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Chapter XII: The Irrigation of the Body.1821
Chapter XII: The Irrigation of the Body.
O
ne of the cardinal principles of the Hatha Yoga Philosophy of Health
is the intelligent use of Nature’s great gift to living things—Water. It
should not be necessary to even call the attention of men to the fact that
Water is one of the great means of maintaining normal health, but man has
become so much a slave to artificial environments, habits, customs, etc.,
that he has forgotten Nature’s laws. His only hope is to return to Nature.
The little child knows, instinctively, the use of water, and insists upon being
furnished with it, but as it grows older it gets away from the natural habit,
and falls into the erroneous practices of the older people around it. This is
particularly true of those living in large cities, where they find unpalatable
the warm water drawn from faucets, and so gradually become weaned away
from the normal use of fluids. Such persons gradually form new habits of
drinking (or not drinking), and, putting off nature’s demands, they at last
are not conscious of them. We often hear people say, “But why should we
drink water—we do not get thirsty?” But had they continued in Nature’s
paths they would get thirsty, and the only reason why they do not hear
Nature’s calls is because they have so long turned a deaf ear to her that
she has become discouraged and cries less loudly, besides their ears have
ceased to recognize the vibrations, being so much taken up with other