Hari Om Tat Sat!
Ritucharya has been a wonderful event with Vaidyo Narayana session conducted at our Dhrti yoga center given by the Ayurvedic doctor, Dr. Sandhya Kumar on about May 22nd 2015 Sunday; I’ve been attending 2nd such session; I was glad that I was also part of this session along with fellow practitioners, got to know more about the seasons that we follow in India in-line with ecological nature… where the doctor talked about the changes (both external to environment and Internal to the body) that this Ritu aka Season brings in and how to regulate / adjust our lifestyle with respect to the season that we have entered…
Though different regions have vacations, in general we observe six seasons in India… Late last week ~Mar 21st, while we entered into Chaitra month [which is the first month of the Hindu year “Manmatha” -29th cycle of 60 calendar year names, called Samvatsaras], we took an exit from Shishira Ritu (last season of Jaya year) and, have entered into “Vasant Ritu”. In otherwise it marks the end of the winter and heralds in spring, which is blossoms’ and origin of new leave.
What External changes this Vasant season brings?
The sun rays fall vertically that leads to melting snows in Himalaya and gets increasing water level in rivers.Since sun and wind are powerful during this period, the atmosphere becomes hot and dry; air becomes hot and drains the cooling effect of earth.
What Internal changes it brings?
Since atmosphere becomes hot and dry, it takes away the energy of the people; increased kapha is liquefied by the heat of sun. It causes diminished digestive activity and increased phlegm in the lungs.
Diet: One should consume easily digestive foods
- Cereals: Old grains like barley, wheat, rice, puffed rice, poha etc.
- Pulses: lentil, green grams, Bengal grams
- Honey is to be included in the diet, but DO NOT MIX with the hot water / tea etc.
- Cow milk n butter milks are good to have.
- Fruits like Papaya, Pomegranate, Pineapple, Yelaki banana (if person is healthy)
- Add ingredients more like Turmeric, Jeera, fenugreek, Ajwain/Oregano/omam (helps digestion related disorder), ginger
- All sort of gourds are good including drumsticks; raw mango is fine.
Avoid hard digestive food like
- New grains of rice, wheat etc.
- Fatty food like ghee, oil, sweets, buffalo milk, cheese etc.
- Anything cold including cold water / juice / ice-cream
- Viscous / Sticky in nature, like lady finger.
- Citrus / Sour in nature – amla, lemon, tamarind (have tomato to get sour taste)
- Vegetables – cabbage, ladyfingers, cucumber, yam, carrot, potato, coriander
- Fruits – robust banana, orange, chikoo, Mango (naturally ripped mangoes come by end of May)
- Red meat
Bottom line…
In general, take lightly digestive foods, and avoid heavy digestive food including fatty n oily foods. Yoga abhyaas gets gentle. Increase Vaman dhauti i.e. kunjal kriya (upper GI wash) and Jala neti and netra neti. Avoid vigorous exercise, as it leads to dehydration. Take all measures to reduce the heat effect; DO NOT let the throat gets dry.To avoid/prevent seasonal illness, i.e. a week before and after the season changes, increase turmeric in the diet, it acts as antibiotic. Anti bacteria, anti fungal.
Hari OM Tat Sat
By Jayakumar Athinarayanasamy
(Hatha yoga practitioner 5:45 pm session)