Compiled by Margavi Chandrashekar
1. How to overcome physical weakness to some extent in pregnant women?
Topic – Intoxicants
Notes:
Guŕotpanna. Guŕotpanna means “liquor” or “alcoholic beverages made from fermented molasses.” If you walk by some sugar mills in India, you will sometimes smell a particular type of molasses. This type of molasses is used to make liquor in government controlled distilleries. Mrtasainjiivanii surá and mrtasainjiivanii sudhá [varieties of wine which make a sick person well] are also prepared in such factories. In my youth, I observed that these distilleries were often located beside sugar mills in North Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. However, as molasses is valuable as a food, it is undesirable to use it in the preparation of liquor, although it may be used to manufacture alcohol for use in medicines.
Fermented rice gruel can also be used to make a kind of rice wine, although this is less intoxicating than wine or date wine. Besides its use as a liquor, fermented rice gruel has medicinal value. It induces sleep, sometimes aids digestion, and removes physical weakness to some extent in pregnant women. Wine or date wine can sometimes relieve irregular kidney functions. When wine ferments it is transformed into vinegar, loosing its intoxicating power and developing a few sentient qualities. The sediment from the production of wine is called “yeast” and is particularly useful in the bakery industry. When a pregnant woman is on the verge of death because of labour pains, she may survive if she is administered drákśá riśtá, a kind of wine, mixed with the sugar of gurichi [an Indian variety of maple syrup]. If drákśá riśtá is not available, then mrtasainjiivaniijabaii [a type of wine which makes a sick person well] can be used.
Although country rice wine is considered to be the cheapest liquor available in India, liquor made from barley pulp is cheaper. Country rice wine has done tremendous harm to the rural population of Bengal. Many tribals and people from the economically backward classes have become poverty-stricken under the spell of country liquor. It disturbs the peace of their families by causing unnecessary quarrels in the home and eventually brings about their degradation.
State control alone over the preparation and distribution of alcohol is not enough. Strict social controls are also required. In fact, both the state and the society will have to work hard in this regard. The poisonous nicotine in tobacco creates cancerous ulcers in various parts of the body; wine is enormously harmful for the liver, and opium destroys vitality. Intoxicated by opium, people sit idle and doze off. Hemp destroys general intelligence and the faculty of understanding. None of these intoxicants are good for human beings. The use of wine should be restricted in the name of religion or on any other pretext. No one should drink liquor without the permission of a physician, and only then as a medicine. A physician should prescribe liquor only after securing the written approval of another doctor.
As a result of taking liquor, twenty percent of the latent potentialities in a student is destroyed. Extreme intoxication leads to inertness. Youths lose their dynamism, and their spiritedness disappears. In such a state, the nerve cells cannot be fully utilized.
I request those who use wine as part of their religious rituals to desist from this practice if there is no recognized alternative. In certain Tantric practices, there is a provision that the water from a dry coconut can be left in a brass pot for some time and used as an alternative to liquor. In such cases, coconut water should be used instead of liquor.
People practise meditation to make their intellect and intuition sharper and to achieve greater expansion. The use of liquor destroys these faculties and is detrimental to the all-round development of human beings. Alcohol destroys the glands, sub-glands, nerves and nerve cells in the human body. If one consumes alcohol, it is partly ejected from the body through perspiration, partly through defecation and partly through urination. Poisonous nicotine from tobacco is ejected in a similar manner after harming the body in various ways. This is why the perspiration, faeces and urine of those who are intoxicated by liquor smell very bad. If a drunkard or a heavy smoker enters a room, one can easily understand that he or she is addicted to intoxicants.
When a person smokes tobacco through a hooka, the tobacco smoke is mixed with the water in the hooka so it is slightly less harmful for the body, but this does not mean that it is harmless. You must have noticed that after a hooka has been used, the water is a balckish yellow colour. Those who smoke bidis [indigenous Indian cigarettes] and cigarettes – particularly cigarettes – develop a reddish yellow layer of nicotine on the lining of their lungs, and in many cases the lungs also get carbonated. Lungs which have been damaged by smoking are very vulnerable to cancer.
If someone indulges in chewing tobacco, when the tobacco comes in contact with the tongue it creates an unpleasant sensation, and consequently the person starts spitting repeatedly. This clearly indicates that chewing tobacco is detrimental to health. Dohta and jardá used in India with betel leaves are also types of small tobacco leaves.
