potency (''veerya''), post digestive effects (''vipaka''), prabhava and qualities of grains. In effect, this degradation impacted all aspects of living beings that were described to have existed in the ''satyayuga''.
Origin of diseases
There was an unusual change in the maintenance of equilibrium of tissue elements and there was vitiation of ''agni'' (''pitta'') and ''maruta'' (''vata'') by which, first of all, bodies of living beings got afflicted with diseases viz. ''jwara'' (fever) etc. Therefore the life-span of living beings underwent gradual diminution.
== Mrtyu a type of disease ==
== Mrtyu a type of disease ==
== Indeterminate nature of life span ==
== Indeterminate nature of life span ==
If the life span of humans beings would have been predetermined there would not have been the necessity for guidelines and instructions regarding healthcare practices. Thus Ayurveda believes that to obtain the desired life span one needs to keep a control on his karma performed in this life and adopt methods to protect his life from various injurious elements.
== Types of Mrtyu ==
== Types of Mrtyu ==