The four types of Ayus

Ayurveda describes four types of Ayus, or “lifestyles”. The four Ayus are Hita-Ayu, Ahita-Ayu, Sukha-Ayu, and Dunkha-Ayu. I would like to start with Dunkha-Ayu which describes living in a disturbed mental state with physical pain and performing negative actions. One example of Dunkha -Ayu could be a drug addict. They are not able to think clearly because they are under the influence and the make bad decisions, they are also hurting their bodies and those around them.

Ahita-Ayu describes a self absorbed life. For example, someone that works excessively with the single goal of making money. This person would neglect their family and will make decisions that hurt others only based on how much money they will make. They also make bad decisions on food and friends.

Sukha-Ayu describes a person that carries a healthy life in general. There is an effort to balance the mental, spiritual and physical aspects but there is still not enough awareness to understand how small actions affect nature. For example, someone that follows a very good diet but do not care if the food they ingest is organic or if the animals have been treated fairly.

Hita-Ayu describes the life of a sage or a saint. They live righteously and they are in harmony with their surroundings.

Consequently, the “lower” we are in the lifestyle scale, the more “bad” karma we are accumulating; and the more susceptible we are to suffering. There are three types of suffering or Kleshas: 1- Adhyatamika or mind and body misseries 2- Adibhautika or suffering caused by other living things and 3 - Adhidaivika or natural disasters and seasonal changes.

For example, someone that is living a Dunkha-Ayu lifestyle may have a low self-esteem and they might be highly susceptible to what other people think of them thus causing more insecurities and depression. This will be considered Adhyatamika ( a mind suffering) because the person is allowing other people's thoughts and opinions to affect their health.

Another example could be someone living a Sukha-Ayu lifestyle. They are generally healthy and they might be careless about taking the general precautions not to catch bacterial infections. They are not aware that they are susceptible to infections because they are healthy and they don’t think that they might get sick from not washing their hands or eating food that hasn’t been properly handled or properly cooked.

Then we have the Ahita-Ayu lifestyle person that might go through the problem of losing their home and/or job due to a natural disaster. If they have based all their happiness in all the material things they have accumulated and this things are just taken away overnight they will feel lost and helpless. On the other hand, someone living a Hita-Ayu lifestyle might go through the same loss but they have their happiness centered in much more valuable things that cannot be taken away that easily. Things that are not of material value, but things that they carry around protected in their hearts and minds.