Srotas

Srotamsi are the channels, passages, pathways, and highways of the body. The body is made up of billions of srotamsi through which substances, energy, and information flow. Through the porosities of the cell membrane, oxygen enters, carbon dioxide exits, and electrically charged ions move in and out. Capillaries are srotamsi where blood, nutrients, and plasma mix and exchange gases with cells.

The body has many forms of srotamsi. The gastrointestinal tract, respiratory, cardiovascular, auditory, nasal, and optic tracts are all main highways. Organs themselves are organized systems of srotamsi that perform specific functions governed by their structure. The chakra system is also composed of srotamsi, with the central canal of the spinal cord forming a srotas connected to billions of channels throughout the body. There is a srotas for each sensation: hearing (auditory pathway), touch (tactile pathway), vision (optic pathway), taste (gustatory pathway), and smell (olfactory pathway).

Each srotas has three components: a sroto mula (root or origin), a sroto marga (passage or pathway), and a sroto mukha (mouth or opening). For example, in the urinary system, the kidney is the sroto mula, the ureters, urethra, and bladder form the sroto marga, and the urethral opening is the sroto mukha.

The concept of srotas is both structural and functional. Dhatu srotamsi are made up of the dhatus and are more structural, while mala srotamsi are more functional. The srotamsi are organized into three groups: three channels to receive (prana, water, food), seven channels to nourish (rasa, rakta, mamsa, meda, asthi, majja, shukra/artava), and three channels to eliminate (urine, feces, sweat).

The srotamsi are the systems and channels through which substances, energies, and information flow throughout the body. Each srotas has three components: a mula (root or origin), a marga (passage), and a mukha (mouth or opening).

The major srotamsi include prana vaha srotas (respiration), ambu vaha srotas (water metabolism), anna vaha srotas (food digestion), rasa vaha srotas (plasma and immunity), rakta vaha srotas (blood and oxygenation), mamsa vaha srotas (muscle), meda vaha srotas (fat), asthi vaha srotas (bone), majja vaha srotas (nervous tissue), and shukra vaha srotas (reproduction). Each channel corresponds to a specific tissue, function, or system, and disturbances in a particular srotas produce predictable symptoms in the related organs and tissues.