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Treasures for Health: Bābūl, Saṅgrī, and Holy Water

These are treasures for health, brought from India. Bābūl supports the immune system and digestion, increasing white blood cells. It helps with stomach irritation, diarrhea, eczema, and women's hormonal health. Boil a few pieces for tea and eat the remainder. Saṅgrī is a dried vegetable rich in fiber, minerals, and saponins, which help remove harmful substances. Soak it before cooking and use ample spices. Combining these brings in the good and removes the bad. Holy water was also mentioned. These are available for use, not for storage.

"Bābūl helps to increase white blood cells and improves our digestion, which is the foundation for good health."

"Saṅgrī contains a lot of fiber and many minerals, such as zinc, iron, and magnesium. It also contains many saponins, which are helpful for getting rid of harmful things from the body."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

Good afternoon. I would like to tell you about two or three treasures we have here. These are powerful tools to keep our health in its best shape. These are treasures from India that Swāmījī brought for us so that we would have enough for all of you, ensuring we all can be healthy. He stopped all constructions on Om Ashram so that people could prepare these treasures for us. The fruits come from trees about five meters tall, and harvesting them is not easy. Indian technology called "Jugaad" had to be used, and thanks to that, we have it here. First, what I would like to introduce to you is called Bābūl. It is wonderful for supporting our immune system and for digestion. Bābūl helps to increase white blood cells and improves our digestion, which is the foundation for good health. Therefore, it improves our whole health. If you have irritation in the stomach or intestines, diarrhea, eczema, or problems with teeth, bābūl is the right thing for you. Swāmījī also pointed out that it is a treasure, especially for women, as it greatly aids the proper functioning of women's organs. This is connected with hormones, which in turn are connected with our mood. I suggest you take it home to your grandmothers, mothers, and wives if they are not here, as it will definitely help harmony in the family. How to use it? It's simple. Take just a few pieces—the amount depends on their size—and boil them in water for three to five minutes and drink it like tea. What's left, don't throw away; it's best to eat it. I must admit, it's not very tasty, but Swāmījī says that if you mix it with other vegetables, it's fine. It is easy to do and pleasant. You just cook it, drink it, and that's it. Swāmījī suggests you can put it into a vegetable mixture and eat it with other vegetables. And Śāntī says the tea made from it is delicious. The next treasure is the vegetable Saṅgrī. It is dried vegetables, so you can always have them on hand when you come from anywhere and don't have time to buy fresh vegetables. The cooking time depends on the soaking time beforehand. You can soak it overnight or for half an hour before cooking. To make it more tasty, it's good to use more spices than you are used to for fresh vegetables. If you are uncertain how to cook it, the best is to look at the YouTube channel "Yoga in Daily Life" and search for "Umapuri" or "Umapuri cooking." There is a 15-minute video showing how to cook it properly. Why is it healthy? It contains a lot of fiber and many minerals, such as zinc, iron, and magnesium. It also contains many saponins, which are helpful for getting rid of harmful things from the body. So, when you combine bābūl and saṅgrī, you get into your body what is needed and good for it, and you support the removal of what is harmful. The last thing I have here, which I don't have to talk about much because Swāmījī already mentioned it during the lecture, is the holy water. You can buy all these things at the Bhakti shop next to the office. There is a last box of bābūl there, so hurry up. My final request is: when you buy it, please use it. Don't forget it in a drawer; use it daily. Thank you. Now, about the bābūl—it is a thorny bush, or rather a tree. It fruits in the hot season, before the monsoon. This year I was there for nearly four months for the first time since the Ashram. We have maybe 1,000 or 300 trees; we are harvesting them anyhow. This is a holy tree. The very young pods, two or three levels, are good for eating. Others are also good, but then the seeds inside are good. This year, because people were pushing branches and breaking them, we used a big trolley. Normally, people tie the branches and break them. This time, we brought a fire truck, put it under the tree, and lifted it to collect the pods. We can take about 25-30%; the rest we leave to dry and break, and then our animals eat them. Our horses eat too much. We bring the pods, remove any thorns, wash them, and then boil them a little in a big pot. Then we take them out, peel them, and put them in the sun to dry. After drying, we can put them in bags for eating as vegetables. The boiled ones lose some juice. For the dried ones, you put them in hot water for about half an hour, then boil them a little in that water. Afterward, add whatever spices you want—a little lemon, salt, and later, some yogurt. Chili if you want. It becomes tasteful again. One has to know how to cook these things properly. There is another part called Guṇḍā. We have brought it dried. The dried ones are best. We boil them a little, clean them nicely, and then put them in hot water. After a short while, you take them out of the hot water and slowly press them, and the seed comes out. That seed is very good, but we throw it away, and then we dry the pod. That is also available. Saṅgrī is very holy. This year I got two trucks full, especially for you all. I had one batch powdered. For a woman, taking half a teaspoon in hot water, leaving it for 10 minutes, and drinking it is enough for two or three years. Or you can use it as a vegetable powder. For the whole saṅgrī pods, because they were boiled and dried, you soak them again in hot water for half an hour to one hour. You can leave them soaking in the morning while you go shopping or working. In the afternoon, add oil, salt, lemon, and spices like chili. Then boil it for about 10 minutes, as it was already in water. Then add all the spices, maybe some oil or yogurt, or something like dry mango powder. Then there is another tree, a big one with many thorns, like an Acacia. We call it "fuzolka." The seed dries and splits. On a very hot day, there are no leaves on it, only these "fuzolka" pods with hooks. We send ladies to collect them with a stick. The seed looks like a papaya seed. We boil it for half an hour in hot water and then dry it again. Since it's already boiled, we then put it inside the mixture. So, we have bābūl, guṇḍā, saṅgrī, and the one called "fuzolka." There should be five in total. One more is called kumati, which is also a seed. So, there are five. Together, they have a very nice taste. If Europeans cook it, it might not be tasty at all—just like how Indians might not make a good apple strudel. I prepare everything from the trees—seeds, flowers, fruits—by boiling, drying, and then explaining how to cook. We can also cook them fresh and serve you. We have many such things. It is said we should eat according to the season, and we can also preserve things for after the season. Here in Europe, for winter, many people store roots underground, along with milk and bread. But you shouldn't eat vegetables that are not in season. In winter, where it snows, bringing vegetables from other countries is not good. Even if it's organic, it's still not for the season. At Christmas time, you make very nice sweets. But on a hot Sunday, sitting on the beach and eating such sweets is not appropriate. In the past, people lived long lives and were completely healthy, living to 110 or 125 years. Look at Mahāprabhujī, who lived to 135. They ate well. Mother's milk was the best, but now the mother's food is not good. We have a little child here named Pūnam. Her mother is Śāntī. When she was pregnant, I advised her on what to eat and how to care for the child. In the area of India where I was born, there are certain spices and tree gums for this. After the child is born, the mother must eat specific foods so her milk is the best. This special diet is for about ten days. It includes much ghee and other things. We brought pure Indian ghee from our Ashram cows. You see our little Pūnam and how she is talking; it is really something. If you buy these things here, it's not so expensive for us, but the airplane transport is costly. There are many things: coconuts, special sugars, and the best milk. My mother ate these things, and so did all my older sisters when their children were born. Their husbands would ask, "Can I taste?" but were told, "No, it is exactly how much I must eat; you must not eat." So the husband would say, "Next time we will give double." If you want all this, you can have it. But you have to get a first child. That is a home built with Prāṇa—pure, not with eggs, meat, or processed milk inside. I have made you hungry now. Adió.

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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