Sunday 17 September 2023

Some Unbelievably Effective Cures for Certain Ailments

 

 

Some Unbelievably Effective Cures for Certain Ailments

Shrikant G. Talageri

 

As the Buddha had noticed, life is full of one sorrow after another. Man is prone, at every point of time in his life, to be prone to different ailments, though everyone not necessarily prone to the same ones. And when anyone is suffering from any particular ailment, that ailment often feels to his subjective mind as the worst and most intolerable kind of ailment there could possibly be. While no-one can escape ailments, it is always good to know effective cures for these ailments, but when anyone gets a particular ailment he is always at a total loss as to what he should do. Every friend and acquaintance has a different piece of advice, and often the person gets trapped in a continuous vicious circle/cycle of doctors, remedies and treatments, very often with no end in sight, with a continuous drain on money and patience, and a sense of helplessness especially when the treatments lead to newer ailments and problems as a side-effect.

Strangely enough, sometimes there are very effective treatments for many ailments which the ailing person somehow never manages to come across when he actually needs them. Nowadays, with the internet and google search, the flow of information is unbelievably rich and diverse and easily available, but for that very reason only leads to utter confusion and chaos.

To some, this article may seem a bit presumptuous, since I am not a doctor or a health expert. but for a long time, I have been meaning to write an article to place, before whoever is interested, my own very strong experiences on very effective cures for certain ailments − always with the proviso that what worked miraculously in my case or in my knowledge may not, for reasons unknown, necessarily work equally miraculously for everyone else who tries these same remedies. But, these remedies are not the kind which will cause side-effects or further ailments, and it is better to try these remedies than to get caught in the trap of taking handfuls of allopathic tablets every day (one before meals, two after meals, three times a day, etc.) and get caught in the vicious cycle of addictions and side-effects. My experience with these remedies has been so wonderful that I place them here for the use of the reader in the hope that they will work for him/her with as miraculous an effect as they did for me (or for someone else in my close observation). At times, my narrative may seem overly autobiographical, but I can never tell a half-story, and that is my style of writing, so the reader will have to bear with it.

The ailments in reference are:

I. Vertigo and Meniere's Disease.

II. Hearing loss.

III. Corns and Warts.

IV. Leukoderma/Vitiligo (white patches on skin).

V. Acid Reflux and Gastric Heartburn.

VI. Low Back-ache and Sciatica.

VII. Conjunctivitis and other general eye problems.

VIII. In Conclusion, on a Philosophical Note.

 

I. Vertigo and Meniere's Disease

Sometime in 2005 or so, I realized that I was almost deaf in the left ear, and, more poignantly, that a continuously humming sound that seemed to be going on all the time in the background (I often woke up in the middle of the night, thinking that I could hear a continuous faint classical-music ālāp or continuous faint tinkling of bells going on somewhere in the vicinity) was actually going on inside my left ear. Urged to consult an ENT specialist, I was told I had tinnitus. For the record, I still have tinnitus, because basically it seems to be incurable, and I think, tiresome though it definitely is, one can (and has to) get used to the continuous ringing/buzzing/roaring background sound to an extent.

The ENT specialist asked me whether I also experienced chakkar (dizziness/giddiness) spells. I had not experienced them till then, so I said "no". However, within maybe one year, the sharp attacks of vertigo started, accompanied by continuous nausea/vomiting. My neighbor, who had this problem (it is called Meniere's Disease) a few decades earlier, recommended me to a homeopathic doctor. However, this doctor's medicines only made the disease worse (this particular doctor is notorious in homeopathic circles for giving high dosages of 50000 and 100000 strength). I was forced to repeatedly take leave from my office: for a month or two I got these sharp attacks every alternate day, and they lasted for over 10 hours each time, when I spent the time in a continuous state of vertigo, only staggering towards the toilet every time the nausea took over. After two months, the attacks became less frequent, but I suffered continuously from Meniere's Disease for 10 years, from 2007 to 2017, and never felt free and had to curtail many activities. During this period of 10 years, I spent large sums of money, and time, consulting all kinds of doctors (ENT, allopathic, homeopathic, ayurvedic, acupuncture, etc.) and trying out all kinds of treatments, with no effect.

