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Explanation of Shank Prakshalan kriya

A practical health talk on Haṭha Yoga purification techniques and sattvic cooking.

"Śaṅkha Prakṣālana is not only the emptying of the whole intestine; it is a purifying, a washing only with that which we have from nature: water, sea salt, and movement."

"With these Haṭha Yoga techniques, the body returns to its natural state... We help, we give a big push forward to get again the motivation to do."

The speaker, likely a senior yoga teacher, details the six purification acts of Haṭha Yoga, focusing on the complete intestinal cleanse of Śaṅkha Prakṣālana. She provides practical instructions, precautions, and dietary advice for before and after the cleanse. The talk concludes with a demonstration of how to cook a specific mix of dried, organic vegetables from an ashram in Rajasthan.

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

Hari Om, Hari Om, dear friends. I hope you have had a good morning or good night, and that everyone is satisfied. Today, we continue with our health program, "Yoga and Daily Life." To begin, there is one desire, one wish, a longing to be happy and healthy for all living beings. Especially humans are always searching for something to be happy and healthy, to get better, to be as young as possible with no pain. May Gurudev bless us and guide us, and may the highest Self, the highest consciousness, grant everyone health, happiness, and peace. So, when we as aspirants long for something better in our life, we have already received the wish to practice yoga—the interest that we try to do something in our life, something better than other living beings. According to our abilities, our qualities, and our nature, we find our way. Some are more practical people; they go more on the Karma Yoga way. Some people are more emotional, devotional, believing in God, so they will choose the Bhakti Yoga way more. Some people are very disciplined, hard-trained, and practical; they use the Rāja Yoga way. And some would like to know through intellectual reading, studying, and thinking; they will use the Jñāna Yoga. But all join together. Without bhakti, we cannot do Karma Yoga. Without Jñāna Yoga, you can’t do Bhakti Yoga. It needs both wings; otherwise, without knowledge, it’s not possible. So they join together, but the weight is on one way more. For all this, we need a good, strong body and health. And here comes Haṭha Yoga. Swāmījī started at the beginning of this summer, in our summer seminar in Vaibh, already with the subject of Haṭha Yoga. There was the Neti program, the cleaning of the whole part in the head with water, and the Sūtra Neti to clean the sinuses and the nose. It is not only cleaning, but to activate and harmonize both main nāḍīs, the Iḍā and Piṅgalā. Next, we had Nauli and Agnisāra Kriyā to activate our digestive fire. Not only to activate the digestion fire, but to harmonize and keep it strong and burning well—the Manipūra Chakra, Samāna Prāṇa, which is here in our stomach. Eating is another subject; we will come there. The digestion fire is a good fire, but if we put too much inside, we kill it—too much wood. And if there is less inside, we also kill it. So, to keep the fire burning in a proper way, it also needs the know-how, and here everybody is individually different. Does everybody from us find out in their life what is good for his or her body and what is better not to eat? The main thing here, of course, is vegetarianism. I don’t speak about other things. So this is the Nauli and Agnisāra Kriyā. We also had the Kapāla Bhāti—the beautifying of the forehead, the enlightening. Kapāla means skull, and Bhāti means lightening, enlightening. Really, if we practice the Kapālabhāti, especially every day after Jalaneti—inhale to the mouth and strong and short exhale through the nose—it is not only to dry our breathing space, but to awaken. It’s again the subject of the nāḍīs. The nose is very sensitive, and the ears also. All our jñānendriyas are very, very sensitive. They are like sensors, working all the time, taking impressions inside into our storage. And this is the subject of Rāja Yoga: how to empty this storage again. But now we are on the subject of Haṭha Yoga. When we do the Kapālabhāti strong—10 rounds, 20 rounds—then you feel in the beginning sometimes a little bit dizzy. True. In the beginning, it means a little bit that the brain gets a small massage because the brain is placed in the liquid, very well protected, connected with the inner part of our spine; it’s the suṣumṇā going down. That’s why we give a slight massage with this technique, a palpation. This wakes our brain center; it awakens. That’s why Haṭha Yoga, all these six techniques, are not only for body purification. It’s just an awakening program, but we need a strong willpower to do it. At the same time, we gain a strong willpower. We gain this with the practice. And now we come to the subject of Śaṅkha Prakṣālana. Śaṅkha, we know, means the shell, and Prakṣālana means the purifying. Why did the yogīs give this name? Because our whole intestine is formed like this shell. Normally, we can’t put water inside without moving. Normally, when we eat, it takes time until it comes out again. But with the technique of Śaṅkha Prakṣālana, it takes one and a half hours, two hours—it depends. Śaṅkha Prakṣālana is not only the emptying of the whole intestine; it is a purifying, a washing only with that which we have from nature: water, sea salt, and movement. The movement when we drink one glass of warm water. The quantity of the salt is like this in the ocean: 0.9 percent. Then you drink a big glass of warm water. Don’t wait, don’t smell, don’t taste. It’s a technique, a practice. It’s not enjoying eating; it’s just purifying. In the beginning, we can drink two glasses first—one, two, three rounds. Those who always drink a lot during the day should do