Shodhan , Pranayam, Bandh and Mudra - Part I

  Before going in for yoga, one firmly believes that one should undertake various cleansing techniques as devised by our ancient yogis. Doing thus, further practices become easier to perform and experience. Various cleansing procedures can be tabulated as follows:

A.SHODHAN:

Malakulasu nadishu Maruto naiv madhyagah,

Katham syat unmani bhav, karya sidhih katham bhavet. 4/2/HYP.

Till all the nadis are filled with impurities, pran can never flow in the Madhya nadi. without achieving that one can never generate Unmani bhav. Without it, how can one achieve the end result.

Shudhameti yada sarvam, Nadichakram malakulam,

Tadaiv jayate yogi pran sangrhane akhshmah.5/2/HYP.

Till all the impurities is removed from various nadis in body, a yogi can never be able to assimilate pran shakti inside.

NETI: It comprises of two methods, Sutra neti (two sutras or threads are used in it, namely, rubber catheter and specially prepared cotton thread) and Jal neti.

Sutra Neti: Wash the thread, whether rubber or cotton and clean the nasal passages. If rubber thread, hold the close end front and open end in the rear. With thread held in thumb and forefinger at the opening of particular nasal passage, push it with the help of other hand in small steps slowly till it comes out in our throat without leaving the other end lest by accident it is swallowed in to our body. Insert thumb and forefinger in to the mouth and catch hold of the thread in throat. Without leaving the upper end at the entry point of nose, take this end also out of mouth. With the help of both the hands, start moving the thread up and down the nasal passage and throat cavity. It will cleanse both areas.
   This entails increase in power of nerves in the area of eye brow centre, improves eye sight and hearing power. Many nasal problems are removed by it. First timers should try rubber catheter first and later on use cotton sutras as they are difficult to get these days in market and a little harder to practice. 
    
   After learning this properly, take two rubber catheters. One of them should be inserted in one nasal passage head first while other should be inserted in the second nasal passage tail first. As told earlier, take ends of both out of our mouth. Then put the head of the one thread in the tail of the other catheter. Now, start pulling the nasal side catheter ends which will make the joined ends of catheter in mouth go back in to throat cavity. Slowly pull one side catheter out of the nasal passage. This way, we will get one catheter completely out of nasal passage. Dissociate its end from the end of other one and we will be left behind with one catheter only with its two ends hanging out of two nostrils.  Holding these two ends, move them in and out, there by rubbing both nasal passages simultaneously.    

Jal Neti: For this we need a special neti pot or one can improvise a bottle with tube fixed to it as shown below or we can use a glass directly to drink the liquid. Neti is performed in different stages with water at first, milk next and ghee in the third stage. If one has mucous in nasal passage then warm water should be used or else normal water can be used. A little salt can also be added to it or else it will cause irritation in the nasal cavity. Drink water through nasal passage and spit it out through the mouth. It should not be swallowed. One glass is sufficient for cleansing. Closing one nostril, blow breath out through the open one forcefully so that no water is left in the nasal cavity. Do the same with the other nasal passage also. Thus, the whole of the nasal cavity has become clean. High blood pressure patients should use normal water. Salty water kills germs as well as reduces swelling inside the nasal passage.

   Now fill up your mouth with water (by even inflating our cheeks to store maximum inside). Lowering our chin above sternum, closing the passage going in to throat, blow the mouth water out through nasal passages as an elephant does. This is called Gajkarni after elephants Sanskrit name of Gaja. Again blow the nasal passages clean.

   Further, there are blood sinusoids located in the mucous membrane of our nose which warms up the air entering in our breath to body temperature. Further it is humidified so that it is not dry when it goes into the lungs or else it will make our lung membrane dry where alveoli or air sacks will loose their flexibility which is essential to store air in them. Further the cavities in the bones of face trap dust particles also which are partially stopped by hair in our nasal passage also.

   After this one can take normal temperature milk (not boiled), drink 50-100 gm through nose and do not spit it out but drink it fully. This helps in energising the nerves of nose and eyebrow centre. It is said 100 gm of milk taken as above is equal to 1 kg of it taken through the mouth.

   Further, one can take liquid desi ghee and drink it through nose. These three methods complete the Neti procedure.

   The last procedure under it is taking out mouth water from the holes in the eyes. A fluid is continuously produced in our eyes called Lachrymal glands. It passes through the nasolachryml ducts in to the nose and keeps the nasal passage membrane moist. In 24 hours about 1 lit. of this fluid is secreted by the glands in eye. It is through this duct, a trained yogi forces the water kept in mouth out through the eyes. One must have seen such things being shown on discovery channel many times. It removes all kinds of problems of our eye, cleanses this duct. Capacity to force milk out through eyes is considered to be perfection of neti kriya.