In 2017, a colleague and friend of mine, Usha Gupta (who retired in 2019 as the DGM of the Hindi Cell, also called the Rajbhasha Department, of Central Bank of India), introduced me to an officer in our bank, Tarak Singh, a passionate student and self-taught expert on acupressure and Sujok (a Korean acupressure therapy) who spent all his spare time and effort in helping people, as a social service or mission, in the treatment of ailments of different kinds with very effective acupressure, ayurvedic, homeopathic and Sujok treatments. He told me that he would be able to cure my chronic vertigo (and accompanying chronic nausea) with Sujok treatment within a week or a month at most. After ten years of expensive and ineffective treatments of every kind, I was not very hopeful, but desperate to clutch at any straw.

His method required simply some methi (fenugreek) seeds, a thin Wonder 555 cello-tape of 1.3 cms or so, and a scissor to cut the tape. He stuck some fenugreek seeds to the cello-tape and wound it around the thumb of my left hand. As the method of winding this tape around the thumb was an easy one, I learnt it within no time, and (whenever I changed the tape, if the seeds became wet and swelled up or had to be changed) was able to repeat the procedure myself at home. Although this would seem like some kind of mumbo-jumbo, unbelievably, I was completely cured within one month! This was in May 2017, and I have been free of vertigo(+nausea) ever since. But if, due to some particular incidental circumstances, I even feel apprehensive once in a blue moon, I take recourse to this magical method for a day or two.

I had prepared a video of this procedure a few years ago for my sister-in-law, and I give that video below. The first step is to take a few methi seeds and place them in a singles-bunch (i.e. all lying together side by side, none on top) on a flat surface (e.g. a table top), and then to press the tape slowly and carefully over the closely-placed seeds, taking care to see that they all stick to the tape. Then place the seed-laden part of the tape on the upper inner section of the left-hand thumb, and wind the tape slowly around the thumb a few times (so that there is no space for any seeds to fall out from the sides). Leave it on continuously for a day or two, or at least during the night-hours while sleeping. If, while washing hands or doing something messy, the seeds get wet and become soft and swollen, simply remove the seeds-and-tape and, immediately or when convenient, repeat the procedure with new seeds and tape. Believe it or not, that is all! And continue for as many weeks as you feel necessary.

Please see the video and try to get this reasonably-easy procedure right. You have nothing to lose except your vertigo:


 

At this point, I would like to pay my heartfelt gratitude to this great colleague and friend, Tarak Singh, whose selfless help gave me a new lease of life: only someone who has suffered from the torture of Meniere's disease or chronic vertigo for a full ten years will understand what and how much I owe to him. This noble soul, after getting promoted to a higher scale, took a transfer to Kolkata (where apparently most of his family and in-laws stay) in October 2020, and he took VRS at the age of 55 just last month (August 2023), in order to devote his life to his life's passion for selflessly serving people in matters of health. His mobile number (in Kolkata) is 8210710462 and his email is taraksinghcbi@gmail.com.

 

II. Hearing loss

As I wrote above, my left ear is almost deaf since more than 20 years. I got along reasonably well with my right ear (which was also not absolutely perfect) although I could not hear clearly in noisy and crowded places or if people called me from across the street, had difficulty in knowing if someone was calling out to me from my left direction (since I could hear the sound only in my right ear), and often had to have people sitting on my right side rather than my left side in order to have a conversation. But I could have normal conversations, enjoy programs (films, dramas, musical performances) in theatres, and listen to music (one of my foremost passions in life) on my computer, without in any way feeling handicapped.

However, suddenly, on one fine day in May 2021, I was shocked out of my wits when the music on my computer started sounding weirdly eerie and off-key. After a few days of this horror, I checked up on google and found out that I had (among other things) a hearing condition called diplacusis. I felt as if my life (or enjoyment of life) had ended, since I could not imagine a life without being able to enjoy music. [Strangely, the ENT specialists that I consulted seem never to have heard of diplacusis!]. This condition became much less acute by October 2021, but only because it seemed to suddenly get converted into something worse: a near-deafness in my right ear (my only functioning ear): on this second day of horror in October 2021, suddenly I found I could not hear exactly what my brother was saying to me even when he spoke from two feet away and repeated his words three-four times. This turned out to be the case, in different degrees, with most voices.

