The very
heading of this article might have vexed a few of our readers. We clearly see wrinkles on their
faces. They are not to be blamed.
They have experience of various other pathies. They might therefore argue,
"Allopathy is one
of the oldest pathies, which is
found quite effective in curing various diseases. So we are
depending on it for cure of our diseases.
If you feel that
Ayurveda is really an 'effective pathy and if you are extra
proud of your Indian drugs, you may adopt Ayurvedic system of treatment for
your health. Those who might have found Unani medicines to be effective, may go to a Hakim for cure of
diseases; but if you are afraid of the huge drugging that these pathies are resorting to, you may shift to
Homeopathy or biochemistry, which pathies are only a few centuries old and which claim that there are no after effects or reactions of
the medicines administered by
them; but inspite of all these pathies, that are waiting at your doors for giving you relief, why are you adding one more pathy to our
list? All these pathies have fleeced the human race quite enough.
These patbies have taken away both the human life as well as their
money".
Yes! We
understand your view point thoroughly. It is because of this only that we are taking
you back to nature These remedies are
to be adopted by you yourself and no
costly drugs are to be used, which would
not suit your pocket; but do you know that one of the oldest
pathy, about which you have special pride, also adopted nature's remedies
without just saying that they are adopted from nature? Until recently the first treatment that was
started for a Typhoid patient was to keep an ice bag over his head, round
the clock, up to the time his temperature would fall down substantially.
The formentation of eyes or chest or stomach with hot water or a hot
water bag, was also very common A heated brickbat was also often times used for
formenting the stomach. Now what were these remedies except remedies available
in nature? These were the remedies suggested to man by his communion with
nature. The only thing about them was that they were not disclosed as nature's
remedies. Under these circumstances why not then try to find out if nature can
provide us some more remedies, which can prevent ailments of the mankind or
which can cure the mankind of their ailments?
Administering
some sort of a drug for a disease is an ancient practice and it is current from
times immemorial; but in some cases drugs are not found to have desired effect
or in some cases drugs have bad after effects. Some close observers therefore
started thinking why it was so. Their observation showed that people at large
disregard rules of nature. This leads to accumulation of certain matter in the
body which causes, ailments. If therefore, this superfluous matter is driven
out of the body, it will give relief to the patient and he will be free from
the ailment.
Dr. Kuuhe
was one of these advocates of the aforesaid theory. He lived in the last
quarter of the 19th century. He himself suffered from a number of diseases; but
he found no relief from the drugs prescribed to him. He ultimately discarded
all these drugs and started experimenting on himself and found out a line of
treatment which he called 'nature cure system’. In his treatment the main
thing that was used was water and steam. He was giving tub-bath of cold water
to various patients for a number of diseases. He was similarly directing a
number of patients to have steam-bath. In case of a patient suffering from
influenza or other fever, the Allopathic Doctor always gives first a diaphoretic
mixture. When a patient gets good perspiration, much of the poison in his body
gets out along with that perspiration. The theory in steam-bath is the same,
but here the perspiration starts within a few minutes from the commencement of
the steam-bath. The time required for taking the doses internally and awaiting
their desired effect, is thus saved and the poisons are driven out of the
patient's body within a very short time.
The cold
water tub-bath has got similar good and quick results. This bath mainly cleans
the gutters of the human body. It gives you a clear motion and clean urine. The
poisons in the human body are mainly excreted through the urine, motion and
perspiration. Thus the steam-bath and tub-bath help a patient to clean his body
and throw out the poisons in the body, which manifest themselves in different
parts of the body in the form of ailments. Thus headache, fever, cold, cough
etc. are different manifestations of the presence of poison in the body, mainly
in the digestive system.
Enema of
pure cold water is another nature's remedy. The congestion in the stomach and
constipation are all removed by the help of enema, if taken properly and at
proper times. This is a drugless remedy which when administered to a patient,
who is having temperature, reduces his temperature immediately by at least two
degrees.
Mahatma Gandhi was an advocate of
Nature's remedies, He has written in his autobiography how he used these
remedies in case of sick persons and with what results. He was using the
mudpack wherein wet mud covered by a cloth was used. This used to have almost
similar effect to that of an icebag or a cloth soaked in cold water.
The
effect of simple cold water on a patient suffering from fever is wonderful.
Once a patient was extremely restless because of high fever. The burning sensation
all over the body was simply unbearable. The Doctor immediately ordered for
ice-cold water and some pieces of cloth. He soaked those pieces of cloth in
ice-cold water and placed them on the forehead, on both the feet and on the
lower part of the stomach. When fever was thus attacked from top to bottom at
three places, the patient got relief
within less than ten minutes. The temperature came down, the burning sensation
was reduced and the patient fell asleep. The treatment was continued further upto
the time the temperature came to normal.