   Thus the whole of our nasal system becomes perfectly clean for any kind of pranayam practice.

Dhauti: Next kriya for cleansing is dhauti. It is used for cleansing our esophagus or food pipe and stomach. This also comprises of different methods.

Chatur angulam vistaaram, hast panchdashayatam,

Gurupad isht margena, siktam vastram shanaih graset,

punah pratya haret chaitat, uditam karma tata. 24/2/HYP. 

Take a four finger, 15 hand length cotton cloth which has been thoroughly dipped in water. Slowly as instructed by ones guru, one should take it in and pull it out.

   First procedure is Vastra dhauti. A pure cotton cloth 4 fingers wide and 15 feet long is taken in rolled up form. It is immersed in water and thus thoroughly moistened.Then one of it pushed in to throat with finger and then drinking water one ingests it in to food pipe. Like one eats food, same wave dhauti is gulped down without chewing. It goes up to our stomach.  Then one can do nauli kriya. After that it is to be taken out. The whole procedure must be learnt from an expert before doing independently. It cleanses the whole food pipe as well as stomach. The yogi from whom one learnt this procedure use to take 120 ft long dhauti cloth to demonstrate that it is not difficult to do, though he once shared that his guru uses only 2-3 feet length for quick cleansing. Sometimes during initial stages, while taking out the dhauti from food pipe, it gets a little struck in esophagus, our food pipe. One should not worry at that time,  if it gets a little struck then DO NOT try to pull forcefully but drink some water as a small length is re-swallowed and then slowly pull it out.

Vaman Dahuti: Next method under dhauti is Vaman or vomit. Take warm water if one has mucous inside, else even normal water will also suffice. Drink four glasses of it and vomit it out. One may use ones fingers to assist in vomiting.

Generally, dhauti is of five types while Antar dhauti is of four kinds as below:

Antar Dhauti¹, Varisaar Dhaut², Dant dhauti³, Hrid dhauti⁴ and Mool shodhan⁵. Antar dhauti further divided in to Vaatsaar^a, Vanhisaar^b, Vaarisaar^c and Bahishkrit^d.   

(1) Antar Dhauti:

Vaatsaar^a: As the name suggest it involves air in it. It helps to cleans neck, esophagus(food pipe) and stomach. Sit in any dhyan asan and inhale air forcefully through mouth which is kept in kaki mudra. Gulp it down the throat and hold for a few seconds in stomach and then breath it out through mouth. Repeat this process again and again. Digestive power is increased and its debility removed.  

Varisaar^b: It is also called ‘Shankhprakshalan’.It is a kind of cleansing with water but followed in a specific manner as detailed below.

    After taking regular food, do not eat anything or drink any heavy liquid for 18 hours.

    Take two utensils of water, one hot boiled and other normal tap water. Mix the two in a jug so that it is drinkable. Add salt into it as per taste.

    Now drink 2-3 glass and move your arms along with waist from side to side while standing. This would entail the water in the stomach to move through various apertures in our body, thus cleansing them. Keep on drinking and thus moving. When ever there is an urge to pass stool or urine, sit on the toilet seat and let it pass naturally. Do not try to force anything. A time will come in 1-2 rounds when as soon as we drink water, immediately we will  have to pass it out. Thus keep repeating the process, till water coming out of body is completely clean. At this juncture stop drinking water further and lay yourself down on your back for one hour without moving to any side. After that one can eat khichari made out of moong daal, 3 parts (without covering or dhuli) and rice, 1 part with desi ghee of cow. Nothing else should be eaten that day but this khichari. There is no restriction to amount eaten. Also try to remain in bed for the whole day and prefer not to perform any physical work. Next day onwards one can eat anything and do anything as per ones normal routine.

If one is a high blood pressure patient, then till BP is normal one is advised not to do this practice. Heart patients should not perform this.

   For people suffering from diabetes, it is the best cure and it should be done as per the following schedule, under guidance;

   Twice a month for first three months (6 times in three months); once a month for next three months (3 times in three months); once in two months for next three months(3 times in 6 months). Thus a total of 12 times one would do in one year. It is believed that by that time disease of diabetes will be removed from its roots. A normal person can do 3-4 times in a year to extract it benefits. It also removes the worms from stomach, bilious belching, effect of excessive pitt dosha and vaat dosha.

Vanhisaar^c: This kriya as the name suggest has to do something with digestive fire. It is also called agnisaar. To perform one should sit down in padmasan or any asan which is possible keeping spine straight, breath in and move one’s stomach in and out. Do it in the sets of say 20 times each. As we get tired, muscles become stiffer and movement of the stomach becomes more and more slow and difficult. In such a state one can seek assistance of fingers to press the stomach in and relax by keeping hands on the waist and fingers on either side of the navel. People with gall bladder stones should refrain from it.