By December 2021 (after persistent urging from my brother and sister) I was ready to try out hearing-aids. But the very day I tried out for a hearing-aid for just ten minutes at the hearing-aid centre (on December 6, always a historic day), I again got a recurrence of my vertigo the next day which lasted for 15 hours. I knew it could only be the hearing-aid which could have triggered off this relapse after four-and-a-half years, but I was urged by everyone that it could just be a coincidence. When I actually got my hearing-aid after a few days, and wore it for a short while, I again got the vertigo-attack the next day. After a total of four such experiences in December 2021 itself, I returned the hearing-aid within the trial period and got my refund of the money paid − and again resorted to one month of Sujok treatment, happily successfully. I decided that horrible as it was to live a life of deafness, it was infinitely worse to live a life with chronic vertigo. I decided never again to wear or even try out a hearing-aid, although a hearing aid was the only solution according to all the ENT specialists and ENT hospital doctors that I continued to (be made to) consult throughout 2022!

I spent the whole of 2022 and the first few months of 2023 avoiding speaking to people on the phone, quickly escaping down by-lanes if I saw some acquaintance approaching from up front, avoiding conversations with people (shopkeepers, even ENT specialists or doctors) without my brother/sister/friend as an interpreter to repeat things in my (half-deaf right) ear, and in general living a life of near-silence. [Fortunately (?), after I became half-deaf in my right ear, my diplacusis seems to have practically disappeared, and I could now hear music without eerie off-key effects, though only at high volumes].

In the beginning of 2023, at long last after the COVID nightmare, there was suddenly a rush of seminars and conferences after three years, and I was invited to speak at over seven seminars in the first three months of this year itself: three separate ones in Delhi, one in Ahmedabad and a separate one in Gandhinagar, one in Haridwar, and one online. I tentatively considered the prospect of attending the seminars/conferences, but a talk by Koenraad Elst in the Mysore Association Hall in Matunga Central (Mumbai) in January decided it for me: I attended the talk, but was unable to hear a single word spoken by Koenraad on the stage (or by the soft-spoken Ashok Chowgule, the Working President, external, of the VHP, who was sitting next to me in the second row from the stage). I realized that attending any seminar/conference in this state of deafness was impossible, and immediately sent mails to the organizers of all the seminars (mostly in February and March) to inform them of my utter inability to take part in any such activities.

But this article is about how I got cured of this deafness at least to the extent that I can now again have normal conversations and enjoy the beauty of music to its full, and move about my daily activities with my hearing powers now (still only in my right ear) at least as proficient as they were till 2020. Three factors contributed, in different ways, to this miracle:

At some time in 2022, an eminent lady from my community, an expert in Yoga and Naturopathy, named Sangita Amladi, visited me on hearing about my deafness. She explained to me some Yoga exercises and some naturopathic treatments (like rubbing water into my scalp) and gave me some diet tips. But the main thing was that she gave me some optimistic hope of being able to hear. She asked me whether I had had a cold in the last many months. Actually I hadn't had a cold since two years, and I was thankful for that (as anyone who gets a persistent cold, with a running nose and continuous sneezing, coughing and sore throat, would agree). But she told me that there was an accumulation of kapha inside my body which had not had any outlet and was clogging up my hearing faculties from inside, and that if I got a cold it would help to clear some of my deafness. No doctor had made such a diagnosis, and I was struck by it (since she could not possibly have known that I had not had a cold in a long time − even I myself had not noticed this). It gave me hope, and consequently I started trying to get a cold, strange though this may sound. Her diagnosis helped to lighten my depression and gave me a sense of hope at the very least. And when I did get a cold (and a very persistent and irritating one), it does seem to have faintly unclogged my ears to a small extent.

In addition to this, on the telephonic advice of the same Tarak Singh I have referred to above (who advocated Yogic deep breathing: prāṇāyama and anulom-vilom), I also started paying attention to my faulty breathing. I realized that various factors had prevented me from breathing properly, and that that could also have contributed to my deafness: (a) I have always slept on my stomach since childhood and this could have restricted my breathing during sleep. (b) I always take a morning walk for 10 kilometers (130 minutes or 15000 footsteps) every morning, and in the last few years I had developed the mad habit of counting my footsteps, which obviously must have interfered with my free breathing while walking. (c) Even otherwise, I have never had the patience for Yoga of any kind, and never did any kind of breathing exercises. However, after this I started trying to sleep on my back or side for at least part of my sleeping-time, started timing my walk (130 minutes) rather than counting my footsteps, and started to practice Yogic breathing exercises whenever I could (sadly not often enough) and at least concentrate on deep breathing in general.