It is desirable that people keep themselves free from intoxicants and stimulants and move steadily towards the higher realms of physical, mental and spiritual development through all possible ways.
As stimulants, tea, coffee, and cocoa are less harmful. Of these three, cocoa has some food value. Tea has little food value. It causes temporary stimulation, decreases the need for sleep and lessens the digestive capacity of the body. Coffee also has the same effects, but as a stimulant it is more powerful than tea. Coffee has slightly more food value than tea. The excessive use of tea is almost poisonous. If tea that has already been used is boiled again, it will have a poisonous effect on the body. The name of the poison contained in tea is “tannic acid”. In ancient India, ordinary people were not acquainted with tea. Only itinerant monks, who crossed intractable mountains and lived in remote caves, would take tea by extracting the juice from certain leaves.(1)
27 September 1990, Calcutta
Published in: Prout in a Nutshell Volume 4 Part 21 [a compilation]
from section on “Guŕotpanna”, Discourse 230
Shabda Cayaniká Part 26
this version: is the printed Prout in a Nutshell Part 21, 1st edition, version (obvious spelling, punctuation and typographical mistakes only may have been corrected). I.e., this is the most up-to-date version as of the present Electronic Edition.
2.Which Snack is harmful for pregnant women and pregnant animals?
Topic – Some Important Crops
Cotton
Cotton is well known for its fluffy, white balls of fibre, but cotton seed is an important source of oil. Cotogen is produced from refined cottonseed oil, and the oil cakes are used as cattle feed. The seeds are roasted and eaten as a snack, but this snack is harmful for pregnant women and pregnant animals. In particular, the oil cake should not be given to pregnant animals as it may cause an abortion. Cotton is not difficult to grow.
February 1988, Calcutta
Published in: Ideal Farming Part 2
3. Explains about state of extreme thinness of adult and children?
Topic – Emaciation
Causes
There can be different reasons for physical emaciation–
- Babies produced from weak or sickly spermatozoa or ova will naturally be weak and emaciated.
- If the baby does not get sufficient motherʼs milk it generally remains emaciated.
- When due to poverty parents are unable to provide enough milk for their children and consequently they are fed rice and pulse or plain barley from their early childhood, their digestive organs and livers in particular become very weak, and such children normally turn out emaciated.
- If out of misguided love parents treat their children lavishly by feeding them ghee, butter, fish, meat and eggs right from baby-hood, or if due to poverty or due to some belief they feed their children non-vegetarian foods or spicy vegetable preparations instead of milk, fruits, roots, and other foods appropriate for children, then the livers and other digestive organs of their children, being overworked, lose their vitality and the children become thin.
In adults emaciation usually comes about for the following reasons:
- Too much mental exertion;
- Weakness of the genital organs;
- Constipation;
- Acidity;
- Any prolonged chyle- and blood-wasting disease;
- Male or female diseases.
Treatment
For children –
Early morning – Karmásana, Bhújauṋgásana, Shalabhásana, Garud́ásana, and Ágneyii Mudrá.
Evening – Dvisamakonásana, Cakrásana and Granthimuktásana.
For adults –
If proper treatment is undertaken to rectify the root cause of the disease, adults will automatically develop fat and muscle. Patients must also drink a sufficient quantity of water (about four or five seers but not much at a time) and should take sun-baths. Patients should also spend sufficient time in the open air and in natural surroundings.
Emaciated children are also to be encouraged to take part in sports.
Diet
In the case of children under five, milk, fruits and roots should be their main food. The less starches, carbohydrates and fatty foods the better, because such foods weaken the undeveloped liver and digestive organs of children. Under no circumstances should children under five years be fed non-vegetarian food. From that age on, starches, carbohydrates and fatty foods may be given in gradually increasing amounts. But fruits and roots and all kinds of alkaline food are always the best diet for children. Due to poverty many parents cannot provide much milk for their children, though they require at least three-fourths seer to one seer every day.
Dos and donʼts
If children get enough fruits and roots, vegetable soup and milk to eat, their emaciation will be cured. But it is a pity that in spite of being well-off, some gluttonous meat-eating parents and guardians deprive their offspring of their proper diet and feed them items like fish, meat, eggs, ghee and butter. Such a mentality is very injurious to their children.
