PanchKarma – Life Balancing Process!

Ayurved is explanation of state of any body. On analysing pulse, listening to symptoms, a doctor judges the level of the illness with respect to patients age and other factors.

1. At times this illness can be cured with just consumption of ayurvedic medicines and pathya. Pathya is do’s and dont’s with respect to what your are eating, what ingredients are good and what are not good are mentioned to be practised by a patient. For an instance a particular food might not be good or triggering certain effects on the body. For example a sour substance is not good for a patient suffering with problems like arthritis and so on. So, pathyas will be mentioned to you from your ayurved practcing doctor during consulting session. Ayurveda insists on consuming boillied water. Also one must consume luke warm water. While taking ayurvedic medecines it has to be taken with warm water only. These medecines are made of herbs or plants extracts. Best part of this ayurvedic medecines is they are never tested on any animals. They are safest to be consumed and there is no side effects associated with it. This is because the procedures with which these medecines are made are very intense procedures. They are mostly plant based. These medciens or oils are extracts from plants that are boiled for hours and extracts are prepared. According to ayurved from thousands and thousands of variety of plants there will be hardly two or three variety of plants those are not good. None of the Ayurvedic medicines taste good. Without thinking looking here and there or thinking too much have it as specified. Fries are good in taste but has less nutrition value and doesn’t really support your health. So use wiser options. Tongue is sensor to check what is entering your body. Do not entertain your taste buds. Post giving medicines if the illness of a patient is bit severe which is not getting healed with these ayurvedic medeciens then these patients are made to undergo the procedures that we saw before.
2. There are certain kind of health issues those are at the intitial satages where it is just showing symptoms, that can be cured bith basic procedures. As passing movements is hard a simple enema ‘basti’ is performend or in case of asthama where you feel vibrations in chest in this case patient is given ‘vaman’.
3. According to seasonal changes some dosha become predominant for some people. Considering these, preventive measures are done in previous season. For example waat dosha prakriti people gets joints pain as winter approaches so this can be considerd treated beforehand.
4. A person who is not dispalying any kind of illness can still be given certian therapies post analysing thier ‘prakriti dosha’ for example an obesse person can be suggested steam, swedan procedural therapy.
5. PanchKarma doesnot suggest to give all the therapies to a single person. According to season, ailment and particualr body constitution therapies are recommneded and given.

In certain cases shodhan procedure of pre PanchKarma (snehan- oil massage and swedan-steam) direction of dosha is noted. Considering this direction, dosha is drained from the nearest vent in the body. Like to follow vamna or virechan is mostly decide at this lelvel. Depending upon strength of ailement and its intensity level. These procedures are done for 3 to 5 days. Post this vaman and virechan is given again by testing pulse(naadi) and stomach it is decided wether to perform vaman or virechan. Depending on all the factors basti, nasya are given alternate days according to ones requirement.

In PanchKarma pathya is one of the important aspect. As mentioned above pathya is dos’ and dont’s of aahar(diet) and vihar(literally means local movements in surrounding). These are asked to be followed right from the time that you start basic ayurvedic medecine processes and need to continue for some time post PanchKarma processes. For example eating habits(what you eat, when you eat, how much do you eat, more details you can find in my personal expereicne section of blog) wearing warm clothes, not getting exposed to cold surroundings, avoiding sleep during day time, travelling needs to be strictly followed. Risks are involved in this as the practicing doctor needs to be realy good the centre that you undergo needs to be practicig ayurved since longer time.

At the moment I cannot mention the place where I took my PanchKarma procedure in India in my blog here. You can specifically write a comment in the blog, saying you want the information of the place and provide me your e-mail address and I will share it with you. As the intent of this blog is strictly sharing my knowledge, understanding and expereince for education purpose and not for advertising any products or services.

Once you have taken PanchKarma dose not mean that now you are perfectly fit and you can do anything. There are certian restrictions to this. Restriction in the sesne some people are critically ill and have taken very strong medecines and so they have become weak, pregrnant women, age factor, some people are normally very weak/have sesetive health in such cases the doctor analyses capacity and can gives little midler recommendation of procedures to undergo. For certain critical illnesses it starts with mild medicines and procedures. Slowly with a gap entire process is repeated with bit more intensity.