The above two factors certainly helped to some extent but not fully: when I wrongly assumed my hearing was reasonably better, the incident of Koenraad Elst's January 2023 talk in Mumbai disabused me of my wrong assumption. The main turning point was when I started using certain ayurvedic ear-drops (kṣār oil and bilva oil) by the old and famous ayurvedic company Baidyanath. I had tried kṣār oil at some point in 2022, but I think I overdid it: too many drops too many times a day. However (after Koenraad Elst, in the thick of the Gandhinagar IIT "International Colloquium on the Emerging Perspectives of the Harappan Civilization", February 10-12, 2023, sent me on my email the advertisement of some expensive American herbal drops, which claimed to restore hearing, and incidentally cautioned that using the drops in too much quantity and too many times a day could make it ineffective) that I realized that I may have overdone it.

So I procured a bottle, this time of Baidyanath bilva oil, and started putting two or three (or maybe four) drops in both my ears twice a day. A small piece of cotton should also be put in each ear for 15-30 minutes (to prevent the oil from leaking out of the ear) and then removed.

This method worked like magic, and now I am able to hear at least as well as I could in 2020 (before this whole hearing crisis started) and enjoy conversations and music to the full as before.

So the threefold solution for loss of hearing is:

1. Check if you have not had a cold for a very long time, and try ayurvedic measures to reduce/release the kapha from within the body.

2. Keep an eye on your breathing and see that you breathe fully and correctly most of the time.

3. Use Baidyanath kṣār oil or Baidyanath bilva oil as described above.

It worked for me: so try it out for a few months.

 

III. Corns and Warts

My father used to suffer from corns sometimes and used corn-caps. I developed a large and painful corn on my foot some time in 2004, when I was working in the Naigaum branch of our bank: this was in the notorious low-lying Hindmata area (which is always the first to be reported as flooded in the news whenever there are heavy rains in Mumbai), and I had to walk to my branch from Elphinstone Road (now renamed Prabhadevi) local railway station every day, sloshing my way through waist-high water (dirty water, with rats swimming through the flood!). When I went to my allopathic family doctor, he cut off the corn with a knife, and put some medicine and a bandage on the spot, and I had to go through the water with this bandage on my foot. Within a few days, three more corns broke out on my feet, and I was at my wit's end.

My Muslim friend told me that his brother-in-law had big warts recurring on his fingers all the time, but had got cured of the affliction through some homeopathic pills. My neighbor also told me about some other homeopathic pills that his father had taken and got cured. So I went to our local homeopathic pharmacy and got a bottle of pills with a mixture of the three homeopathic remedies. [Later, for some reason, homeopathic shops now refuse to give mixtures of two or more medicines in the same bottle of pills. But the solution is to buy a bottle of pills for one of those two or more medicines, and buy small liquids of the other medicines, and then liberally add drops of those medicines into the bottle of pills]. And, although I continued to wade through the rain waters every day, the three new corns subsided by themselves and I have never had this corn problem after that. [More recently, in 2018, during my morning walk through the Mahalakshmi Race Course grounds, I noticed that some blind boys who sit in the grounds everyday and massage people's feet for 100 rupees, had many warts on their hands. The next day, I procured this same medicine and gave it to them. When I went there after a month or so, they told me that the medicine, as I could also see for myself, had been very effective and their warts had gone − although of course, due to the manual nature of their work, the warts would probably be a chronically recurring problem for them].

The three homeopathic medicines to be mixed are Antim Crud 200, Thuja 200 and Causticum 200, in the middle-sized (not too small) round pills, to be taken 4-5 at a time thrice a day. In addition, the homeopathic ointment Wartex could also be applied on the corns/warts as an additional option.

 

IV. Leukoderma/Vitiligo (white patches on skin)

Now this is purely based on my personal experience, and the effectiveness may depend on the particular case (the degree of advancement of the leukoderma, etc.). However, there is no harm in trying out this remedy for a year or so, especially if it is in the earlier stages.

