Talk on Ayurveda

I gathered the notes below from a talk by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami.

Because recently I was in an ayurvedic clinic. I went there for the second time. And I had a long discussion with the doctors there. And I collected quite a bit of informations about ayurveda from them. And in course of our discussion, he was telling me, the main doctor, doctor Rama Kumar, that he was talking to a very wealthy family… Specially the lady of the family and they are so wealthy, they are Indians… They are so wealthy that when they go to Europe and America, they go there their private jets. I mean people make short trips in their private jets, which are one thing. But when they go on intercontinental flights, still they use their private jets. Very, very wealthy families. He was asking that lady, she is in her fourties… He asked her: “Do you fall asleep as soon as you go to bed?” So, she said no, I have to read, I have to watch TV, sometimes even I have to take sleeping pills. And then he asked: “Do you feel fresh when you wake up in the morning? And she admitted: “No…” She had to drink a few cups of coffee to wake up. And things like that. Then he asked “Do you feel hungry when you sit down to eat?” [That’s what I have been asking in the beginning whether everybody can hear me. Can everybody hear me now?] Then he asked: “Do you feel good appetite when you sit down to eat? And then also she admitted that she does not. Then he asked: “When you wake up in the morning do you clean your stomach?” Does your stomach get naturally clean? That also she admitted that it does not happen. And then he told her: “Look, these are the four signs of good health.” Good health means: “As soon as you hit the bed you fall asleep. When you wake up you feel fresh. When it is time to eat you feel appetite. And in the morning soon after you wake up you clean your stomach. I also thought that it makes so much sense. And I wanted to convey to you… Make sure about these four things. And you will notice: “Late night you don’t sleep well.” Late night, you wake up in the morning, you feel groggy as if you did not really take rest. That’s how I feel. If I go to bad after 22h30 I don’t sleep properly. But if I go to bed before 21h00 I wake up at 02h00 and I feel fresh as a daisy. And also feel good appetite and make it a point… And then to my great surprise I was told that about eighty per cent of people in the West suffer from constipation. Why? Because they eat meat… Anyway, so why people won’t become sick? Cleansing the stomach naturally is very, very important. So take care of your health nicely. And these are the signs. Make it a point to go to bed early. And try to not watch TV’s. How many of you don’t watch TV? Very good. Because that is a very damaging thing to your consciousness. Rather have a sweet dream! When you fall asleep, it is much better than watching a horror movie in the TV.