Repetative Illness/ Lack of energy reasons: It is a general observation that people want medeceines that can cure you in 3-4 days as you have very busy schedules, less time to rest, lots of work and so on. What this means is irrespective of what food habits you are practicing, how is your resting pattern what are seasonal changes happening in your surrounding you want medeceines to remove the imbalance from your body as early as possible. Along with this you have strained with sleeping late night, working for long hours non stop, moved your food times or even skipped it. This is happenig to your body since may be for couple of months or longer than that but resulting imbalance needs to be instantly removed and you need to be up and going active! Here when we ask for medecine to recover in 3-4 days the medecines should be powerful enough, that is demand that we are giving. I think there will not be a single person who denies the fact of medecines having side effects. For example a classic example of cough and cold. Every one knows the fact that if there is lack of proper nutrition in body for simple seasonal change, continuous travels, forget about this just be switching from artificial environment(airconditioned or heated) your body can frequently catch cough and cold as the body is not capable of generating enough immune power. Just a simple throat congestion can take you down for 4-5 days with body pain fever and terrible state. It is strange that now even kids are made to take frequent medicines. I would suggest you to visit a person working in pharmaceutical background. Just have a normal talk to them and check if they give medicines to their kids. You will be shocked to see or hear 90% of them will say “NO, we don’t give these medicines to our kids or even our family do not take these medicines as we know what goes in it!” There are still many cases in which after trying all the methods of healing available in market, Ayurveda is the last option to be tried. Where the illness is gone down to such a state that all the medicines have given up to cure and the patient is already down with illness, suffering form its problems and along with it is side effects of the medicines have also taken its toll.

Ayurveda is time tested over 5000 years old practice best way of curing simple to very complicated diseases or illnesses, with no side effects. Ayurveda is not even a religious cult as it is thought to be. ‘It is art of living!’ mentioned in Vedas which is the most ancient scripture studied in the greater depth for the betterment of mankind. Ayurveda is a science of art of living. This is done under highly knowledgeable practicing doctor only. Instead of living with some kind of illness, Ayurveda teaches you to follow best way that suits an individual to stay fit – healthy and perform to best of its ability. The more you know about Ayurveda and its practices you will find it is very simply explained, logical way that is easy to be followed.

Life at Spiritual Level:

Most important phase in any healing procedure is meditation. These therapies in PanchKarma are directly associated with state of mind or we can say anything that happens to you and your body is caused due to your own mind. It does not mention it is good or bad but it is your phase of mind that effects state of your health. This state of mind is also carried in the memory of our body, genetically. For example a child inherits certain habits from parents. This inheritance can happen even if a child has never seen its parent or observed the particular habit. Similarly physical appearance, a child inherits few of the features form its parents which they have inherited from their parents and so on. Similarly, the way a person thinks or its state of mind remains in its cell memory and the child gets it. This is the reason that a pregnant lady is always asked to eat well, think well have good thoughts, listen to chanting of divine mantras that brings good energies and dissolves negative energies while she has conceived At the same time you can imagine just the few cells that comes from a father and a mother which actually combines to form a new life carries all this entire huge memories with it. These are carried in the cell memories of body. It is always better to remove the impurities from body but mostly from mind. There is more detailed information blog on meditation processes on; How to perform meditation on oneself? What changes you will undergo while performing meditation? Entire step by step process to achieve it is separately mentioned in a another blog under health and lifestyle category. Doing mediation in day to day life is very important. Suppose you never did meditation, till now it is fine but it is highly recommended to do mediation during PanchKarma procedure, as it doubles the positive effect of healing process.

I will give a link only at the end of this blog. As I don’t want you to get diverted on thoughts of understanding PanchKarma.

Actual Experience:

Here I am sharing with you my experience of Ayurvedic practice called PanckKarma. It is said that you need not be ill to undergo PanchKarma like a vehicle needs maintenance, in same ways our body, if not taken proper care needs this maintenance. Mostly on an average you must perform one PanchKarma before age of 40 years and then later depends on your health and performance. For me it was 15 days of process. Post my pulse (Naadi parikshan) analysis I was recommended to take 15 days PanchKarma procedure. In the place where I registered you need to register 3 months earlier as you will not get immediate reservations. In the end I have mentioned some pre preparations and things that you may want to carry to such holistic healing places. All the 15 days procedure that I am mentioning you can connect with it with earlier main process. I am going to share my personal experience how in reality it is.