My mother started getting white patches on her nose, forehead, arms and stomach some time in 1990. However, after using a homeopathic remedy advocated by the local homeopathic pharmacist, she was completely cured within a year or so. The white patches faded away, and never recurred again for the 20+ remaining years of her life.

The medicine is Hydrocotyle Asiatica 200, in the middle-sized (not too small) round pills, to be taken 4-5 at a time thrice a day. This was the medicine used by my mother with absolute success.

If this does not show results, the following alternate combination could be tried: Hydrocotyle Asiatica 200, Arsenecum Sulfatum 200, Silicia 200.

 

V. Acid Reflux and Gastric Heartburn

This is an ailment which can be very easily mistaken for a cardiac or heart issue. There is a feeling of tightness in the chest after a few minutes of active movement (walking, running, climbing), which dissipates after 15-30 minutes, but can come back again after an hour or so. I was experiencing this in the last few months, and mistakenly feared it could be a sign of cardiac problems. However, after much cross-checking, it appears to be a case of high acidity and gastric heartburn. The feeling of tightness starts in the stomach and moves up into the chest, but more on the right hand side than the left.

What seems to have brought this under control is my chance consumption of a paan syrup which I had happened to buy from an organic food store (just as a novelty) a few months ago, and after that store closed down, I very recently  ordered some from a different company online. The second version contained also some gulkand (a sweet preserve of rose-petals in sugar) and saunf (fennel seeds).

The paan syrup was effective in quelling the high acidity and gastric heartburn to a remarkable extent. I made a glass of paan sharbat from this syrup a few days ago and had it just before going for my morning walk, just casually and without thinking of it as a medicinal process in any way, and was therefore surprised when I had a long and almost uneventful walk (I walk for 130 minutes): after a very muted feeling in the chest after a few minutes, the acidic feeling seemed to just dissipate. I wondered if the syrup had anything to do with it. So I checked up both paan (betel leaf) juice or syrup, and gulkand, on google, and both these are cited as having very strong anti-acidic medicinal effects.

I have only been using this remedy since a week or so, but the effects seem to be so apparent that I would recommend a spoon of gulkand and a glass of paan syrup sharbat, once or twice a day, as strong curative measures for high acidity and gastric heartburn. [Of course it will be more effective if the versions of gulkand and paan syrup used are "organic" in the sense that they use misri (also called khadi shakkar) rather than ordinary sugar, since the former is cooling and anti-acidic while the latter is not]. I must of course point out that cold milk, buttermilk and kokam sharbat are three additional, easy and common measures for reducing acidity as such.

[Note added 9-10-2023: My above friend Tarak Singh tells me the best and quickest medicine for high acidity is a homeopathic formulation LIVT - SBL's Liver Tonic, to be taken as per the instructions on the bottle].

As a caution note, let me point out that the reader should take care when it comes to deciding if/whether he has cardiac problems or gastric heartburn.

Important Note added 15/11/2023: All the above measures for acidity and especially for gas rising into the chest are all right: they help to some extent or the other and can always be continued for general health purposes. But now I have found the most effective ever−almost a magical−treatment for gas in the chest. Even after taking all the above things, I was still getting gas in the chest while walking: I walk for 130 minutes (10 kms) in the morning every day, and, after about 5 minutes after starting the walk, I continued to get this tight feeling in the chest caused by the gas rising from the stomach, which continued to make me extremely uncomfortable for about 25 minutes, after which (as I doggedly continued to walk on) it seemed to dissipate. I was beginning to dread starting out on my morning walk, although determined to continue it.

But just three days ago, my niece Sanjana Kamat told me a kasai (an ayurvedic herbal "tea" without actual tea in it) concocted by herself (perhaps with various inputs from different sources). I drank this kasai for three nights (today is the fourth day) and, incredibly, I have not faced the gas-in-the-chest problem at all in the last three days, either during my morning walk or at any other time in the three days. This is truly a miracle cure, and I request whoever is facing this gas-in-the-chest problem to try this out for a few days and experience the miraculous effects for himself/herself.