In
Sanskrit there are a number of words which mean water. One of them is JIVAN.
This word JIVAN means life.
No life in the world is possible without water. The human beings
can remain without food,for as
many as seventy to eighty days; but they will not be able to live for half
the number of days without water. The heat in the human body is maintained because of the circulation
of human blood. This human blood
contains a large percentage of water.
Therefore unless large quantities of water are taken orally by a human
being, his blood will become thick.
It is because of this that
in case of dehydration a patient
is given intravenus saline immediately. In Ayurveda it has been recommended that every body should do
‘US-PAN” This is nothing else but
drinking ordinary water, at room temperature, after getting up early in the
morning. This remedy is found to have wonderful results in case of patients
suffering from constipation. Water of
hot springs, which is available only
at certain places, is also useful for
curing certain skin diseases and it is
reported to have given relief to
certain paralytic patients also.
Taking
proper food and taking it in such a moderate quantity that it should be just
sufficient to live, is also another aspect of Naturopathy. In this connection
we have published in Shri Sai Leela for the month of August 1975 (pages 23 to
32) an article by Shri Prabhudas Mehta on the basis of his lectures which he
delivered to the students of the Maharashtra Biochemic Academy at Bombay, in
the last week of July 1975. While speaking about Naturopathy, Shri Mehta has
referred to the food part of the pathy. Of course his discussion is quite
brief; but it will indicate in which direction you have to go, in order to
follow nature in taking your food.
The other
treatments advocated by Shri Mehta by the use of the magnets and the cosmic
rays also fall under nature's remedies. The examples quoted by Shri Mehta are
wonderful and it appears that his theories have a scientific base. Of course,
like other remedies of nature, Shri Mehta's remedies do not appear to be easy
for use by laymen. They will require an expert to prescribe them.
Fast is a
counterpart of lunch. Mahatma Gandhi had made a science of fast. Apart from
purification of body, he said that it was necessary for purifying the mind The
purity of mind may be an effect of fast, because all our sages of the past have
advocated fast for communion with
God; but leaving aside this aspect of the fast, we know that it helps to burn
the extra fat in the body and such other matters which are not required by the
human system.
Exercise
is also a nature's remedy which should not be lost sight of. Out of all the
methods of exercises, the most important and natural is the practice of
Yogasanas. We know that Shri Sai Baba was a Mahayogi. So many of His yogic
practices have been mentioned in the Sai Satcharita. We have therefore to conclude
that He was in favour of nature's remedies. If we closely observe His habits of
taking food, we find that He never cared about His food. He ate only a little
food which was just enough to sustain His body. He never showed signs of
gluttony and overate the food offered to Him. Of course, in His case, He being
a yogi, He had perfect control over His senses and thus His tongue was fully
under His control. Hence He could even take the food, kept in the Dwarkamai in
the open pot out of which the crows and dogs were allowed to partake freely.
It will
thus be seen that Naturopathy is not a very new science of which we should be
afraid. We are moving away from nature because of the artificial city life and
are then complaining about indigestion, blood pressure, insomnia, heart trouble
etc.
One simple
example of our artificial life may be given, which relates to the
administration of vitamins. If we simply take the rays of the morning or
evening Sun, we get sufficient amount of vitamin D; but we have no time to go
into the Sun at that time and hence we are running after ready tablets of
vitamin D, which we can swallow at ease. A number of other vitamins could also
be obtained from vegetables or other food items; but we get vegetables which
are eight days' old and we get food stuffs which have lost their food value and
vitality. The medical practitioners and thinkers all over the world are
therefore, giving a common slogan of "back to nature" in order to
improve the health of the people. The Yogic exercises and Asanas have
hypnotised tbe western world and America to such an extent that every town and
city there is now having a large number of classes for teaching Yogasanas. As
stated before, Shri Sai Baba was a Mahayogi and in order to deserve the name of
His disciple, we Sai devotees should also start practicing yogasanas and
acquire sound health. In ancient times when man was one with nature, he was
robust and free from ailments; but as he started receding from nature, he
became a prey of various diseases. Hence those that want to enjoy good health
may resort to nature's remedies explained above. Dr. Kunhe's remedies are
mainly connected with the use of water, in some form or the other and hence our
readers might have come across these remedies under the name of
"hydraupathy"; but water being a natural constituent, which is
available in nature in ample quantity, we have called those remedies as
nature's remedies. We hope that our readers might make use of these remedies in
case of emergency up to the time other medical help is available. Apart from
the use of these methods, we are sure that this will at least be an interesting
article, explaining the wonderful uses of a very common object like water!