This is a basic daily routine that is followed for all, patients, normal people – for those who are undergoing PanchKarma. All the food that you eat here is freshly prepared 2-3hours before meal. Grown in their own field from potatoes to coriander on vermicompost or organic farming process only. Ghee used for food is most purest and made out of A2 cow milk. For milk and milk products, they have their own cow barn. I must appreciate, their cows looked really happy, in good health conditions and clean. Vegetables were freshly brought from the field and cooked. The food was enjoyed by every individual. There were no curries, gravies or spices used in the food. It was purely simple and strictly vegetarian food. Also, no garlic and onion. All the food was served in dinning hall in traditional pangat system. Where all sit on tables and food is served in rounds, prayer is said and everyone eats happily. Serving people take rounds and make sure that supplies are going frequent. Food is unlimited. In western part of India, in Maharashtrian culture we do not serve food in bulk at a time. We serve small portions of all sweet, salt, everything in thali at a time and as per requirement we keep serving more food till one feels fulfilled.

07:00-08:00 Yoga

08:00-08:30 Breakfast OR (Ghee/Kadha)

08:30-09:00 Breakfast (Milk, Lahya: roasted puffed rice, tea with milk)

09:15 There may be a therapy or procedure assigned to you. For this they give your chart and mention it at the time of breakfast.

10:50-12:00Meditation

12:30-13:00 Lunch

15:00 Most of the therapies are given in this time slot, for 10/15/22 days.

17:00 Snacks (Milk, Lahya: roasted puffed rice, tea with milk)

19:00 Dinner

During festival celebrations or any program some of schedules may be little bit moved or shifted.

This was the general routine that we followed.

For me day 1 I started with full lunch.

Daal, chawal, chapati, vegetable, dry chutney, salad, fresh butter milk and luke warm water.

For actual menu in detail refer to image on my Facebook page ‘Yoga with Kanchan Vikram’

At tea time we get only milk, Lahya(Limited bowl), tea with milk and sugar. Till my final day morning breakfast and evening snack is same. Food timings are strictly followed. No snack or other food items are allowed to be eaten in the spare time. After almost first 3 days of relaxation and food habit followed in a group, you won’t feel much difficult.

Day 2 Routine starts same as above. I had a blod test and blood pressure test. Some how my BP was showing low as 3 days I was continuously travelling with lots of baggage. Along with that, I had full body massage. High grade quality of ayurvedic oil. Mostly sesame oil is boiled with other herbs is used and for this massage. I is a heavenly feel. After waiting for couple of hours. I was given steam in a box. Here only evening dinner was replaced to 2 variety of soups. As I thought it will be insufficient and I won’t be able to get good sleep I had 1 bowl extra. From here, every night you get only different variety of 2 soups for dinner. I will be posting recipe of certain vegetarian soups that you can make. Having 1 bowl extra soup was not a great idea slowly I managed with soup that I could manage.

Day 3 The therapy I had was foot reflex massage and same food routine for entire day.

Day 4 Full body massage (except head) and steam was repeated and same food routine for entire day.

Here snehan and swedan was completed. Due to this easy and limited food my digestive system was at ease. I felt more relaxed in the beautiful premises and meditation effect was also helping me to calm down my body and mind.

Day 5 Was ghee drinking day. All days breakfast is at 08:30am here you are called at 08:00am and made to drink ghee. On mandatory condition here is, not to sleep in day time and ghee must retain inside and not get vomited immediately. You will be made to drink till it remains inside. I was getting pulled sleep. Somehow you have to make your day move. Also avoid going directly in sunlight. Drinking ghee for breakfast is really terrible for most of the people. Also ghee must remain inside body and not thrown out in vomiting or in motions. As the oil massages externally and internal circulation of ghee makes you very soft and tender from in and out. Along with this I had a spine massage called Kundalini massage. All the messages are great. While Kundalini massage which was given to me by a special therapist I had amazing experience. In a upward stroke directly over spine by thumb, I could feel liquid moving upwards inside my spine!

Day 6 was second day of ghee drinking. Rest all process remained same only I had ear therapy where warm oil was put in ears and massaged in the surrounding regions.

Day 7 was Virechan, which means a herbal kadha is given in breakfast. Which is mostly composed after seeing tongue and blood pressure. While having this you are made to keep hot water bag on stomach. Full day you have to keep this hot water bag on stomach and every time you pass motion drink at least a glass full of warm water. I passed 11 motions in entire day. You are made to observe your motions and also count. This day there is no activity. Not even lunch or breakfast. Mostly all in virechan meet at evening tea snack time. In the night you get only rice water to have like soup.