Take two or slightly more glasses of water in a vessel and bring it to a boil. Add half-to-one teaspoonful each of cumin seeds (jīrā), caraway seeds (ajwain/ovā) and fennel seeds (saunf/baḍīśep) to the water, along with some turmeric (haldī) powder and black pepper (kālī mīrī), and keep boiling at a lower flame for 10-15 minutes till the water is reduced to half the volume. The kasai is ready and can be sipped/drunk slowly. Have this (I strain it through a tea-strainer and only drink the water, but if someone can actually eat the seeds, that is up to them) at night after meals and before sleeping. For good measure, the seeds can be crushed a little with a cardamom-pestle before straining and drinking.

I strongly recommend this cure to anyone facing the problem of gas-in-the-chest (or in the stomach).

 

VI. Low Back-ache and Sciatica

Sciatica and low back pain have been ailments which periodically attack me, ever since, in a foolish moment of haste, in 2008, I jumped into a local BEST bus just when it was starting, and banged my right hip hard against the side of the door of the bus. Again, as in the case of most maladies, only a person suffering from Sciatica will understand how painful and debilitating it can be. And when the attack comes (it can be triggered by some particular strenuous act, or even simply (and incomprehensively) by some wrong physical position held for some time while sleeping or sitting!

The first time I had it, I consulted a heap of "specialist" doctors, who recommended a regular feat of allopathic tablets (including pain-killers) which made very little difference to the torture (which becomes most unbearable when turning in sleep, bending, or getting up from a sleeping or sitting position). The problem lasted its full course of six weeks. Neither the pills and tablets, nor the hot-bags, hot-water treatments and infra-red-lights made anything more than a momentary difference, either during that particular attack or subsequent ones (when at least I had the sense to not go to any "specialists")..

However, the best solution is amazingly simple. Simply take 3-5 normal-sized ice-cubes into the bathroom, and keep rubbing the affected area (on the back and thighs) with the ice-cubes (one at a time) until they melt away. Rub the now cold parts of the back and thighs with a towel, and then proceed to apply some effective balm on the area (for the record, I used Volini). After two or three days, optionally, you can also try the alternate-hot-and-cold water treatment. An appropriately-sized ice-pack (we get plastic ice-packs with gel) can also be place against the affected part of the back when sitting or sleeping. This cure is much more safe, effective, and quick (effective mostly within one week) than all the allopathic pills, tablets and invasive treatments   

 

VII. Conjunctivitis and other general eye problems

Finally, this last segment, which I was hesitant to include, for obvious reasons. But − what the hell − my guiding principle is satyameva jayatu (truth should prevail), so here goes: the best treatment for conjunctivitis and other general eye problems is auto-urine.

My first touch with this therapy was sometime in the late eighties or the early nineties. I was travelling by local train, standing near the door (for the cool breeze), when suddenly a hard particle of dust seemed to hit me in the eye ( I don't remember which eye) which immediately started burning and watering. Somehow I managed to reach home and repeatedly washed my eyes with water, to no avail. So I had to go to an eye specialist who examined my eye through some instrument, and then proceeded to extract the hard particle of dust which had got embedded in the whites of my eye (which he showed to me through a magnifying glass). The eye was however still burning and watering, though to a slightly lesser extent. He then told me some drops and tablets (which I bought on the way home but finally did not use). After reaching home, the eye was still burning and watering even after two hours, and no amount of washing with cold water seemed to ease the burning or watering.

Then I suddenly remembered reading in some book or magazine that washing the eyes with urine was a very effective form of treatment for eye problems. So I immediately went to the toilet and proceeded to wash my eyes with urine, and, difficult though this is to believe, the burning and watering completely stopped within five minutes.

That could have been just a coincidence. But in the next few years, I repeatedly took recourse to this therapy (washing my eyes) whenever I had any problems with the eye, and always to good effect. I had had conjunctivitis once or twice in earlier years and had continuously suffered for at least a week or two each time, but now I found that anytime I got conjunctivitis and woke up with sticky, reddish and watering eyes in the morning, washing the eyes thoroughly with fresh urine (taking some urine in a tiny container  or two tiny containers if for the two eyes, and continuously dipping my affected eye or eyes, for as long as possible, in it/them − when the consequent burning became too much for the moment, I would lift my eye for a few seconds and then dip it in again, and continue the process a few times), the eyes lost their burning, redness and stickiness for the day, leaving me free to attend office and go about my daily work. Sometimes maybe I had to repeat the process a few times before I left for office; but the conjunctivitis did not manifest itself again till the next morning after waking up from my night's sleep, but in a less intense form. After repeating the procedure for a few days, the conjunctivitis retired worsted each time!

