Traditional Medicine in Asia

Traditional Medicine in Asia
also, and there is a large body of research
which has demonstrated the effectiveness
of the many yoga practices in curing or
relieving illness. We will consider some of
these in this article.
The forms of yoga we will discuss are:
� Hatha Yoga – The yoga of purification;
� Raja Yoga – The yoga of the mind, of
introspection;
� Karma Yoga – The yoga of action with
meditative awareness;
� Jnana Yoga – The yoga of knowledge
and wisdom;
� Mantra Yoga – Ehich deals with the
vibratory aspects of our nature.
Hatha Yoga
Originally, Hatha Yoga was designed to
balance the mental and vital functions of
the person, prior to meditation, in order to
attain higher states of consciousness.
For thousands of years, the yogis have
said that vital energy – prana – pervades
the whole universe, both manifest and unmanifest,
whether animate or not. Modern
physicists now agree with this, and they call
it ‘background energy’. They tell us that it
also forms the substrate of matter. They
say that matter is just organized energy,
and can be converted back to it, albeit with
the release of vast amounts of energy –
the atom bomb is an example.
When energy or prana is un-manifest,
it is known as mahaprana; when it is in
human existence, it is divided into chitta
shakti and prana shakti, the mental and
the vital forces. Hatha Yoga aims at
creating a balance between mind and
energy. The different amounts of air
flowing through the nostrils correspond to
these forces and should alternate for fixed
periods of time during the day. If they are
not balanced, neither are we. The Hatha
Yoga Pradipika and the Gheranda Samhita
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tell us that in order to achieve balance we
need to first purify the gross body. For this
purpose, hatha yoga recommends the
following cleansing techniques, known as
shatkarmas (please note that all practices
in this paper are mentioned only for
description and not for instruction. They
should only be learnt under the guidance
of a qualified yoga instructor).
Shatkarmas
(1) Neti – The practice has been simplified
by Swami Satyananda Saraswati, and
the technique can be found, with all
the other practices in this section, in
his book Asana, Pranayama, Mudra,
Bandha. (1) Neti aims to clean out the
nostrils and paranasal sinuses of the
head, of stale and purulent mucous,
and to balance the flows of the breath
by decongesting the mucous
membranes of the nose. It is usually
practised by pouring warm salt water
through the individual nostrils, but if
the nasal passages are very much
blocked, it can be done with a catheter.
Neti is effective for treating chronic
sinusitis and asthma.
(2) Dhauti – The word means ‘cleansing’
– there are six forms of dhauti:
� Danda dhauti – Cleaning teeth,
ears and tongue;
� Vatasara dhauti – Swallowing air
and burping it up again, which is
said to ventilate the inside of the
stomach, cleaning it with air;
� Vaman dhauti – (same as kunjal
kriya) – Quickly swallowing four
glasses of warm salty water and
vomiting it back. Good for acidity
and clearing the lungs, it can be
used to treat asthma. If used early
in an asthma attack it can actually
stop the attack. It dilates the
bronchial tubes and causes the