Day 8 Rice kheer in breakfast with metkut is given with tea. I will post a recipe of metkut later. Now lunch is switched to 2 variety of soups and here I had Netra basti. A tight dough or urad daal is made. circled like swimming goggles around eyes in lying down position without pillow and warm oil is slowly poured from center of the eyebrows till eyes are submerged. The dough is for sealing and crating cavity to hold oil. Then I was made to open my eyes and move slowly up-down right left so that oil penetrates inside. These are high grade oils made in their own pharmacy without experimenting on animals. After may be 20 minutes oil is removed and I was asked to take a sleep. In almost all the therapies, you need to sleep after procedure is done. At least for an hour. Which is mostly best and easiest part. Then I was wearing googles while going out as to avoid direct light exposure. Also in meditation hall simple bulb was also strong light so I closed my eyes for an hour, had put glasses and coved with thick cotton scarf. Evening again plain khichdi for dinner.

Day 9 I had regular lahya breakfast. Then for lunch only vegetable and chapati. Here I had Basti, enema therapy. Here you are inserted oil from annas. Here you have to remain in lying down position. This day you try to be really slow. The oils inserted must reach to your intestine and get absorbed. If there is too much of movement it may come out and fail the therapy effect. It oils loosen the dirt stucked for years inside intestine. That is not removed during virechan loose motions. Better to empty your stomach or pass motion before the procedure. Generally I am scared to see anything in ciringe shaped and this ciringe appeared to be meant for animals. While doing the procedure I never realized when was it done. I just had a feel that I wanted to go to pass motion but I was made to lie down and not getup. While passing motion I had little bit of bleeding. One can use sanitary pad here. As in siting position little oil comes out. Then tea time snack and dinner 2 types of soup.

Day 10 I had normal breakfast that was Sabudana khichdi. I had less time to spend in India almost 5 to7 days with parents. Since there are no procedures given during periods or menstrual cycle, I took a break before remaining 5 days procedure. There are certain precautions to be followed post virechan process. That is post loose motions day. To maintain effect of PanchKarma you are not supposed to eat:

No sour food: Fruits, curd, buttermilk etc.

No ice-cold items: Ice cream, cold drinks, chilled water etc.

No fried food: Pakoda, wada, fries, puri, chivda, uttapa etc.

No heavy food: Non-vegetarian, Idly, cheese, rajma beans, etc.

Post one week gap I was back to this holistic healing place. Here they give Uttar Basti to all ladies. Uttar literally means south. Uterus is washed and herbal extracted oils are in inserted inside uterus. This procedure is done by lady doctor and not done by therapist. Post this you are made to sleep for an hour. Later you walk slow, no physical activities other than routine activities. Before therapy pass solid and liquid so that you oil remains inside for longer time. These oils gets absorbed directly inside uterus. If the Oil falls out then the procedure will be failed. so you need to be careful post therapy for few days. For this therapy you need additional 5 days stay. In 5 days this procedure is done twice.

Once you are done with all the procedures you feel very light and good. If possible try and maintain same routine. You are supposed to consume items reach in metals can buy ghee and Chwanaprash here. Almost every one looses 4-7 kg weight in 10-15 days. You will be prescribed with food and diet that you need to follow. Specially people with illness will need to continue strict patterns prescribed by doctors post you have taken PanchKarma procedure.

I had several people along with me who had same food routine as like what I did. They were suffering from cancer, brain related problems, diabetes, blood pressure and many more. There was one lady she just came for routine 4 years cycle to rejuvenate. She used to mention that she cannot meditate. On the day of virechan (passing loose motions and literally eat no food) she could do complete meditation where you reach a level where you forget of physical body and just relax yourself. So if dirt accumulated in body removal can give you relaxed state of mind so vice versa effect should remain as well. Relaxed state of mind will never allow dirt (ailment) to remain in the body. When in discussion I mentioned here this, she was very happy and she instantly agreed to my interpretation. A person with bone marrow cancer mentioned he is visiting this place every 18 months. When he was detected with cancer for first time he was given life expectancy for two and half years, when he was telling me he said this was 10 years before. Many people complained here that if they go to meditation hall, they get more thoughts and so they stopped going there. Please read my meditation blog. This is as stage where your mind has started clearing and creating void space. Hence you get more thoughts. With regular practice of breathing exercise you go to next level of meditation where you have control over your own mind. Do not give up anything in between . It is a process please complete and go to next level. Chances of failing will always be there but do not escape from giving second chance to yourself. This is a repeat statement that I am mentioning. Meditation will multiply positive effect of therapies that you are undertaking. Those who meditate regularly will agree that meditation has self healing capacity. Slowly you will have guided energies those are under your full control. Ayurveda form which Yoga is one part has complete solution for a healthy and successful life.

