Day 6 at the Arogyalayam; Fasting - Day 2

As usual, after the Yoga class, I did the kriyas from 6:30-7:30 am. I am still having trouble doing Sutra Neti on my own. It is essential to have a calm mind for the catheter to pass through freely. Otherwise, the nasal passages constrict making it difficult to do this kriya. I’m going to try Vaman Dhauti tomorrow. Below is the kriya kit I have been using to do Jala Neti, Sutra Neti, and Netra Shuddhi:

The morning Naturopathy treatment that was prescribed to me was Vitamin-D bath. You are asked to drink a glass of water and make you lay down under a red colored glass box outdoors for about 20-25 minutes. By the time you are done, the sweat pours really open up and pretty much the sweat on the mat equals the amount of water you drank! Stood under the waterfall afterwards instead of taking a regular shower. It was very refreshing. I am supposed to take honey water every two hours. Because of this activity, I was late by about 30 minutes and I could tell the difference as I felt brain throbbing a few times.

The after noon treatment was Spinal pack. Hot packs were placed along the spine while I faced down.  I also got the enema done. Since there is no solid food consumption, enema is necessary while fasting to clean bowels.

Day 5 at the Arogyalayam; Fasting - Day 1

The daily schedule at the Arogyalayam is as follows:
4:20 am - Wake up songs
5:00-6:30 am - General Yoga class
6:30-7:00 am - Kriyas
7:30-8:00 am - Breakfast
8:00-9:00 am - Manchi Maata (Good word) -> Lecture by Dr. Vishala on keeping mind healthy
9:00 am - Noon - Morning Naturopathy treatments
12:30 - 1 pm - Lunch
2:00-4:00 pm - After noon Naturopathy treatments
5:00-6:00 pm - Cooking lessons
6:00-7:00 pm - Dinner
7:00-9:00 pm - Dr. Raju’s lecture on how to take care of the body

Of course, the meal times do not apply to those who are fasting.

After the Yoga class, I did the following Kriyas:

1. Jala Neti - Pouring water through one nostril and let the water come out of the other nostril using Neti pot. You breathe through the mouth while performing this kriya.
2. Netra Shuddhi - Cleaning your eyes using the eye cleaning cup.
3. Sutra Neti - Cleaning the nasal passages using a catheter. You insert the catheter through one nostril and bring it out through your mouth and move it back and forth to clean. An attender helped me with this as I was having trouble inserting the catheter through my right nostril. It’s amazing how much mucus comes out even when you don’t have cold. After this, I could really feel more oxygen flowing in. This can eliminate snoring too. 

Around breakfast time, I did get the hunger pangs but a glass of water controlled it. Once I started taking honey water from 8 am onwards, no more hunger. I repeated this every two hours with a glass of water in between. Since there is no need for any digestion with no food in take, body is supposed to use the energy in cleaning process similar to what happens when we sleep once the digestion is completed. We are basically prolonging this state with fasting. One is also supposed to place a mud pack shown below three times a day on the abdomen to decrease intestinal heat and stimulate peristalsis.

My morning naturopathy treatment for today was Cold Hip Bath. You basically sit in a tub filled with cold water for 15 minutes with your feet outside. In the after noon, I had a full body massage and steam bath which made my body very light. This treatment is supposed to open up sweat pours so that impurities in the body can come out. 

The fast food chains opened in the last 10-15 years in India must be causing havoc to the younger generation. There are many overly obese youngsters getting treatment here to lose weight. Obese kids used to be very rare in my childhood.

Day 4 at the Arogyalayam

I attended the Yoga session again at 5 am. A few more asanas were introduced today. I really like attending this class. Doing it in a group is a big motivating factor. Kriyas like Jala Neti and Sutra Neti will be introduced tomorrow. As usual, drank 1.25L of water twice prior to breakfast time.

Today’s breakfast consisted of two different type of sprouts, coconut, peanuts, dates, and papaya. The treatment prescribed to me in the morning was hand and feet bath. The apparatus shown below is filled with hot water and you are asked to put your hands and feet in it for 15 minutes. The head is covered with a towel dipped in cold water. This is supposed to increase blood circulation.

The daily yoga session and the water consumption is making me really hungry. I ate too much at lunch today. The afternoon treatment prescribed to me was Vibro massage of hands and legs. Today, I wasn’t hungry at all at the dinner time. For some reason, none of us were hungry. We skipped going to the dining hall. Mom and I shared the fruits delivered to the room for my dad.

Since I will be fasting from tomorrow onwards, a tray of supplies (250 grams of honey and lemons) was delivered to the room this evening. I am supposed to mix two spoons of honey with a bit of lime juice in a glass of warm water and consume every two hours from 8 am to 8 pm; also a glass of water from 9 am to 7 pm every two hours. Body is supposed to start the detoxification process while fasting.

