Miraculous Dhouti

Have you ever experienced some discomfort around your chest while doing Halasana? While you are in the final position of the Asana, the discomfort stays- note it’s a discomfort and not pain. While leaving the Asana, as you bring your back and legs in the original position, touching each vertebrae slowly on the floor, the discomfort eases.

Initially I thought its some signal of a heart attack. But now with regular practice and the timing of such discomfort I think I figured out what it is. It’s the acid in the stomach that comes up during Halasana. If you practice the same Asana after a miraculous Dhouti, there is no such discomfort.

Dhouti is a phenomenally effective shuddhi kriya- cleansing process. You drink lots and lots of warm salty water empty stomach and vomit it by using two fingers of your hand. With that water comes out all the stomach acid, giving a true light feeling from inside.  

The first time I tried Dhouti, I didn’t experience that bliss. Don’t know why. May be I drank around two liters of water but all didn’t come out. Hardly little water came out and rather I felt heavy. Silently I came on my seat in the class and started doing other Asanas, without questioning the science of Dhouti. But I remember one of my friends who was looking very comfortable, though after hard work. I mean the induced vomiting showed on her face with red eyes and runny and red nose. After all the forward bends, backward bends, twists and stretches in the set of Asanas that day, I came home and rushed to the loo as if someone had given me an anima.  

Almost one year after that day I experienced the awesome feeling of completely vomiting the water drunk. Yoga takes time, only if done regularly. I did Dhouti in that one year sincerely, at least once a month. But experienced many obstacles that a new practitioner could confront-

• ·         Not drinking enough water. This is the first mistake that many new practitioners are likely to make. We are just not used to drink so much water in our routine. You cannot quantify the amount of water required. The trick is to drink water till it reaches throat. And that quantity may differ from person to person.
• ·         Water comes out from the nose also. I thought maybe I bend down too much to vomit. Don’t know the exact reason for this, but it gets rectified with regular practice.
• ·         There should be substantial amount of salt in the water. The water should taste salty, definitely not too much. But very little salt doesn’t work. Probably only water is not that effective a cleanser since it might get absorbed in the digestive system.
• ·         After one unsuccessful attempt, you cannot try again immediately. There is a discomfort in the throat region by rubbing of the fingers. Actually, I did not try for the next few days.

I experienced the above while practicing Dhouti, you might differ in your experience. After all, Yoga is a science of experience.