Yoga and Detoxification
Hatha-Yoga begins with inner cleanliness. The Raja-Yogis, too, practice this with the help of special exercises and methods. An Indian Yogi may consume about 100 grams of rice, a little milk, honey and fruit per day; this is his entire nourishment between times of fasts. Before a Raja-Yogi goes into deep meditation he will make sure that his body is completely free from digested food. To cleanse his stomach, he will sometimes swallow about 25 meters of a thin cotton cloth soaked in water; when drawn out the cloth is supposed to have removed impurities from the stomach. He also can, with the help of his sphincter muscles, give himself a colonic irrigation while standing in a river. Only after this thorough cleansing would he consider himself worthy to enter higher realms. It is equally important for a student of Hatha-Yoga to dedicate time and effort to master the functioning of his own digestive system to the point where he is able to eliminate at will.
Most of us suffer from a constant overloading of the digestive system. We eat three to four times a day, while an Indian has only two main meals. Our frequent meals demand constant work from both stomach and intestines. According to Indian concepts the digestion of a meal should not take more than seven hours – a maximum of two hours in the stomach and five hours in the small intestines. The latter extract the nutritional elements from the food and leave waste matter, i.e. feces. These are then moved into the large intestines and slowly towards its exit.
There is no reason that this waste should be carried for more than 8 hours after a meal, but there are many reasons for eliminating as quickly as possible, because after twelve hours the feces become toxic. The degree of toxicity increases quickly and after forty-eight hours in the intestines the feces become a very dangerous source of poison. The dis solvable toxins are drawn into the circulation; the development of gases takes away the elasticity of the intestines and leads furthermore to an unpleasant inner pressure on the solar plexus. When Gay-lord Hauser in his books speaks of the ‘death which dwells in the bowels’ he does not say enough, because such negative emotions as fear, irritability and depression also dwell there. The premature aging of obese people is mostly caused by self-poisoning due to the sluggish functioning of their bowels.
Very often a patient does not realize the effect of these poisons but he proudly points out his ‘regularity’. Every morning-just like clockwork-he says. An evacuation once every twenty-four hours is already a delay of twelve hours. Generally speaking, an obese person carries around the waste of about six meals. He never experiences the ideal condition of a meal passing through the digestive apparatus (like a closed parcel) and allowing the intestines to be empty and rest between meals. Westerners very rarely experience the wonderful body sensation, which happens when a very good breakfast has been eaten after complete evacuation. Rejuvenation begins in the intestines.
Transformation cannot be achieved through elimination of poisonous waste and irritants alone. With the regular and constant discipline of Yoga exercises, anatomical changes are brought about. Certain organs become smaller, which is often very desirable. Particularly the stomach will occupy less space, and therefore it will not press on other organs. The intestines return to their proper place.