with two glasses; it works quicker then. Otherwise, the body doesn’t react to this water. Some people don’t like the warm, little salty water. No problem. We have to come above rāga and dveṣa, like and dislike. It helps to put your ring finger here on the eyebrow’s end and then drink. Close quickly. Do not drink like this; you have to open. This is one good technique. So you drink, and then you start to practice. I will not speak publicly about all the details; otherwise, people try and then they don’t do it properly, and then they say it’s not working well. So, everybody who would like to do this, go to your yoga teacher and your yoga class. They have a lot of experience. Do it in a group in the beginning. So if you want to do this technique at the beginning, go somewhere where you have a teacher. After two or three times together in the group with an experienced yoga teacher, then we can try it alone or with a friend. And if you can do it under the guidance of some experienced teacher in that group two or three times, then you can do it alone or with a friend. So you drink and practice, and drink and practice, and drink and practice. In between, going to the bathroom, the toilet, to Aśvinī Mudrā, it starts. The intestine, peristaltic, also starts, awakes, and then it works. And in the meantime, you can jump to the toilet and do Aśvinī Mudrā a few times, and thus you also activate the movement of the joints, and then it starts to work. The Śaṅkha Prakṣālana is then finished when water comes from your intestine, like yellow, like urine. It’s not completely clean water that you can see with a magnifying glass and nothing inside. There’s always some kind of skin flakes inside, or small, small sand. It is at least 5 to 6, 7 liters we need. So that the technique is all complete, we need 5, 6 to 7 liters of water. Then you say, "Now I’m finished." Ready? We practice two rounds, three rounds without drinking, so that the water that is in the stomach comes out. Otherwise, it goes to the kidneys, and you lie down to rest, and constantly you have to get up and go to the toilet. It’s boring. So, better you bring it out now, and then peacefully you rest. And then you can say that you are done, but you still exercise—you don’t drink anymore, but you exercise two to three times so that the water doesn’t get into the liver and goes through those joints. Because otherwise you can’t rest, and you will still go to the toilet. We start early morning without breakfast. The night before, dinner is not too heavy. Two days, three days before, no chocolate anymore, no cacao anymore. Quit your coffee one week before, otherwise you have a lot of headache after Śaṅkha Prakṣālana. So if you quit it before, it’s kind of a detoxification program. I would say also it’s an anti-aging program because there’s nothing that remains inside. And with your diet after Śaṅkha Prakṣālana, you put in only this organic, pure, nice, sāttvic food, nothing else. It’s very, very, very good. You will feel the same day a little bit tired. It can be; it must not be. After two or three days, you really feel the effect of the Śaṅkha Prakṣālana. You get up easily in the morning, no heaviness anymore, not this heavy tiredness. It’s gone. You see it on your skin, on your eyes. Joints are functioning better. Many, many things I cannot describe all here. And also, what I always experience, this digestion is much better—if I cannot say here publicly—you need not to clean after going to the big toilet; it is clean. There is nothing to clean. Then you have a good digestion. There is no bad smell, neither from the body, neither from the mouth, neither from somewhere else. So this is the Śaṅkha Prakṣālana. It is connected also with the purifying of the stomach, the Kunjal Kriyā. To clean the stomach, you drink two liters without salt after Śaṅkha Prakṣālana and then bring it out again. It’s not so bad, like it sounds. It’s very good, very good because it’s a technique. But what I experience, many of us don’t like it because we connect it with some illness, with some ill feeling. When you feel bad in the stomach, you have to vomit. But it’s just a technique. You stand there in front of the wash basin or tap, or sit down or stand as you like, and drink two liters of warm water. It’s also a kind of technique you will learn. And then, in one, two, three big swirls, bring it out again. Finished. Then you wash your face, you clean your tongue, and you gargle your throat. Make Neti, Jalaneti. Bring the pressure down from the head. Have a shower, change your dress, and relax. Half an hour, 20 minutes, just relax. Meantime, your kicharī is cooking. Nicely, basmati rice with mung dal, peeled. Curcuma, jeera, cumin seeds inside. Salt, we have enough inside. And then put one big teaspoon of ghee on it. And it should be soft, soft, like purée. And then you eat as much as you want, as much as you like, but at least you have to eat a little bit. Otherwise, the intestines stick together. Some people don’t; they are not hungry after. They don’t feel hunger, but they have to eat. And some are so hungry they can eat and eat and... They still don’t feel it is satisfied to eat. You need, and the body will find from itself its own weight, so we need not to force to eat, we need not to starve. It will balance everything. With these Haṭha Yoga techniques, the body returns to its natural state, not all that we have done with it until now. We help, we give a big push forward to get again the motivation to do. And we will see after Śaṅkha Prakṣālana how energetic we are. We start to clean up everything, finish everything that is lying there unfinished, because it is purifying. And what we do with our inner self, we do also in the outer world. It reflects, like Gulābjī said, it is just a reflection. And our whole being is just a reflection from the big. So with this, we come to the eating part. Swāmījī brought from Rajasthan, from