Day 3 at the Arogyalayam

Today is the day, cataract surgery has been scheduled for my dad at a nearby eye hospital. I was one of the founding donors of that hospital over a decade ago. The primary objective of this hospital’s foundation is to fight against the curable and preventable blindness in India. They follow 80:20 model where the 20% who can afford the treatment cross subsidizes for the 80%  from weaker economic sections of the society who receive free eye care every year.

Anyway, we already took permission from Dr. Raju when we checked into the Arogyalayam, so that we could leave the facility for the surgery right after breakfast and return by 7 pm. The breakfast was very delicious consisting of papaya, sprouts, carrots, coconut, peanuts, apple, pineapple, dates, and cucumber.

I’m getting comfortable driving on the Indian roads. It was a good experience for me to drive to the eye hospital as we had to navigate many types of roads and traffic conditions. We reached the hospital shortly after 9 am which was jam packed by patients seeking treatment. The hospital is run very professionally though. We just had to go through the motions of going to different rooms for various pre surgery activities. We were allotted a room and surgery was performed around 1:30 pm. A physician checked the eye again around 3:30 pm and asked us to come back for a follow up visit on December 12th. We headed back and reached the Arogyalayam around 4:30 pm.

One amazing service offered at the Arogyalayam with no extra charge is in-room service for health seekers with limited mobility. They deliver meals, perform various naturopathy treatments in your room including one-on-one yoga sessions! Just in case, we may not make it back by the dinner time, I already called in advance from the eye hospital to deliver dinner for my dad and I to our room.

We stayed in the room listening to the Dr. Raju’s evening lecture starting at 7 pm. I dozed off soon after. 

Day 2 at the Arogyalayam

Woke up around 3:30 am. I am still getting used to the time difference. My mom was already up and getting ready for her early morning meditation. After drinking 1.25L (~42 fl. Oz.) of water, started getting ready for the 5 am Yoga class. At 4:20 am, wake up songs are played for half an hour through the speakers in each of the rooms.

The buildings in this campus are truly remarkable with unique architectures. No expense is spared to create a very pleasant atmosphere with so many plants which is very conducive to support health seekers in their journey.

The new Yoga hall looks very grand from the outside and it can easily accommodate over 100 Yogabhyasis (students of Yoga).

Yoga Hall

Yoga class in session

Old Yoga hall converted to Gym

Our room is on the 3rd floor on the left of this building

Consumed another 1.25L of water after returning from the Yoga class. Headed to the dining hall for breakfast after taking shower.

Lunch is served from 12:30-1 pm. Today’s lunch consisted of two pulkas (wheat rotis heated on fire), millets, egg plant curry, a leafy vegetable pickle, carrot curry, and curd.

I went for a mud bath in the afternoon. Mud from the river bottom is applied all over your body including your head. You sit like that for about an hour until the skin tightens up when the mud dries. After taking shower at that facility, the waterfall was started so that we could stand under it for a few minutes which relieves you from any body aches. The skin felt very smooth after the mud bath.

Dinner is served from 6-7 pm. It is very light and consists of different types of fruits. As you can see they are big on Papaya which was served at breakfast too.

The other four buildings

Breakfast served from 7:30-8 am

Yummy lunch

Typical dinner 

Winter 2019 Trip to India

My purpose of this trip is to spend time with my parents again at the MSR Arogyalayam (temple of health). We spent a month at this place, the summer of 2018 and it was an awesome experience. During that time, my mom and I fasted for 21 days surviving on just honey water. Since then I didn’t become sick (not even caught cold) even for a single day. I would like to reinforce what I learned last year at this truly magical place.

On this trip my travel took me from IAD to AMS on KLM. The Schiphol airport is very convenient for transit passengers. There is a small art gallery, science museum displays and even a library on the airport premises.

The AMS to BLR was on KLM too and was almost a 9 hour flight. This is my first time landing at the Bengaluru airport on an international flight. The airport is fabulous and is much better than some of the airports in the Western Hemisphere. 

 

Clearing immigration, customs was a breeze at the airport. Since the flight arrived at BLR around 1 am IST, I had to wait about 4.5 hrs for the connection flight to VGA on Spicejet. I prebooked my breakfast on that flight which was pretty good. 

 

This is my first time landing at the Vijayawada airport. My Dad came to the airport to pick me up. My hometown is about 2 hours away from that airport. We reached home by lunch time, after visiting one of our relatives on the way. I got to drive stick after a long time. Right before the trip, I got the International Driving permit from AAA which is valid for a year. Steering wheel on the right side and driving on the left side of the road takes some time to get used to. 

We started early the next day for a 3 hour trip to get my dad’s eyes checked at an eye hospital closer to the Arogyalayam. After scheduling his cataract surgery for Tuesday, we reached the Naturopathy retreat center by lunch time. 

Day 1:

After checking in, discussed the next day diet and treatment plan with the floor doctor. The view from our room’s balcony was priceless. The dinner was all fruits for me after which we attended the lecture by Dr. Raju on how to take care of our bodies for a disease free life style from 7-9 pm. Jet lag hit me hard during his lecture.