The Real Cleansing

You might have seen many government promotions asking to keep the city clean. Every individual likes to keep his house and the surroundings clean. But do we really know what to keep clean? There is an ancient proverb in India saying, ‘before conquering the world one has to conquer his own house first’. Similarly, before cleaning the house, surroundings and the society one has to primarily clean the body. 

 

According to the ancient science of Yoga, everything is in the body. It is called the kshetra (the location). If this kshetra is used for good deeds, it is called dharma kshetra and if it is used for bad deeds, it is called Kuru Kshetra. There is one knower of this kshetra the ‘Soul’ which is called as kshetrajnani. People usually look out for the Paramaatma or the God in temples, churches, mosques or skywards but the God resides within every individual. We have forgotten the real path that leads us to the Paramaatma. Instead of looking in, we have scattered all our senses and consciousness towards the illusionary and unreal world outside. Yoga is one such practice which teaches you to move inside your body, which ultimately takes you to the Paramaatma. Doing mere asanas is not Yoga. Yoga sadhana involves processing, refinement and purification of all the 23 elements of the body. The 23 elements include the Pancha Mahabhootas (5 Elements of Nature - Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether) the Pancha Jnanendriyas (5 Sense Organs - Eyes, Ears, Nose, Tongue and Skin), the Pancha Karmendriyas (5 Organs of Action – Hands, Legs, Mouth, Generative and Excretory Organs), the Pancha Tanmatras (5 subtle characteristics of sense organs - Taste, Smell, Sound, Shape and Touch) and the 3 facets of Chitta or Consciousness – the Mind, Intellect and Ego. 

According to ancient yogic texts there are 5 types of Koshas or sheaths or layers known as 1. Annamaya Kosha – The anatomical, skeletal or Structural sheath 2. Pranamaya Kosha – the physiological or organic sheath 3. Manomaya Kosha – the mental or emotional sheath 4. Vijnanamaya Kosha – the intellectual or discriminative sheath and 5. Anandamaya Kosha – the pure and blissful sheath. The yogi has to go through all these sheaths or layers to reach the Self or the Soul. Apart from Annamaya Kosha none of the sheaths are visible with the naked eye. Therefore, the yogi has to conquer and gain mastery over his physical body before being able to experience the other sheaths. You must be wondering why Am’ I telling all this here. It is because the Annamaya Kosha or the physical body is the main source for all the drama in the whole world. It is the kshetra or location for all the 23 elements mentioned above. 

I always termed Dr. Mantena Satyanarayana Raju as a Karma Yogi not because he does yogasanas. I call him a yogi because from the first moment of the morning till the last moment of his day, his consciousness is totally on his body. This is nothing but meditation. No discovery or invention is possible without meditation. Instead of concentrating on external objects he is concentrating on his internal organs of the body. Meditation is possible only when you move inwards.

The Legendary Yogacharya Sri B.K.S. Iyengar says, ‘My body is my temple, the Asanas I perform are the Prayers offered to the Lord. If you don’t keep your temple clean the God doesn’t reside in it. Instead, the demons reside.’

Numerous pollutants and toxins are secreted by our body every day during its continuous metabolic activities. The body tries to excrete these secreted toxins and pollutants on day to day basis. If these toxins and pollutants are excreted promptly, the body doesn’t face any trouble. Ever since the growth of civilization, the man got busy in eating and has no leisure to excrete these toxins. Due to the increased volume of toxins and pollutants inside; the body releases bad odors. To counter this odor, he is using the pastes, soaps, powders, deodorants and phenyls etc as a substitute but he is never thinking about the cause for using such things. We are keeping the Toilets neat and clean by washing the pollutants and toxins released from the body everyday with toilet cleaners and phenyls available in the market but we are not cleaning the inner body- the real source for the waste that is hidden inside our body. If the women don’t have enough time to clean their toilets, they even hire people to clean them but they don’t let it go. Such is the love and affection for their house. But have you ever tried to keep this body-the abode of Paramatma or the God with such love and affection? Are you keeping this temple that clean? Had you ever got this idea before? Have you ever realized what kind of mistake you are making? We have neglected this temple so far. At least now let us pledge to keep this temple clean. Let us see how the health doesn’t come? Since we have decided to keep this temple clean, let us now try to learn how the toxins and pollutants form in our body and what kind of harm they cause to our body.

Formation of toxins and pollutants in the body:

Dr. M.S. Raju has been continuously teaching these things for the last 20 years wherever he goes and through the medium of TV, CDs/DVDs and several books in a very simple and understandable way. You don’t need to be a medical student or a Doctor to understand his teachings. He makes things look so simple and understandable because he speaks the language of people. Today I am about to bring you some of the excerpts of Dr. Raju’s dasapustakalu (a handset of 10 books) ‘how to clean the body from inside?’

Our body is a combination of few trillion cells. When millions of cells combine together forms an organ. When several organs combine together forms the body. If this kind of body has to live, there must be some kind of metabolic activities in the cells inside our body. There are three very essential necessities to run these metabolic activities of the cells. They are the air, water and food. We get these three essential requisites in the form of gas, liquid and solid from nature. The cells in our body produces energy from the air, water and food we provide. We are alive as long as they produce the energy. Whenever the fuel is used to produce energy, there forms the pollution also. For example, if the wood is burnt, you get the energy called fire. Along with fire you also get the pollutants like smoke, coal and ash. Similarly when our body cells produce energy by consuming the fuel called air, water and food, they leave pollutants like carbon dioxide, sweat, urine and stool. Apart from these, millions of cells die every day due to the completion of lifespan or in a battle with the intruded bacteria and viruses. They kill everyday millions of bacteria intruded in the body. These dead cells are nothing but toxins and pollutants to the body and therefore the body tries to excrete these pollutants on day to day basis. Is our body really excreting these toxin and pollutants effectively? Are we helping the body enough in fulfilling its task? Or we are making the task more difficult? Let us analyze.

