Dr. Vasant Lad is the founder of the Ayurvedic Institute and the man most responsible for bringing Ayurveda to the West. He has spent over 40 years teaching this 5,000-year-old science of life to practitioners across the world, and in this conversation, we sat down together at SoHum Mountain Healing Center in Asheville, North Carolina, where I had just completed a week-long Panchakarma. What unfolded was one of the most quietly profound conversations I have had on this show. What We Dive Into: 1. Why unprocessed emotions don’t simply pass — and how grief settles in the heart, anger in the liver, and fear in the kidneys until they’re physically released. 2. How your tongue, pulse, and face reveal what’s happening inside your body, often before any symptom appears. 3. Why your original constitution (prakruti) shapes everything from your digestion to your temperament — and how modern life pulls you away from it. 4. The gap between two breaths, and why Dr. Lad calls it an ocean of awareness available to anyone willing to sit in it. THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: https://sohumhealing.com/panchakarma-retreat/ Code AndrePK2026 for $500 off your Panchakarma https://www.functionhealth.com/KNOWTHYSELF Code KNOWTHYSELF25 for $25 off membership ___________ 00:00 Intro 01:58 What Ayurveda Actually Means 02:40 The Five Elements, Three Doshas, and the Body 06:18 Prakruti, Vikruti, and the Root of Disease 08:00 The Sankhya Philosophy Behind Ayurveda 13:33 The Goal of Ayurveda 15:26 Dr. Lad's Path: Guru, Calling, and Coming West 18:06 Where Western Medicine Falls Short 22:05 Ama, Agni, and the Ayurvedic View of Disease 25:56 Pulse, Tongue, and Face: The Art of Diagnosis 34:29 Reading Psychological Nature Through the Pulse 39:00 The Gap Between Breaths: Awareness and Mysticism 44:37 How Repressed Emotions Crystallize in the Body 47:39 Panchakarma: Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Cleansing 51:52 Ojas, Tejas, and Prana: The Vital Essences 56:18 Sexual Energy, Celibacy, and the Cultivation of Ojas 1:00:07 Life as Meditation: The Unified Field 1:06:00 The Ayurvedic View of Death and Dying 1:14:56 Dinacharya: The Daily Routine as Spiritual Practice 1:18:48 The Doshic Clock and the Yugas 1:25:22 Relationship, Self-Knowledge, and the Closing Message ___________ MORE FROM DR. VASANT ✨Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drvasantlad 🌐https://ayurveda.com/about-vasant-lad/ MORE FROM KNOW THYSELF 🎙️Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4bZMq9l 🎧Apple: https://apple.co/4iATICX ✨Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/knowthyself/ 🎬TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andreduqum 👥Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/knowthyselfbyandreduqum/ 🌐https://knowthyselfpodcast.com/ MORE FROM ANDRÉ ✨Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@andreduqum 💼Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/know-thyself-podcast 📚Book recs: https://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com/book-list