#1 Boost your immunity
Most people develop relationship with the soil only after they die. But it’s very important to develop relationship with the soil when you’re alive. I would say especially now, with this virus around, believe me, those of you who are in some way in contact with the soil – here we call this prithvi prema seva, that means getting involved with the soil in a very loving manner – well, your ability to live, your ability to resist these kind of invasions upon your life will be greatly, greatly enhanced.
It’s not just enough if you live. It’s important that you live strong. Living strong does not mean you grow big muscles and dominate somebody, living strong means, here [pointing to self] life happens big. For this, you need a body which treats the entire planet as its extension, which it is. So it’s very important that you bring this – all of you who are here at the Isha Yoga Center, we will set up some processes for you so that every one of you, at least once in three days, your hands and feet are in the soil. Very important.
And wherever, wherever else you are, if you have a small patch of a garden, or you can volunteer that you will work in somebody else’s garden – believe me, yes, they will get free labour but don’t think they are getting more. You’re getting much more because you being connected with the soil will make a phenomenal difference for the way your physical body functions. Put your hands into the soil, very important. Otherwise, those of you who are too well to do, but don’t want to be seen doing any work because it may create a wrong image for your affluence, you can have a mud bath. Yes, that is also one way.
#2 Eat more raw food
Just bring 40% – 50% of the food in it’s raw form, that means it’s alive. It must be a live cell, it can be a vegetable, it can be a fruit, it can be a nut, it can be sprouted gram. At least 40% – 50%, the food that you eat must be alive. You eat dead food and you want to live – it’s a little difficult thing to do, because you have to raise the dead now.
When you cook the food, to digest the food, all the ingredients necessary for digestion are not in the body alone, the food also brings these enzymes. When you cook the food, you are largely destroying these enzymes. Minus the enzymes when you eat, now the body has to struggle to reconstruct that part which has been destroyed, and then only it can digest. Normally first 1-1.5 hours after eating, it tends to take the body down. After that slowly it recovers. Have you noticed this?
So food is for energy, but we are making the food in such a way, that it takes away energy in the first 1-1.5 hours. Only after that slowly it comes back. Anyway, however good your digestive process is, still you can never reconstitute all the enzymes that we have destroyed by cooking. Only partly we can do that.
#3 Take a shower before you sleep
One simple thing can be just a shower. Always to shower, before go to bed. It will make a lot of difference. In this weather, maybe cold showers are difficult, so you go for lukewarm showers. Don’t go for hot showers in the night. Go for lukewarm showers. It makes you alert, so you will think – oh, I can not sleep. It doesn’t matter – you will sleep 15-20 minutes, or half an hour later. But you will sleep better. Because it will take away certain things.
When you shower, it is not just the dirt on the skin that you are taking away. Have you noticed, if you are very tense and anxious, whatever – just a shower, and it feels like almost the burden has been taken away from you. Have you not noticed this? So, it’s not just about washing the skin. A whole lot of things happen when water flows over your body. This shower is a very rudimentary Bhuta Shuddhi. Because over 70% of your body is actually water. If you run water over it, a certain purification happens, which is beyond cleaning the skin.
#4 Detoxify your body: drink water with care
You must take enormous care about the water because it’s 72%. And it has tremendous memory. If I open this water [removing the lid from water pot], or even without opening, if I say something to this water, it remembers. There have been lot of experiments in this direction.
So, if you take this water, from wherever the water works is, and pump it to your house – let’s say, it went through 50 bends, forced, pumped forcefully with a certain force, which naturally is done. And you’re living on 12th floor of the apartment, so further forced up. Now they’re saying, if it goes through 50 bends, about 60% of the water has turned poisonous. Immediately when it comes in the tap, if you take it and immediately drink it, it will work as poison in your system. If you take it and hold it for some time, it will undo itself again. Because the poisoning is not chemical, it is molecular. Molecular changes are happening, no chemical change is happening.
This is why, traditionally, your grandmother always told you – always you must gather the water, keep it overnight in your house, in a properly cleaned vessel, with vibhuti, and kumkum on it, and one flower on it. Yes or no? Traditional homes? Only tomorrow morning you drink it. Not as soon as it comes inside your house you don’t drink it, because it carries all kinds of memories. In very traditional homes, people everyday do puja to the water pot. Yes? And you never drink the water as soon as it comes. You keep it – give it enough time to undo itself from whatever nonsense it has gathered, so that it is suitable for you when you drink it.
Water, you must take care, because it is 72%. It’s 1st class, you know, more than passing mark.
#5 Give your stomach a break
Empty stomach and hunger are two different things. Hunger means your energy levels start dropping. But empty stomach is a good thing. In the yogic sciences, today modern science is also coming in line with this – but what we know by our experience, you will spend a billion dollars to come there. Because research is all about – how many million dollars, that’s how it is.
Your body and your brain works at it’s best, only when your stomach is empty. So, we always make sure – we eat in such a way, however much we eat, our stomach must always be empty within 2-2.5 hours time, maximum. So, we go to bed hungry always. People think they can not sleep. They can sleep. So, minimum 8 hours gap is what is recommended in yoga – between one meal and the next meal, there must be an 8 hours space. If you do this, you will see half your problems of health – whatever you have health problems – minimum 50% will go away in 6 weeks time.