Om Ashram Jhadon, very, very nice, good vegetables. Dried vegetables, they are prepared. It doesn’t take so long to prepare. They are grown in the ashram without pesticides. We know in which hand they were. We know the way it was brought to us. So it is safe to eat it because, from my own experience, when special people have to live in the city—not all are living in the countryside with their own garden—those who have their own garden are blessed. This is the luxury. But we have to go back to the dried vegetables or fruits. And there is Dr. Amrit later; she will explain what is inside, which benefits and which ingredients, which kind of minerals or elements are in each vegetable. So, it is baked in these boxes, mixed already. There’s the guṇḍā inside, it’s called guṇḍā. I don’t know the translation. It’s from Jata Ashram. We have the trees, these big leaves, what we always pluck down in winter time. This is the guṇḍā, and the mixed vegetable. This round thing here, this is the guṇḍā. And what I know from my own is it is very good for the joints, especially for the knees, because it has this chalet inside, this is some chalet. It’s very good for the knee joints. And then this long thing is the saṅgrī. Saṅgrī is also growing in Madrid. It is used green or dried. Then we have here, the kair is here. This round thing is the kair, and the babul is this long thing. It is used with the peels, this babul. So this is all in a special quantity here inside. I would say this cooking could be for five meals for two persons, three persons, or even more because it expands. You mix inside also, if you don’t soak it in—because the saṅgrī, when you soak it in, it needs only to soak in cold water for three hours. The other thing needs more. So you cook all this stuff for half an hour, 45 minutes. If you soak it, it shortens the cooking time. Then you prepare a nice masala with oil—drain this oil, olive oil, ghee, or whatever you like. Which oil? I would put the mustard seeds inside the rye, and I put a lid on it because they start to jump. Then the cumin. If you don’t like the garlic, you can put the hiṅg inside. As for tita, if you use the onion, put onion inside. And then these vegetables—it needs a little bit more oil than normal because it’s dry. Otherwise, you don’t have taste. There’s also another way: you can cook that onion, you make a bowl, put the dry spices inside, like hardī, curcuma. One hardī half teaspoon, chili half teaspoon. For your chira, big more quantity, coriander more quantity, salt. In water, put the onion in the oil, wait, small, small boiling until the oil comes to the surface. Then, put these cooked vegetables inside. It’s a second variation. It depends, then wait a little bit. Let it mix with the spices. Small, small cooking. At the end, put some coriander, green, green cut onion. If you want garlic, fresh garlic, then make nice chapati, or you can eat it. No, to eat it with rice? In Rajasthan, you don’t eat it with rice. You eat with chapati, roti. You can make a Hanuman chapati, dig one, or you make thin two, three, four. Eat this, and it is very good for traveling also because it lasts long. It doesn’t need a fridge, it gets not spoiled, and it’s not only healthy but very, very good in taste, really good. It should be soft. In this, you cannot make it half-cooked; it should be soft. You can eat it with yogurt, mix also inside the yogurt, nice chutney, some kadhi, Mahāprabhujī soup, and this eating is delicious. Everybody will ask you, "What is this?" But it also needs you to have to practice. It’s my experience also; I have to practice also and experience in which way it is better because I like to eat it also. I’m very critical with myself also. I say, "No, this is not good." And I don’t deserve to serve it in that way to Swāmījī. So it has to be in a proper way. Sometimes it’s a mistake, and you fail. Then you say, "No, next time I will do it in a different way." So this is this, and this we can use all the time, and it is always available. I don’t know how much it costs. I know only that Bhakti Līlā and Krishnānand have it in the shop. And it’s very good. So here, my subject is finished. Śaṅkha Prakṣālana is not the theoretical part. It is a really practical part. And all these Haṭha Yoga techniques, so it’s not for those... Everybody heard now. Everyone should write this down. We will write it down, and then you will get it with the punch cutter. This water you need not... You can water the plant, you can drink it because the babul is inside. If you want, you can wash it before and then soak it. The question was, if we soak it in the water in advance, should we boil it with the water, or... to drain the water. So Umā Purjī says it doesn’t matter. The water can be drunk calmly because there is the babul there, and you can add it to the food as you want. The sixth day, three quarters of an hour, half an hour cooking. A little more. The sixth. So this is... I don’t know where we stopped now. Thank you. This is not the theoretical way, but the practical, because our life is practical. I spoke yesterday with one friend while driving, and I said, "What do we do? I don’t want to have self-realization. What should I do with this? Maybe I will get lazy and relaxed and just sit here and be self-realized." What I do with this? So let me serve, let me work. Like Swāmījī said, "Mahāprabhujī, give me a strong heart that I can serve you longer and longer." So it is always to say the know-how, and when, and what, and how, according to deśa and kāla—place and time. According to place and time, we should act, and we should be and try to be in good condition and try our best. Just be human, be friendly, be helpful, and healthy. Healthy, and we need it. And it’s not a present, it’s hard work. It’s not a present, yeah? Thank you. Adio.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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