The Idea of a Vital Principle in Yoga, Āyurveda and the Second Axiom of Thermodynamics

Abstract

This inquiry joins the idea of a vital principle at work in two systems for spiritual liberation and medical treatment, South Asian Yoga and Āyurveda, to an interpretation of the second axiom of thermodynamics applied to open systems, a predictive mathematical account of matter. Though often first associated with philosophy or religion, Yoga and Āyurveda take human physiology as a function of the natural world, as does thermodynamics. The idea of “life force” or “vitality” emerges at the intersection of these two epistemologies. The religious or philosophical principle of prāṇa (succinctly, life energy) has its roots in a naturalist perspective, and a principle from mathematics and physical science yields the abstract concept of entropy (succinctly, energy loss). The discussion  reconsiders the philosophical idea of a life force, or vital principle, and its potential application in health care.