---
type: Concept
bundle: ayurveda-consciousness
bundle_version: 0.11.0
id: svastha
title: Svastha
iast: Svastha
devanagari: स्वस्थ
description: 'Health defined positively as being established in oneself: balanced doṣa, kindled agni, properly formed dhātus and wastes, AND a serene self, senses, and mind; NOT the absence of disease, NOT wellness as a lifestyle aesthetic, NOT normal lab values.'
darshana:
- Āyurveda
text_source: Suśruta Sūtrasthāna 15.41
tags:
- svastha
- health
- definition
- ayurveda
- consciousness
not:
- term: 'the absence of disease'
  why: 'Biomedicine defines health negatively, as nothing being wrong. The Suśruta definition is positive and two-tiered: the somatic tier (sama doṣa, sama agni, sama dhātu, proper elimination) AND the conscious tier (prasanna ātman, indriya, manas, the self, senses, and mind serene). A body with nothing wrong and a turbid mind is not svastha.'
  instead: 'Render svastha as established in oneself, health as positive equilibrium including mind and self, and keep the Sanskrit term.'
- term: 'a wellness aesthetic'
  why: 'Lifestyle marketing renders health as a look and a routine. Svastha is a defined physiological and psychological state with listed criteria, closer to a clinical checklist than to a mood board.'
- term: 'normal lab values'
  why: 'Population norms measure against the average person. The svastha standard is indexed to the individual constitution: balance means balanced FOR THAT prakṛti, which is why one persons normal is anothers early disease.'
related:
- /concepts/ayus.md
- /concepts/prakriti.md
- /concepts/vikriti.md
- /concepts/agni.md
timestamp: '2026-07-09'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Svastha -- स्वस्थ

**Not:** the absence of disease, a wellness aesthetic, normal lab values

## What It Actually Means

Svastha is built from sva (own) and stha (established): the healthy person is one who abides in themselves. Suśruta gives the canonical definition: the doṣas in equilibrium, the fire kindled and even, the seven dhātus formed properly, the wastes moving as they should, and, in the same breath, the ātman, senses, and mind prasanna, clear and serene. The definition legislates the mind-body unity the rest of the system assumes: no account of health can stop at the body, because the definition itself does not. It is also individually indexed: sama means balanced for this constitution, not average for the population. The word carries philosophical weight the English health cannot: to be well is to be at home in oneself, which quietly connects the medical goal to the contemplative one without collapsing the two.

## Audience Metaphor

A house is sound not because no beam has yet cracked but because it sits true on its foundation: load paths even, drainage running, rooms lit, and the owner actually at home in it, not a stranger pacing someone elses floor. Svastha is the owner at home in a true-sitting house.

## Citations

1. Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 15.41, the definition of the svastha -- see [references/sushruta-samhita.md](../references/sushruta-samhita.md)
2. Charaka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 9 on the aims of the healthy and the ailing -- see [references/charaka-samhita.md](../references/charaka-samhita.md)