   Alternately do it on exhaled breath also same number of times. One can do maximum of hundred times in a day depending upon ones capacity.

   It increases our digestive fire and all the organs of the digestive system are massaged.

Bahishkrit Dhauti^d: Practice on empty stomach. Breath in through mouth in Kaki mudra and take it in to stomach. Hold it there as per ones capacity and then exhale through mouth. Slowly one should increase practice of holding the air in stomach.

   As per Gherand Samhita this process requires holding air in stomach for 1hr 30 minutes and then moving it out through anus.

   Do abdominal breathing 8-10 times sitting in padmasan. Then exhale and suck stomach in as if touching our spine. Hold as long as possible and then inhale afresh. Again exhale complete and suck in stomach. One can repeat this process 3,5,7… times as per ones capacity. It invigorates all the parts of our digestive system and is very beneficial.

Dant Dhauti²: It involves cleansing of our teeth with help of datum of Keekar or Neem tree. After this one should cleanse the pallet with thumb and back of the tongue with first two fingers. Thus phlegm is removed and taste buds are cleaned. Mouth becomes fresh and taste is restored.

Hrid Dhauti³: Though its name is after heart but its cleansing takes place in the food pipe only. It is known to be of two types, Dand and vastra dhauti.

Mool Shodhan⁴: Also called Ganesh Kriya, it is cleaning of the anal aperture with middle finger. Thus cleansing the hole from inside and outside, massaging all the muscles in it. This keeps it in perfect condition and removes any onset of diseases like piles, worms, constipation, skin problem etc.  

Jihvamool Dhauti: This procedure cleans our throat, strengthens our tongue, improves our voice and removes stuttering of speech. Tongue is used for speech as well as taste. For this procedure with the help of three fingers cleans the back side of tongue from above and underneath. Then with the help of fingers pull the tongue many times as if milking it.

Kapalrandhra Dhauti: To cleans the kapal randhra, we use our thumb on pallet, both hard and soft part, properly. It removes the problems of forehead. Headaches are removed and poisonous secretions which turn in to ulcers at later stages are also ejected from body.

Kapalbhati : Some places it is also described in three ways as Vaam kram¹, Vyut kram² and Sheet krim³. As its name suggest it is cleansing of our forehead area. Vaam kram¹, it is a kind of forceful anulom viloma but starting from right nasal passage. Inhale with force from right nasal passage, exhale with force from left nasal passage; inhale with force from left nasal passage and exhale with force from right nasal passage. This forms one cycle. Repeat it a number of times. Both passages of our nose should be open. It removes all kinds of waste from our nasal cavity as well as forehead.

Second Vyut kram² involves drinking water from mouth and expelling it out of nose. Thus phlegm is removed.

Sheet kram³ involves sucking water through nose and expelling through mouth. It provides youthfulness, decrepitude never figures, phlegm is removed.

Basti kriya: It is also of types. One is called Jal basti and other is called Thal basti. For Jal basti sit in clean flowing water of a river or in a tub in utkat asan with water up to navel. Insert a pipe in anus. Thus water will rise inside the intestines. One can do nauli prakriya and then expel the water out of the system through anus. This will clean our colon of any kind of degenerating stools etc. Urinary disorders cured, digestive disorders cured and vaat dosha removed.

Thal basti involves positioning in paschimotanasan, performing nauli movement and then ashwani mudra. It removes constipation, increases digestive fire, reduces flatulence.

Nauli: This is also of two types, one is called Dakshin (right side) nauli and other is called Vam (left side) nauli. It cleanses our digestive system and massages all organs their and thus improves their working capacity. It is also used for awakening of kundlini, where it is rotated in particular manner for a longer duration of time.

Tratak: Take one to 1.5 inch diameter black circular paper. Stick it at level of one's eye while sitting in front of a wall at a distance of approximately two feet. Relax and watch your breath a few seconds. Then focus your gaze at the centre of this black circle without blinking till tears start flowing from your eyes. This practice may be done once only. Thus the eyes get cleansed, its power increases and the gaze becomes penetrative and focused.  Though it is a Dhyan kriya, but can be used for cleansing also. One believes that it is to be used ultimately in Antrik Tratak.

Most of the cleansing techniques discussed here are yogic but many special kriyas for cleansing are mentioned in tantric texts also. We have not gone in to their detail here.....Om! 

...TO BE CONTD in PART II 
(dealing with Pranayam)
                                                                                                                                                                    ~OM!~