With adults, when the root cause of emaciation is cured, the disease automatically disappears. If depending upon the condition of the liver and the other digestive organs, adults take enough nutritious food, do plenty of physical labour, drink water as directed and do sikta mardana(1) after each bath, they can become fat and happy within a short time.
1958
Published in:
Yogic Treatments and Natural Remedies
Footnotes
[1] The authorʼs Caryácarya Part 3, “Different Yoga Practices”, explains: “Massage the body with a wet towel in the same manner as prescribed after ásanas.” Regarding the massage, please see Ananda Marga Spiritual and Social Practices, “Appendix: Massage”. –Trans.
4. Explains Nine kinds of plants, in which the people discovered special medicinal and food values?
Topic – All Bask In the Glory of Shiva – 3 (Discourse 8)
The prehistoric human beings did not know the science of pharmacology; they directly used the plants and herbs to cure diseases. In those days people, particularly in India, came in contact with nine kinds of special plants having special values, such as medicinal value, food value, etc. They worshipped these nine kinds of plants not as gods and goddesses of religion, but as very useful things. Of course godhood was imposed on trees afterwards, and I will mention later, when I describe the teachings of Shiva, what Shiva said in this connection. These nine kinds of plants, in which the people discovered special medicinal and food values, were kadalii, kacu, haridrá, jayantii, ashoka, bilva, dád́imba, mán and dhánya.(3)
Kadalii is a very nutritious food item. In case of intermittent fever, kadalii [plantain] is a very good medicine. Moreover, it helps the liver, pancreas, and kidneys to function smoothly, and it is also a good medicine for dysentery. Moreover, it is an ideal food for those mothers whose children die young. Overripe bananas (preferably with black patches) are a very good medicine for children who develop rickets because of the scarcity of milk after their motherʼs death. If you make a paste of them, this has even greater value than motherʼs milk. In the case of calves who lose their mothers, they too become healthy if they are fed one part paste of overripe bananas to two parts chátu.(4) Thus plantains and bananas have numerous qualities, and hence the people of those days began to worship them.
The second plant is kacu, arum. Arum has less food value, but it is very good for the kidneys.
The third plant is haridrá, turmeric. Turmeric is a good spice and is highly antiseptic also. Here haridrá does not mean dry turmeric, but green turmeric (káncá halud) taken fresh from the earth. The turmeric which is dried in the sun is called shuńt́ halud, which people buy in the market for cooking purposes. Green turmeric is not used in cooking; it has a poisonous effect. People may die if they consume much of it. But it is antiseptic; it cures Skin diseases and purifies the blood. However, it is so poisonous in large amounts that even crocodiles die of it.
When many people gather together in one place, there is every possibility of the spread of disease. So there was a practice in ancient Bengal and India that before any social festival, people would bathe, applying a paste made from green turmeric. And this practice continues to some extent even today; normally it is done before weddings.
Next is jayantii. Its roots have great medicinal value, especially for white leprosy. In fact, jayantii is a medicine for four out of the seven kinds of discolouring skin diseases. That is why the people used to worship jayantii.
Next is ashoka, which is called in Hindi siitá ashoka. Simply ashoka, in Hindi, is devaduru [pine-tree]. But the ashoka which has medicinal value is siitá ashoka. It is an ideal medicine for all kinds of female diseases. The wine made out of ashoka is ashokariśt́a or ashokásava. Thus ashoka has great medicinal value.
Next is bilva, bel-fruit. Unripe bel is the best medicine for all stomach diseases. Unripe bel should be eaten after roasting; ripe bel is not very good. Bil means “minute hole”: the fruit which enters the minute holes and does good to the stomach is called bilva. Because of its extraordinary qualities, it has another name – shriiphala [“a fruit with excellent qualities”].
Next is dád́imba. Its bark, roots and fruits are all very good medicines for all kinds of female diseases. In áyurvaedik schools of medicine, as practised both in India and in China, these qualities of dád́imba are recognized. Next is mán. Of all the varieties of starchy food that help in building flesh in the human body, mán is unique. It has better qualities than potatoes or even jackfruit seeds.
