Ayurveda maintains that death begins in the colon and modern science agrees with this. Yoga helps you keep the colon healthy to ensure a healthy life, says Yogi Ashwini
If you recall the episode from Ramayana, you will find that Ravana appeared to invincible despite repeated attacks by Rama and was killed only when Rama pierced his navel with an arrow. The navel corresponds to the seat of power in the body, the manipoorak charka that makes up for any weakness and directly controls the digestive system in the body.
Ayurveda maintains that death begins in the colon and modern science agrees with this fact. Hence, in order to ensure a long and healthy life, it is of utmost importance to keep the colon healthy. Realising this, today the market is flooded with various techniques and equipment to ensure the same. One of these is the hydrocolon therapy. The therapy with the aid of certain instruments washes the intestines with saline water to flush the toxins out of the system.
However, being a synthetic process, it entails certain side effects such as dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, discomfort, cramps and infection. During the hydrocolon therapy, there exists a risk of toxicity and allergy in the event of absorption of substances from the wall of colon. The US Food and Drug Administration does not recommend colonic irrigation machines for routine use.
I get many cases of people who have fallen prey to the hazards of this modern innovation. like the gift of modern-day yog gurus is knee and spine problems for those who take to their self-styled practices, hycolon therapy comes with a high risk of infection and allergy. Both of these are wrong practice of yoga and ancient sciences which instead of helping the body, age it due to their hyperactive and unnatural nature.
You will be surprised to know that the technique of using saline water for cleansing finds a mention in the vedic sutras. Vedic masters prescribed the laghu Shankh Prakshalan Kriya for cleansing the colon. For this, take eight glasses of lukewarm water and add two teaspoons of rock salt. Drink two glasses of water in a gulp. Now do the following set of asanas, repeating each seven times dynamically.
TAADASANA: Standing straight, inhale and stretch your arms above the head while lifting the heels off the floor. Exhaling, return.
TEERYAK TAADASANA: Stand straight with arms stretched above the head. Inhaling, bend from the waist sideways, first right then left. Exhaling, return.
KATI CHAKRASANA: Standing straight, place right hand on the left shoulder and left hand at the back. Inhaling, twist your waist to the left and then to the right while simultaneously changing hands. Exhaling, return.
TEERYAK BHUJANG ASANA: lie flat on the stomach. Inhaling, raise the upper torso with palms on the floor. Twist from waist first right and then left. Exhaling, return.
UDARAKARSHAN ASANA: Sit on your haunches. Inhaling push the right knee onto the floor, close to the left toe, while twist the body to your left. In the same breath turn to the other side switching knees. Exhaling, return.
Drinking two glasses of prepared water each time, repeat the entire set two more times. Finally have the last two glasses of water, relax for half an hour in shavasana. Wait for the call of nature and relieve yourself in the toilet. Do the kriya in the morning and keep your stomach light through the day. Do these asanas only under the strict supervision of an expert.
CAUTION: It is of utmost importance not to force the bowel movement. Keep lying in shavasana (covering your body with a sheet) for 45 minutes and only get up to answer the call of nature. Some people who are highly constipated, may have some difficulty in passing stool. But generally the technique allows a person to clear the bowels a couple of times. laghu shankh prakshalan can be safely performed two to three times in a week, but the practise should be slowly tapered as the system starts to get accustomed to natural bowel movement after thorough cleansing. It should not be practiced by pregnant women, heart patients, people with high or low blood pressure, back problems, anaemics and weak people. It is not to be performed immediately after eating. A gap of at least three hours is recommended.
The stomach, as per the vedic sources, is the organ responsible for deriving prana from the food and in this sense, the vedic masters identified three stomachs of a human being —mouth, actual stomach and intestines. The three stomachs are controlled and governed by the manipoorak chakra in the pranic body of a person.
Maximum imbalances in the body start with congestion in the stomach and a faulty elimination of waste from the body, which ultimately manifests into disease. When you eat, two things can happen that may lead to disease in future. First is the failure of absorption of nutrients from the intestines due to the development of a chemical coating on the walls due to eating food laced with chemicals and spices. Second, the slow/negligible movement of the ingested food in the digestive tract due to lack of pranic energy in the manipoorak, once again resulting from ingestion of chemicals and dangerous spices. This leads to collection of toxins (ama) and absorption of these toxins into the blood stream, which further destabilise the endocrine system, giving rise to serious diseases, mostly auto-immune disorders like thyroid and asthma. So the vedic saying that death begins in the colon is not without logical backing. The manipoorak chakra and hence the stomach, can be kept in an optimal condition through certain yogic kriyas and mantras detailed in the book Sanatan Kriya: The Ageless Dimension.
The writer is the guiding light of Dhyan Foundation and author of several spiritual books