For normal people who perform PancKarma can have a very light feel. Here most of them loose 4-6 Kg weigh easily. When you are on changed diet you do not feel uneasy, headache due to acidity. It is well balanced. So loosing 4-6kg weight in 15days is not an unhealthy in this context. Psychologically do not setup that this is supposed to happen and that is supposed to happen. Follow whatever is mentioned. Try to understand your own body how it is responding, how your body is transforming with the help of therapies, balanced full diet and proper rest. You have to go to sleep early. SO, they used to cutoff satellite network in television so many people used to get annoyed. As there are not activates to do. There is no proper mobile network inside the living rooms. For me after meditation in evening for an hour  I used to feel sleepy. SO, these thing do not really matter.

Everything matter is you and your health! Keep this in mind and work in that direction.

Things you need to carry on PancKarma therapy. As a blog you may find it bit unnecessary to go though this section but once you have made your mind and are willing to do undergo PanchKarma procedure for yourself, you will really find these tips as handy and informative. There are different therapies for different people according to age, illness and ailments. Once you read full blog you’ll get to know many processes and can have idea on what needs to be carried.

Side bag for daily use:

This needs set of tissue paper, routine medicines, wet wipes, thermos for hot water. Papers and prescriptions etc. You are supposed to carry extra undergarments to some therapies. so all can go in this.

Thin towels – Disposable undergarments – Loose cotton clothing preferably full arm full legs – Head scarf.

Most of the process involves use of oils extracted from herbs. It is more like a resort but a hospital. So, the always better to have a personal towels and napkins. In market there are disposable undergarments available that you can use and throw specially during this oil related processes. Towels need to be washed well in warm water. So plan it accordingly.

Room slippers

You may need to frequently remove footwear. So you can keep the disposal slippers like one available in flight or five star hotels. These indoor footwears are good keep in handy bag always while you roam around.

Shoes and Socks

Goggles

Post eye therapy you need to avoid direct light exposure so keeping good glares is important and a handy options.

Thermos

As I mentioned earlier, in Ayurveda PanchKarma therapy there is importance to drink only hot water. Generally rooms are provided with thermos but those may be used by other severely ill patients so I am not comfortable in using same. So, I would recommend to you carry one of your own. Strictly no plastic bottles.

Napkin
Own hand napkins will always be best practice.
Set of newspaper
Toiletries
Preferably carry own toiletries considering number of days you will stay.
Hair bands if you have long hair and belt to keep your hair behind from face hairline. Bandana, if you undergo head massage, ear massage it will be necessary. Just to avoid temperature drop of head.

Following things need to be considered, no medication or therapies will be performed on

• A couple or a lady during menstruation,
• No moon day/amavasya,
• Grahan or eclipse timings.

So before booking your stay, consider this as your number of days will be added.
Avoid wearing jewellery items orher than toe ring(for married ladies). You’ll have to remove and keep all the jewellery in locker before going for therapies
Warm clothes will always be required as you feel pale or weak after few procedural therapies.

If you wish to do hair removal before attending therapies or procedures it will be better to do waxing threading 5-7days before starting the actual procedure.

For example there is stage where you only drink ghee or some terrible tastings kadhas or medicines while having them you may have co patients who are undergoing same process with you. People will review as it is not good or puckish feel or feel nausea or really terrible process just ignore to review and follow. Its more psychological. When I sipped ghee, I needed no supporting items like ginger, salt, clove or any other supporting items to help me. Same is for passing motions or taking any medicines.
If you have someone to accompany your stay it is good for you but please avoid chivda, chakna, snacks, dry fruits, smoking drinking any sort of finger food that you have carried as a supporting snack for your accompanying person. Follow what is given or mentioned to you and its timings.

If by now you have made your mind and are going to undergo a PanchKarma procedure then make a list of all the food that you eat. For a month or two. Note everything right from breakfast, snacks, meal, smoke drinks etc. Make this as individual list. When doctor asks you about it you can show this. Also, note timings when you eat? what all you eat?. They can mark pathya in food on what not to eat. SO your options on what to eat will be ready for queries.

Links to other associated blogs of PanchKarma:

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PanchKarma – Life Balancing Process!