During the course of the next few years, I found out that many people (from all strata of classes, and all sections of castes, communities and religious groups) were often silent or discreet believers in the efficacy of urine therapy. A lady in my office mentioned one day that when she was in school she had developed short-sightedness. But after a month or two of washing her eyes repeatedly with urine, her eyesight became normal. This quick recovery may have been because her short-sightedness was in the initial stage, but anyone trying this process will find it a very useful and effective useful process to keep the eyes in good condition.

[About consuming urine as a general "tonic", I do not know who is right between those who advocate it as a general therapy for good health and those who warn against it as dangerous and potentially toxic, and I do not wish to get into any debate on that issue. But, for most (but not all) kinds of fevers, I have seen that it is very effective in sharply lowering or eliminating the fever within a few days without recourse to allopathic tablets: in fact, it would be inadvisable for a person taking allopathic tablets of to try this therapy].

I need not have to add that unhygienic behavior before or after trying this particular therapy is definitely to be avoided, and full cleanliness must be maintained. And, as I said: everyone must take their own counsel and use their own discretion in taking recourse to alternate therapies.

I just remembered two very effective ayurvedic medicines for two ailments, which I came across recently:

1. For diabetes: kavasiya, a remedy familiar to Gujaratis in particular, available in most ayurvedic shops. It consists of small pieces of wood, one of which is to be kept in a glass of water at night. The water becomes brown and bitter by morning, and the water is to be drunk in the morning. The same piece of wood can be used for many days. [As diabetes is a variable ailment, it would be advisable to keep a check on the sugar-rate, and, if felt necessary, take the advice of a doctor].

2. For piles: Niranjan phal, a kind of dried fruit/seed, also available in most ayurvedic shops. One or two of these should be kept in a glass of water at night. By morning, the fruit/seed swells up, and acquires a weird-looking hairy appearance. The water is to be drunk, and the seed eaten. The water can also be taken in a bottle for drinking during the rest of the day.

 

VIII. In Conclusion, on a Philosophical Note

I wanted to write this article to put before my readers certain simple and effective  remedies for certain ailments, especially for the notice of those who are generally averse to or reluctant to get into the vicious circle of doctors and allopathic pills. The first two or three ailments were my main concern for the article, but I added a few more as I continued writing (in fact, while I have been wanting to write such an article since a long time but kept putting it off, it was the recent paan-syrup-gulkand remedy which tipped the scales and induced me to write and upload this article just at present.

There may be many other effective remedies for many other common ailments which could have been added, but I am not a doctor or a medical expert, and don't want to stick my neck out too far. A few other common remedies (which I have found very effective from experience) I will just note in passing:

For sweat-rash/heat rash in the thighs, armpits, chest and stomach: people find Kailash Jeevan and coconut oil very effective. My own experience − the first time perhaps that I am advocating something "allopathic" − is that soframycin cream is more effective.

For minor or medium-level liver problems, the old tried and tested Himalaya Ayurvedic Liv-52 tablets are very effective.

For cough and cold, usually almost nothing seems to really work. But a finger bowl of Sitopaladi Churna is a good remedy to try.

[Anyone interested can also see my article, "Losing Weight: The Easiest, Safest, Best, Fastest and Most Effective Way 25/9/2019]

But I will stop here. I will not repeat the cautions I have been expressing at many points in the article. I can only hope and pray someone or the other may find something useful and helpful in this article.

 

I feel it necessary to end this article on a philosophical note. Life, for many people, can be a saga of ailments. Most ailments can be dealt with by effective remedies, but no remedy, perhaps, can be dealt with for life: it is always possible that the same ailment can recur again because of one's own internal constitution or because of external factors. But, whenever ailments occur, they have to be dealt with, as far as possible without getting obsessed about them. How seriously one lets any ailment affect one's life depends on the individual's nature: there are people who live life smiling through the worst and most painful kinds of ailments, and there are people who become obsessed or depressed at the slightest problem (I am sorry to say I belong more to the second category).

