Cleansing of the digestive tract - Dhauti
Dhauti is a cleansing kriya specifically meant to cleanse the stomach
One of the main organs in the human body, one’s health is largely dependent on its condition. It is imperative, therefore, to clean your stomach thoroughly from time to time. Dhauti is ideal for this.
Dhauti is of three types:
• Vaman Dhauti or Kunjal Kriya
• Vastra Dhauti
• Danda Dhauti
Vaman Dhauti or Kunjal Kriya
This kriya is best performed on an empty stomach in the morning, either in the toilet or in one’s garden or near on open drain.
Technique
1. To one liter of lukewarm water, add one tablespoonful of salt.
2. Drink all of it, as quickly as possible, until you feel you can’t take any more. It is imperative to drink fast rather than sip the water.
3. When your stomach is full, the urge to vomit seems automatic, an almost involuntary gesture.
4. Now, lean forward, keep your body as horizontal as possible and insert the middle and index fingers of your right hand as far back into your throat as possible, till the uvula.
5. This will induce instantaneous vomiting.
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Keep restimulating your uvula and vomiting until all the water is got out of your stomach.
If this does not happen it either means you haven’t drunk enough water or the tips of your fingers weren’t inserted far enough down the throat. The more you learn to relax, the easier the practice becomes.
Vastra Dhauti
Vastra Dhauti is another cleansing kriya specifically meant to cleanse the stomach. It is pretty much like Vaman Dhauti, except that here a muslin cloth is used in place of water. This should also be done on an empty stomach first thing in the morning.
Technique
1. A strip of fine muslin cloth, about three inches wide and twenty feet long, washed and disinfected, is used. It is gently swallowed, little by little.
2. The cloth should be of finely woven cotton which is clean and new. Synthetic material should be avoided at all costs. The cloth should also be trimmed neatly so that there are no fraying edges.
3. Also, the cloth should not be wider than your tongue because it may fold as it passes down your throat.
4
On the first day, only one-foot length of cloth should be swallowed, kept there for a few seconds, and then slowly drawn out.
5. On the next day, a little more is swallowed and left a little longer.
6. More and more of it is swallowed daily until the entire length of the cloth goes in.
7. If it sticks in your throat and refuses to pass down, take a sip of warm water, but do not drink a large quantity – your stomach is to be filled with the cloth, not with water.
8. The cloth normally tends to get caught at the lowest point of the throat, so keep swallowing and resist the urge to vomit
9. Stop gulping when only six inches of the cloth are left outside the mouth.
10. Churn your abdomen by Nauli with the cloth inside the stomach. Now withdraw the strip slowly.
Ensure not to swallow the whole cloth, under any circumstances This is why there should be no disturbance during the practice. You need not practice this every day – once a week is enough. And even though you may feel a vomiting sensation at the first attempt, it will disappear if you keep up the practice. As soon as the kriya is completed, make sure to wash the cloth. Always keep it clean.
Danda Dhauti
This is a way of cleansing the esophagus, the food pipe, from the throat to the stomach, by inserting a special rubber tube down the throat into the stomach. It should be about three feet in length and about 1 cm wide. Make sure to clean and disinfect it thoroughly before and after use.
Technique
1. Start with the process of Vaman Dhauti, i.e drink a lot of water.
2. But here, instead of your fingers, you insert a rubber tube, into the throat.
3. Swallow it slowly and gently until the end of the tube reaches the stomach
4. Bend forward and a siphoning action will automatically eject the water from your stomach.
5. When all the water is removed, gently draw out the rubber tube.
Some people find it difficult to insert the tube without vomiting because the throat is sensitive to the touch stimuli. For them it is advisable to go in for the vamana-dhauti since it is the simpler of the two. The advantage of danda-dhauti is that there are no stomach spasms and the water is ejected very smoothly. Danda-dhauti effectively cleanses the esophagus of mucus, phlegm, acidity and other impurities.
Shankha Prakshalana
There is another type of dhauti for cleansing the digestive tract. And, even if not so popular, it is just as effective. Known as Varisara Dhauti it is also called Shankha Prakshalana. Shankha means conchshell, Prakshalana means to wash. Just like washing a conch shell where you would pour water into the mouth and drain it out the opposite end of the shell, so also with the intestinal tract.
Technique
1. Start by drinking ten to fifteen glasses of lukewarm, saline water.
2. Then do some rapid warm up exercises like spot jogging, forward and backward bends, alternate hand to leg bends followed by a series of six asanas: Padangushtasana, Parivritta Trikonasana, Paschimottanasana, Parivritta Trikonasana, Paschimottanasana, Ardha Matsyendrasna all done rapidly and in quick succession
3. After this you will automatically feel the urge to go to the toilet.
4. The urge is repeated over the next hour or so during which you will have to visit the toilet 6 to 10 times.
5. Once clear water starts flowing out, you will know that your stomach and intestines are cleansed.
It is advisable to have a cup of cold, diluted milk or a plate of khichdi, cooked rice and pulses, afterwards. Avoid full, solid meals until lunch. It is also advisable to rest for the rest of the day. And even though not mandatory it is recommended that Shankha Prakshalana be done immediately after Jala Neti and Kunjal Kriya, for optimum benefits.
Benefits of the Dhauti series
The combination of all Dhauti practices cleanses the entire digestive and respiratory tracts. They get rid of excess and bile, mucus and toxins, and restore the of the body's natural balance and chemical composition, thus helping cure the body of ailments caused by such imbalances. Not only that, they also lead to an increase in the production of gastric enzymes. Research has proven that even chronic coughs and colds, asthma, diseases of the spleen, and a variety of other afflictions resulting from excess mucus, bile and other toxins are eliminated by Dhautis.
They are particularly beneficial in cases of constipation, gastritis, dyspepsia, indispositions of the stomach and spleen, phlegm and bile disorders. They increase digestive fire, improve kidney functioning and invigorate the liver by extricating parasites from within the system. People suffering from obesity and those of a flabby and phlegmatic constitution will find these kriyas especially beneficial.
Contraindications
However, there are certain conditions for which Dhautis must not be practiced. These are: stomach or intestinal ulcers, hernia, heart problems, and high blood pressure.
However Dhautis should not be done daily or made a regular habit. Once every three months should achieve the desired results.
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