Jackfruit seeds have two-and-a-half times more food value than potatoes. Prior to the arrival of potatoes in India, people here used to eat jackfruit seeds. And mán is even higher in food value than jackfruit seeds. Besides this, mán has a cooling effect on the body. It is a good medicine in the summer, when the body becomes very heated and people get nosebleeds. It is both food and medicine.
Next is dhánya, paddy. It has numerous qualities. One of the common uses of rice is this: one can easily prepare wine from it, and from the wine, various types of medicine can be prepared. People often utilized this quality of rice in those days.
Because of the special qualities of these nine kinds of plants, people had great reverence for them. They used to worship these plants by putting vermilion marks on them. Later, during the days of Post-Shiva Tantra, these nine plants were considered to be the nine types of expression of the internal powers of cańd́iká shakti, which we are discussing. Otherwise, how could they have so many qualities? This is how people thought at that time.
These special powers of cańd́iká shakti, as manifested in kadalii (in fact, these things are all the imagination of the authors of the Puranas) were known as Brahmáńii shakti. The divine power latent in arum was called Káliká shakti. The one in turmeric was Durgá shakti. The power in jayantii was Kárttikii shakti. The one found in ashoka was named Shokarahitá shakti. The one in bilva was Shivá. The power in dád́imba was Named Raktadantiká. The power in mán was called Cámuńd́á. And finally, the divine power in paddy was named Lakśmii. Even to this day, illiterate villagers, and sometimes literate people also, say “O Mother Lakśmii,” and salute in reverence when their feet accidentally trample grains of rice.
Now the collective name of all nine kinds of divine power of cańd́iká shakti latent in the aforesaid plants is Navadurgá, and the collective name of these nine kinds of plants is Navapatriká.(5) When the concept of Durgá developed in the days of the Puranas, about 1300 years ago, the worship of this Navapatriká was introduced simultaneously. Idols came later, idols having eight or ten hands.
Footnotes
[1] Gańesha is considered mythologically to be the son of Shiva. –Trans.
[2] The Aryans did not worship Gańesha. –Trans.
[3] Kadalii – plantain or banana; kacu – arum, Colocasia antiquorum Schott.; haridrá – turmeric; jayantii – Sesbania aegyptiaca Pers.; ashoka – Saraca indica Linn.; bilva – bel, wood-apple; dad́imba – pomegranate; mán – Alocasia indica Schott.; dhánya – paddy, unhusked rice. –Trans.
[4] Flour made from roasted gram (also called chick-pea or garbanzo) or sometimes roasted wheat or corn. –Trans.
[5] Nava means “nine”, hence, “nine Durgás” and “nine plants”. –Trans.
[6] Viśńupuráńa –Trans.
[7] “To dance with someone on the head” meant to dote on someone. –Trans.
[8] Senápati means “commander-in-chief.” –Trans.
30 May 1982, Calcutta
Published in: Namah Shiváya Shántáya
5. For Orphaned infant, which milk is a good alternative to motherʼs milk?
Topic – Draught Animals
Donkey:
The colourful donkeys often refuse to be domesticated. When they see humans they run away to keep a distance. Even those who could somehow manage to be domesticated try to run away. The nutritional value of donkey milk is far less than that of the cow or the horse. It also yields less butter. Yet in qualitative terms, the milk of the donkey is as good as the milk of a woman. So for an orphaned infant, the milk of the donkey is a good alternative to motherʼs milk. In English, the slow-moving, wide-eared, braying creature is called donkey. A comparatively swifter, long-eared and less vociferous animal is called “ass” in English, in Sanskrit rásava.
From book- Birds and Animals, our neighbours
6. Explains how to prepare Ámáni?
Topic – Footnotes in female diseases – electric edition
“Rice is to be cooked at night and kept in an earthen pot, adding some water, tamarind juice and a little salt if needed. The following morning, the fermented product should be kneaded well and then strained through a piece of cloth. The liquid thus obtained is called ámáni. It is an alcoholic drink and slightly intoxicating but it also has medicinal properties.”
(Shrii P.R. Sarkar, Natural Medicine, 2009, “Respiratory Diseases, Fever, Female Diseases, Infant Care, Other Diseases”)
7. To Save Oneself from Sorrow and how newborn feels?
Topic – The Means to Save Oneself from Sorrow
From the beginning every created being is situated in bliss. The very moment a newborn infant opens his eyes upon the world, he feels a type of bliss. The earthʼs light and air infuses a wondrous feeling of bliss in his mind. Not only a human child, every newborn being feels this certain type of bliss from the start.
