Getting to know the status of your doshas can be a lifelong endeavor.

Because doshas, like dominoes, go out of balance and take their neighbors with them as they fall, it’s very important to understand and know both your prakruti and your vkruti.  Your prakruti, as we say often, is your basic constitution from the moment the sperm met the egg. Prakruti will stay constant over your lifetime but the vikruti will change with circumstances and time and life influences.

You have a ratio of doshas expressed within both prakruti and vkruti. Each dosha (kappa, pitta, vata) varies in strength. And strength differs within your different profiles: physical, mental, emotional, behavioral.

To uncomplicate all these terms, it is best to take the test with a group of other seekers and to be in the presence of a teacher who has at least some study credentials in Ayurveda.

For starters, all the factors can be averaged and this chart is the best one I have found online: http://www.ayurveda.com/pdf/constitution.pdf.  In Pioneer consultations we take a longer, more complex test coupled with discussion of ways to monitor your own dosa over time.

Vasant Lad is perhaps the eminent Ayurvedic doctor in the United States by now. This is his version of the profile. You want to take it twice: Once for the choices that are consistent throughout your lifetime. Then again for the way you feel recently. It helps to have a friend nearby who knows you well.