What is Naturopathy?

Naturopathy is a holistic method of healing which recognises the ability of the body to overcome disease. It is a system of medicine founded on the most time-tested medical principle: the healing power of nature. The goal of naturopathy is to restore the body's natural functioning through the use of natural substances and treatments that enhance its innate healing abilities.

Naturopathy is an art and science of healthy living and drugless system of healing based on well founded philosophy. It has its own concept of health and disease and also principles of treatment. Prakritik Chikitsa, Nature Cure, Pancha Tattva Chikitsa and Nature Therapy are different names of Naturopathy. 

It aims to attain sound health by dealing with the topics like, how we should live? What we should eat? And how our daily routine should be? The methods of nature cure not only helps us in attaining freedom from diseases but with the help of their regular, sustained flow positive and vigorous health can be acquired.

Naturopathy holds the belief that our body is made up of five basic elements and any imbalance in the body function are the results of our wrong life style. Due to the sedentary life styles, our systems become unable to expel the unwanted matters (known as morbid matter or toxins in Naturopathy) out of the body. The accumulation of these toxins implies diseases. 

In naturopathy diseases are the dis-ease state of the body which is removed by means of the five elements (ether, water, fire air and space) of which our body is made. There are different therapies based on them, i.e. fasting (space element), mud therapy (ether element), hydro therapy (water element), massage therapy and chromo therapy (fire elements) and various breathing exercises also known as air therapy (air elements).

Your Health and Pancha Karma

Pancha Karma for eliminating toxins from the body.

Ayurveda offers unique therapeutic measures that heal mild and chronic diseases. Even diseases that are believed to be incurable by modern medicine have been healed. Stories abound of people being carried into Pancha karma centers, and a few weeks later, walking out on their own two feet, healthy and rejuvenated. Ayurveda is not based on magic; rather, it is based on understanding medical principles and the six stages of illness.

The most deeply seated toxins that cause disease are heavy and sticky, lodging in the deepest tissue layers. Pancha Karm permanently eliminates these toxins from the body, allowing healing and restoration of the tissues, channels, digestion, and mental functions. Six therapies are divided into two categories:

1) Toning or nourishing (Brimhana or santarpana), and

2) Reducing or detoxifying (langhana or apartarpana)—those that cause lightness.

Brimhana tones because it uses therapies that promote earth and water elements, while langhana lightens by using ether, air, and fire elements to reduce. Illness is relieved as doshas become balanced through these therapies.

The six major therapeutic categories are either toning or reducing in nature.

1. Reducing (langhana or lightening) the body, making it light.

2. Nourishing (Brimhana or expanding) the body by adding corpulence.

3. Drying (Rukshana) or producing roughness in the body.

4. Oleation (snehana) or applying oil to the body creates softness, fluidity, and moistness.

5. Sudation (svedhana) or sweating, removes stiffness, heaviness, and coldness.

6. Astringent (stambhana) balances the flow (slow or fast) of bodily fluids (e.g., diarrhea, bleeding, etc.), and prevents mobility.

The therapeutic measures involved for each category primarily include herbs, foods, internal and external application of oils; fasting, and exercise.

Do you believe in God? Don’t believe.

Buddha with his disciples

Once, Buddha was with his disciples. A stranger came and asked, “Is there God?” Buddha replied, ‘No.’ He went away.  After a while there was another man to ask, “Isn’t there God?”  He answered, “Yes, there is”.  Buddha’s reply surprised his disciples. So after the man took his way, they asked Buddha to clear their doubts. He smiled and said that both were holding their own beliefs. One held the belief that there was God and the next with the belief that there was no God. And with beliefs people will never enquiry. Now doubts have arisen in their mind so they will start enquiry and may do some progress.

Beliefs are those concepts that they are like a baseless pitcher which is of no use. Use of that culminates only in sufferings, misery and hardships. Beliefs escape proofs. So they are unproven facts. It’s not that beliefs are always wrong conceptions. But as they are not tested we cannot rely on them.

Main problem with the beliefs is that when there is belief, the one with belief, does not want to test it. He supposes that whatever he believes is ok. So no need to be examined or experimented. It’s the trick that mind plays which can be revealed when it is asked to give proofs.

The Lord

People who believe and those who don’t believe both are in the same category. Both don’t want to come to experiment. In a way not believing is also a belief. Suppose someone believes in God that there is God. So he does not enquiry if there is God or not in reality. In the same way those who don’t believe in God also have a belief that the God is not there. And they also don’t like to go to experiment.

In this case those minds with doubts may come into use. But only bearing doubts and not trying to come out of it leads nowhere else than to futility.

There is one more disadvantage of belief that even if you move forward to experiment, your belief may intercept the Sadhana. Since your mind will superimpose the beliefs onto the realization and you may get distracted.  Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj declares that everybody should come and experiment to know about the God. Only believing and not believing will not do any good.