Paramátmá has created this world in order to impart bliss to Himself, and He has not thrown those whom He has created (this world of living beings is born out of His vast body) into trouble, because they are also born out of this bliss. But human beings themselves create certain diseases in their minds, and, seized by these diseases, they undergo suffering. Actually, Parama Puruśa is playing with his created world, and at the end of the play, when the living beings become tired, Parama Puruśa takes them into his lap, that is, the living beings reach their goal. Paramátmá takes them into his lap, He withdraws them – this is liberation. He plays for the sake of bliss, and the meaning of giving a place on his lap is the liberation of the living being.
There is no intricate philosophy behind this. It is the simple and straightforward answer to a simple and straightforward question. If a human being can always remember this then he or she will never be overcome by sorrow. This is the secret gáyattrii [famous Vedic hymn or prayer] that delivers one from sorrow.
6 April 1979, Patna
Published in: Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 9
8. How to use orange while having fever and During teething, children often suffer from diarrhoea how to overcome from this kind of problem ?
Topic – Some Important Crops
Orange
The orange is one of the most commonly available fruits in the world. There are many varieties which differ in skin colour and thickness, taste, quantity of juice, etc. To grow oranges successfully, no special soil conditions or prescribed amount of rainfall is required, except that sufficient quantity of calcium must be present in the soil. The calcium will make the fruit sweet. 53 orange trees can be planted to one bigha (approximately one third of an acre).
Medicine can be prepared from the juice and skin of the orange. For example, a good medicine to reduce fever is 50% orange juice and 50% warm water. If this is taken several times a day, it will be very beneficial for the patient. This preparation is also good for treating influenza
Bengal Gram (Cáná, Cholá)
Bengal gram is known as “canak” or “buntik” in Saḿskrta, “cáná” in Hindi, “cholá” in Persian, Urdu and standard Bengali, “rahimá” in Bhojpuri and “but́” in Bihar and Ráŕhii Báḿlá.
There are three varieties of Bengal gram:
Small black variety (t́hikre cháná)
Pink variety (gulábi cháná)
All white variety (kábuli cháná)
The black variety of Bengal gram has substantial food value and is the most tasty. The plants are small and the yield is low. It is grown as a “pigeon crop” with paddy, just like khesári, black pea (t́hikre mat́ar) and pea, if the soil is dry after harvesting the áman crop. If it is grown as a “pigeon crop”, it should be sown by the 10th of Agraháyańa at the latest, otherwise boro paddy should be planted. Black Bengal gram takes five months to mature, from Kárttika to Phálguna. Black gram can also be sown as a “pigeon crop” for research.
The pink variety Is produced as a winter crop after the land has been tilled. It also takes five months to mature.
The all white Bengal gram is all white, and bigger, less tasty, less substantial and less productive than the other varieties, but it is a good money earner. It is also produced as a winter crop after tilling the land.
Gram has good nutritional value but it is hard to digest. Gram gives immediate energy, but not much reserve energy. Horses are often fed gram because it is easy to soak. As long as the gram is in their stomachs, they can work, but when it is digested they must be fed again.
When the gram crop is one month old, its leaves and stems should be picked for use as green vegetables (shák). This induces side offshoots so that there is more flowering and fruiting. But the practice of plucking the leaves and stems should be stopped one month before flowering. For example, if flowering occurs on the 1st of Paoś, then plucking should be stopped from the 1st of Agraháyańa. This rule applies to all the pulses.
One property of gram leaves is that they are rich in calcium. During teething, children often suffer from diarrhoea because all the calcium in their diet goes into teeth formation. In the rainy season also, children sometimes suffer from diarrhoea because the rainwater does not contain many minerals. If a child develops diarrhoea and becomes emaciated due to lack of calcium, gram leaves will restore his or her health. The leaves should be ground into a liquid, which will turn red, and this juice should be taken. Also, if a nursing mother dies, the baby can be fed boiled gram leaves as a substitute for mothers milk. This will prevent the health of the baby deteriorating.
Gram husk makes a good cattle feed. Milk giving animals relish gram husk mixed with mustard oil cake (sarśe khal).
February 1988, Calcutta
Published in: Ideal Farming Part 2
