The identification with the false-self is conditioned by the discriminative power of the mind, the intellect. As a result, the object is seen as separate from the subject, inquirer as separate from the inquiry, and the mind as separate from the body. From a Vedic perspective, the belief, identification, and expression of separation, duality, by the intellect, is called Pragya-Aparadh.

Pragya-Aparadh translates to 'mistake of the intellect'. The term is comprised of two words, pragnya, meaning intellect, and apradh, meaning crime. The implication is crime against ones' own knowledge or of Awareness. Doing what is wrong, or a belief in what is false, despite knowing side-effects or consequences that lead to or promote imbalance or dis-ease, is the primary meaning as it applies in Ayurveda. It is the minds' error which results from the loss of Unity of Consciousness, which leads to the identification with the false belief of being a separate being, identifying with the physical body, and manifests as suffering and poor health.

One becomes determined by the notion of this or that, which results as the loss of the ability to discriminate between them. In turn, one loses sight, clarity, and the Awareness of being whole, the unicity of Consciousness, and Oneness. Intellect, buddhi, is asleep, or clouded by memories and conditioned associations. In this state, one acts against ones' conscience. When one forgets or ignores the Truth of Unity, one is out of balance and alignment with natural law. As a result, poor and faulty judgements are made which determine the actions taken towards health, wellness, the body. The internal and external results of Pragya-Aparadh are reflected in the apparent individual and collective, socially, and as the environment. The ongoing use of proven, unhealthy food production and agricultural practices, as well as smoking, are examples.

The 'mistakes' are classified into three groups. Dhi, intellectual, represents lack of intellect or ignorance. Dhriti, Awareness, is when one acts despite Awareness. Smruti, memory, suggests the loss of memory in favor of poor decision. With all three, the mind and egos' identification controls and determines the body and health. Decisions are nolonger made from the level of Consciousness. The 'mistake of the intellect' is the act of going against nature. The deeper meaning suggests the apparent loss, or 'forgetting' of the Self.

When one is not whole and resting as True-Nature, one is drawn to the influence of material consciousness, the belief of separation, and the illusion of isolation. When the mind sees itself as separate and divided from Consciousness, one is in original, primary stress. Stress is connected to fear, fear is rooted in duality, and this dual nature is a result of Pragya-Aparadh. This 'mistake of the intellect' is the source of forgetting life as it is, who we are, and suffering. Without embodied Awareness of True-Nature, one becomes dissociated from Unity Consciousness, suffering follows, and in turn, illness and dis-ease. The results are evidenced both within the individual, and the accelerated consequences being witnessed as the environment. All illness, dis-ease, and suffering, can be traced back to this.

When the imagined mind imagines itself, and intellect believes in separation, that one is separate from One, separate from Nature, from the Divine, from Self, from God, then self-conditioning, patterns, and systems of belief scaffold the body and manifest in physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual suffering, illness and dis-ease.

The Vedanta roots of Ayurveda, and the foundational principles outlined by the Charaka Samhita, the ancient texts of Ayurveda, point to the elimination of the sense of separation between Self, True-Nature, and the limited expression of the self. At the core of Ayurvedic healing is the intention to restore Awareness of Self, as Self, at every level of physiology, from subtle to gross, to restore the purity of Consciousness, and to restore the forgotten memory of Truth, that one may rest in, and express True-Nature as it is.