Since we are talking about health I will also give you another tip that I gathered from these discussions with these doctors. Normally what happens when in the course of our lives, in course of our day to day activities, in course of our unhealthy lifestyles we accumulate toxins in the body. And this body… The toxins keep on accumulating in the body and then eventually what happens? The toxins come out in the form of disease. Diseases are caused by toxins in the bodies. How many of you know about pancha karma? Pancha karma, pancha means five and karma means activities. Five kinds of activities or five kinds of treatments. The purpose of this treatment actually is to purify your body. Detoxify your body. The toxins have accumulated in the body in various ways. The toxins can be in the body cells, toxins can be in the blood stream, the toxins can be there in the nervous system. And ayurveda has a way of detoxifying, take out the toxins. Like one of the things of detoxifications or one of the pancha karmas is actually sneha-panam… I went through that treatment. Sneha means ghee. And panam means drink. This treatment is the treatment of drinking ghee. And these are not just ordinary ghee, this is medicated ghee. And this medicated ghee, what it does, is… Ghee actually is a very good carrier. It reaches to different recesses of your body. And when it reaches with the medicines, ayurvedic medicines, what it does, it pulls out all the toxins from those areas. This treatment goes on for seven days. They start with thirty milliliters of ghee. Thirty milli-liters, it is not that much. But the second day sixty milli-litters. Third day nine day ninety milliliters. Fourth day hundred twenty milliliters. Fifth day hundred fifty milli-liters. Sixt day hundred eighty milli-liters. Seventh day two hundred and ten milli-liters. Every day they increase it by thirty milli-liters. This ghee, as I said, the medicated ghee brings out all the toxins from the deepest parts of your body. The tissues, the body cells and then they bring it on to your stomach. Naturally it comes to the stomach. And then on the eight day they give you a very strong purgative and that purgative flushes the whole thing out of your body. And I tell you, you see the result, not immediately. After the treatment you feel very weak. Of course they did not subject me to seven days treatments. They told me: “Guru Maharaja, Guru Maharaja your body is a satvic body body. So it does not need such an elaborate treatment. They gave it to me for three day. First day fifty milliliters, second hundred milli-liters and third day hundred and fifty milli-liters. And on the third day I must admit I started to like the taste of the ghee. The first day I was sipping, drinking it with small sips. He was telling me, he was noticing… The second day I was dulping it. And the third day in one swilp I drank the whole thing. And I took it for three days and the fourth day they purged me. And yes, the body became very weak because… And that’s what they do. After the treatment they make you recuperate. They don’t let you go out straight away. They bring you back to your normal health condition. And then they let you go out. And I tell you… That treatment was very effective by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. And experiencing it myself I now started to tell the devotees that those who are above fifty should take this treatment at least once in two years. You have to invest just three weeks, take the treatment and you will see the benefit yourself. It makes you feel younger. You lose weight, extra-weight is taken out and as I was telling you…Pancha-karma, it is not that everybody is subjected to all five types of treatment. They see which treatment you need. Say for example some people need purification of blood, of toxins in the blood. And do you know how they take out that poison from the blood? Don’t get shocked. They put leeches. And there are some leeches that take out only the poison out of the blood. Not that all leeches do that. They know, there are certain leeches, they showed me those leeches. They put them, you don’t feel anything actually. And then after they have taken out the poison out of the blood, the leeches fall out automatically. That’s the indication that the poison has been cleansed out of the body. See how scientific it is! Whereas in allopathic treatment what do they do? They simply deal with the symptom. For everything they have one medicine. Antibiotics. For everything antibiotics. They put the germs in the body to fight the other germs. Whereas this is so scientific. This is how you all should be concerned about your physical well-being. Because physical well-being is important for your spiritual emancipation or spiritual advancement. If you are physically weak, how do you feel? Do you feel like doing anything? No. Are you capable of doing anything? No. Therefore it is important to be physically healthy, physically well. Please take care of your health. That’s why Prabhupāda always ended the letters: “I hope this meets you in good health or best of health.” Prabhupāda always wanted that we are in good health. Take care of your health. And do whatever is necessary. And avoid allopathic treatment as much as possible. Allopathic treatment has its benefit. Like allopathic treatment is very good for cure. But how they cure that is another story. But isn’t prevention better than cure? Prevention is better than cure. Take these simple preventive measures just as I said. Have this treatment once every two years. At least once in two years. For three weeks go and take the treatment and see what happens. And one thing I have noticed. First I started off with myself. One of my disciples in Mayapura, Prema Manjari, many of you know her, she used to insist: “Guru Mahārāja, you have to go and take this treatment, please go and take this treatment.” And I used to tell her: “Look, I don’t have three weeks. I can’t take three weeks out of my schedule. I would rather go to some place for these three weeks and preach than to go to an ayurvedic clinique.” And because of her insisting last year I went for ten days. And yes, due to these ten days of treatment, I did feel different.

And I felt the difference so much so that I am promoting it to you all today. I am saying that you all please also consider this treatment. And I tell you a few cases. There was one person, one young boy, one of my disciples’ son in law. He had epilepsy. So you know they were really worried… He was about to have a very, very serious accident one day. He had the epileptic fit when he was driving the car. You can well imagine, you know. Fortunately there was no head long collision; the car actually hit the side of the road. Anyway, it was such a bad case. When I heard that, I called doctor Ramkumar of Coimbatoire. And I asked him whether there was any treatment for epilepsy? He said yes, they can cure epilepsy. This boy came for the treatment. And his condition improved remarkably. So much so that he went there again after six months. Everyone was so impressed that the disciple of mine and his wife they all went and they also did the treatment. They did not have any serious problem but they felt so much better after the treatment. This is how people are getting affected. Because when the result is there then automatically you see it for yourself. Another thing I wanted to tell you all… Recently I found out that in Vrindavana there is somebody who can cure cancer, if it is not at a very advanced stage. In Coimbatore also if  detected at an early stage they can cure.