It is absolutely necessary to take safe and effective measures in any ailment. Even Cārvāka, the ultimate nāstika or materialistic philosopher who believed that there is nothing (no existence) after death, believed that the prime objective in life should be "to maximize pleasures and to minimize pains". [To a sāttvika person, this would mean to maximize pleasures and minimize pains not just for himself/herself but for everyone; to a rājasika person, it would mean only maximizing pleasures and minimizing pains for himself/herself, and to hell with the pleasures and pains of others; and to a tāmasika person, it would mean minimizing the pleasures and maximizing the pains of others, even if it meant foregoing a few pleasures or suffering a few pains himself/herself in the process].

Unlike those religions and ideologies in which "love" (for certain ideologically classified categories of people) and hatred (for other ideologically classified categories of people) go hand-in-hand, the ideal Hindu approach (which does not damn any specific ideologically category of people to eternal suffering) thinks in terms of love and consideration for "everyone". It wants to maximize pleasures and minimize pains for the whole of existence, even as it realizes (like the Buddha) that dukkha is a part of nature; and the following prayer represents the ideal attitude of Hinduism, which would be understood by every sāttvika person (whether he is an āstika, who believes that there is some kind of existence after death and thinks he knows it; a nāstika, who believes there is no kind of existence after death and thinks he knows it; or an ajñāstika, who knows that he does not know whether or not there is any kind of existence after death, whether he hopes there is or not) as the only true attitude towards Humanity:

sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ,

sarve santu nirāmayaḥ,

sarve bhadrāṇi paśyantu,

mā kaścid duḥkha bhāg bhavet.

[May all be happy; May All be free of Ailments; May All see (only) Auspicious Things; May No One ever Suffer (in any way)].

 

APPENDIX:

I should have ended this article with the above mantras, but their subject brought to my mind again the strange way in which many Hindus think that "Caucasoid" (meaning western) Wokes represent some kind of Compassion or Love or Sympathy for some section or the other of Humanity (which was the subject of my recent article "Suicidal Hindu Misconceptions About Woke Leftism"). The fact is that the feigned Compassion or Love or Sympathy for some section or the other of Humanity is always based on a deep and visceral hatred for some other section of humanity. The only people who get the full sympathy of the tāmasika Woke Leftists are the equally tāmasika rapists (like the "minor" who inserted a rod into "Nirbhaya" and extracted her entrails), sadistic murderers and terrorists, and this is based on their basic visceral hatred for some particular other section of Humanity, if not all of Humanity itself.

The recent obsession of western Woke Leftists with the slogan "Black Lives Matter", which was immediately picked up by their Indian counterparts with the slogan "Muslim Lives Matter", is a case in point. This became a rallying point in all international events, and we even had the notorious incident of the ultra-pampered elite Indian cricketers "taking the knee" (apparently on the instructions of the politically controlled Indian Cricket authorities!) in support of the "Black Lives Matter Movement" for this slogan before the match (the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 -  India v Pakistan match) at the Dubai International Stadium, Dubai, United Arab Emirates  on 24/10/2021.

Would any Woke leftist, or self-proclaimed humanitarian, similarly support and "take the knee" for a slogan "White Lives Matter" or "Hindu Lives Matter"? These slogans would automatically be alleged to mean "Only White Lives Matter" or "Only Hindu lives Matter", and be rejected as based on "hate-ideologies". Actually, the most virulent hate ideology on this planet today is Woke Leftist ideology.

Only a truly Hindu viewpoint can accept that the basic slogan should be "All Lives Matter" in the true and logical sense of the term (which would not, for example, include people like the "minor" rapist referred to above).

 

Appendix Added 17-11-2023:

I just realized that I had omitted to mention a very important ayurvedic remedy for Piles/Fissures:

This is the ayurvedic seed/nut/fruit (whatever the botanical definition) called Niranjan phal also called Malva nuts (botanical name Sterculia Lychnophora). These should be available in any medical stores which sells ayurvedic products.

These nuts (hard in texture) are to be used as follows: put one nut in a glass full of (preferably slightly warm) water at night. Next morning, the water will be brown, and the nut will be swollen up in a grotesque manner, and having developed a shaggy and hairy texture. The sight is not very appetizing, but the taste is not bad at all. The water should be drunk and the swollen nut then eaten. The procedure should be continued for a few days until the piles/fissures are cured.

 

 

 

 

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