The causes for toxins and pollutants remaining in the body:

 

Every individual maintains a perfect time table for food. He set a time table for tea, breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner etc. There is ample time set for eating and drinking. But he had forgotten to set the time table for passing on the toilet and the stool. This has become the major cause for forming pollutants inside the body. Every individual is using 2-3 hours time a day for eating. If every individual allots at least 1/4^th of that time in eliminating the pollutants, that is more than enough. Since the man is intelligent and he can use his intelligence for wrong purposes, he has those problems. Whereas the animal does not know the wrong usage of its intelligence and therefore it follows the nature’s instincts. The animals cannot hold the waste inside their bodies as they do not know the ways to hold it. Whereas humans, women in particular do not drink enough water required for the day with the fear of going to the urinals for repeated number of times. With that they are blocking the waste toxins and pollutants from excreting through urine. Moreover we are eating 3 to 5 times a day; but we are not properly ablating the stool formed out of that. 25% of the dead cells are excreted through stool on day to day basis. With the growth of civilization and the so called modernization we began to eat more junk food and made ourselves busy in chasing the material objects so much that we forgot to allot some time for cleansing our intestines. With that the waste toxins and pollutants are remaining in the body. With the fear of losing the makeup or powder or straining the clothes or due to irritation we are not allowing the body to excrete the waste through sweat also by putting on the fans or air conditioners. There is no other way of sweating. With that the waste that is to be excreted through sweat remains in the body. If our work involves lot of physical exert moving the limbs then the capacity of lungs increases and carries out more carbon dioxide through every exhalation. Today, the work involves only the movement of fingers; therefore the waste remains inside. In this way the waste toxins and pollutants that should be excreted from the four excretory organs are left inside our body. We are excreting only 1/4^th of the waste leaving 3/4^th of the waste in our body. We are totally ignorant of the harm in leaving such toxins and pollutants in the body. Let us try to learn the harm they do to our body.

The harm caused by the waste toxins and pollutants to our body:

Our body possesses a wonderful cleansing mechanism. If small dust particles enter the eyes or any plaque or food particle is formed in your teeth, the body does not rest until it removes those particles causing trouble. The body of such nature tries to excrete the waste formed inside through the four excretory organs to its fullest capacity in the form of sweat, urine, stool and breath. Those waste toxins and pollutants are being brought to the gates but they are again turned back as we are not providing enough opportunity to get them out completely as mentioned in the above head ‘the causes for toxins and pollutants remaining in the body.’ In this way the body tries to excrete them but failing which it is storing at those places where there is no resistance or less resistance. The waste is therefore stored in the body wherever no activity or less activity is there. It is this reason why different people in a family get different types of problems even when they eat same kind of food. Let us see how these toxins and pollutants turn into diseases.

If the water fetched in a pot is left unchanged for 10 days numerous bacteria and viruses are formed in it. Sometimes if you store the cooked food for one night, by next morning you find it stinking and by afternoon you can see the bacteria moving over it. In the same way the waste we reserved in our body gives birth to bacteria and viruses causing diseases. Whichever the organ or part of the body the bacteria reach, that organ gets diseased which we call infection in Medical terms. The diseases are named after the organs where the bacteria reach and cause the disease. If the bacteria are intruded in the joints, it is called Arthritis, if it is in Esophagus it is called Bronchitis, if it is in the pits by the side of nose then it is called Sinusitis and so on. The major reason or source for all the diseases is the waste that is stored inside the body. People usually say that I got so and so disease. I got diabetes, I got lungs cancer, I got bronchitis, I got cholesterol etc. as if they borrowed from outside or they got it from somewhere else. Neither the doctors, medical sciences, environmental pollution, pesticides nor fertilizers used in the crops or the parents and age is responsible for the pollution inside. It is our negligence and ignorance that is responsible for all the damage. The diseases do not come from anywhere out. They are formed inside our body. Whatever the kind of environment you provide inside the body remains in that way. It is rightly said by some of the ancient yogis, you can either make your inner body a garden or a graveyard. If you send dead bodies in it (animal food), it becomes a graveyard. If you send grass and plants it becomes a garden. But today, even that is not enough. You need to regularly water your plants, clean the garden on regular basis and provide right kind of manures to keep it clean and green. 

After going through all this you might have understood now, what to keep clean? It is not the toilets you need to clean, it is not the surroundings you need to clean, it is not the city you need to keep clean, it is the annamaya kosha – the physical / anatomical body you need to clean first. You cannot expect the government to take the initiative and say ‘keep your body clean’ as it is sleeping since independence of India. By the time it awakes, you may no longer be there to see the awakening. Therefore being intelligent individuals with brains awake on your own and bring the change in your life by immediately following the path of Dr. Raju’s Natural Way of Living.

I hope you enjoyed this article. Keep watching the space for more updates.