Panchakarma IV

One week to go with the Panchakarma. After having to drink the castor oil, things can only go up hill from here. After the cleanse one of the treatments changed and I think it was my favorite one. It was called the oil bath.
So, as usual, I go in for the foot massage first, and by this time there is a part of me that is not looking forward to the massage as it is a little rough, and not relaxing, but there is also another part of me that realizes that it’s doing me great good, and so I should put up with it. Parts of my body that were tight such as my neck and quads have now loosened up very nicely, and I have noticed that my practice is getting much better, especially in the binding asanas like marichyasana D. That is a pose I have never been able to get into until this trip, and I do feel its a combo of the daily practice, plus the foot massages.
Once the massage is over, they put me back up onto the beautiful wooden table face up. There is once again two therapists as they do both sides of your body in unison (right and left) They place between your legs a large pot of warm herb infused oil and using small sponges, they soak the sponge in the oil and the first path they take is up your chest, they circle your nipples then continue up to your shoulders and then down the arms and trace each of the fingers. The sponge goes back into the oil and the second path goes up to the belly button, then down each of the legs, and traces the toes.
They would do this over and over until the pot ran out of oil. The way the table is shaped, its designed to catch all the oil, there are edges on both sides, and it runs down to the end and falls into another pot. They also have a small quantity of oil sitting over a small burner, keeping it hot. They change the empty pot for the full one, mix in some hot oil, just so that it is warm, and start the process over.
This is done twice, then they have you lay on one side, and follow a very similar procedure, first going up your side and down the arms, then moving down your legs. After two pots of warm oil, they have you change sides and do it again.
The last step in this oil bath they have you sit up, with your legs out straight on the table. Then with the pot between your legs again, they would soak the sponge and start at your shoulders, first sweeping across the back and down the arms, and the second sweep would be across the chest and down the legs. Then with the first pot of oil, just before it was gone, they had you sit up nice and tall with the head tilted down and would pour the remaining oil on your neck and let it fun down your back. With the second pot of oil, after the back and chest, they had you lean back just a little so they could pour the warm oil down your chest, and legs, and they paid special attention to your knees and toes.
This oil has the same texture and feel as Olive Oil, very thick and slick, but my favorite part was because of the herbs they used, it was orange! A warm orange oil bath I’m quite sure has just got to be good for you. My two therapists were very friendly, I had one male and one female. The female only knew a few English words such as Hi, and “See you tomorrow”, but the man could put together simple sentences. We all enjoyed teasing each other as best we could without language. I would always act like I couldn’t sit up on the table without sliding around, and sometimes I wasn’t kidding, that stuff was slick! You could have all sorts of fun with the oil..... anyway.
The way they cleaned most of the oil off was by using the strips of the leaves of the coconut tree like we would use a squeegee to get water off on glass. It worked much better than you can imagine. The male would always like to take the leaf and hold it up to my neck like I was a hostage. I’m sure some people would take offense to this, but he always did it after I would slide around, and when you can’t speak it was a fun way to make me behave. After getting as much oil off this way as possible, they would have me stand up (on the floor), and use a towel to get the remaining oil off.
They would then quickly clean the table, and I was back on it having the oil on the forehead thing again....heaven. The last two days, they added one more simple thing, which was a warm water massage on the neck because that is what I had the most problems with. No oil here, just water and I’m quite sure the herb was Cumin. They may have used more than just Cumin, but that is what I smelled. I love cumin, and even make a tea at home using it, so this was great!
One sign that a cleanse is working for you is the condition of your mental health. Many people experience stronger than normal emotions during a cleanse. This can mean feeling happy, sad, depressed, anxious, confused, etc. For me it was a feeling of being afraid of the future, not wanting to be here, not wanting to practice, and not knowing what to do. Even though I knew this was because of the cleanse it doesn’t make things easier to handle sometimes. There were times, and sometimes even days where I just wanted to go home - hated being here, wanted to go back to Vegas, complained about everything, I was simply a reck! This is the main reason why I’m just now writing some of the blogs. The first part of the trip was very busy and didn’t have time and the middle of the trip I felt like throwing the computer in the ocean! Happy to report, feeling great now, my mind is once again organized, and better then before, computer is not in ocean, only me every morning after practice to body surf. (almost wrote the word smurf!)
Only one more thing to do to complete the Panchakarma for this trip. Can you possibly guess what that might be? On the last day, Dr. Unni actually had the nerve to present to me ANOTHER bottle of castor oil!!!! Just who in the hell does he think he is. Of course I smiled graciously and took if from him. This time I’m quite certain that he somehow managed to put at least 3 gallons into that little bottle. I did ask him if there was any other way we could do this as I’m not sure I can drink that stuff again. He told me there was, but that it was very unpleasant (did he just say unpleasant? I don’t think he’s ever taken this stuff before!), and it was considered hard on the body. Since my body took the cleanse very well this was the best way to go.
There was a lady sitting down next to us, and after his answer, she was nice enough to speak up and tell me that she felt the same way I did years ago and wanted to try the other way despite the challenges. She assured me without any doubt that the caster oil was indeed the way to go. I figured if a complete stranger was willing to tell me this, then okay, caster oil it is.
On my way home I was thinking about the different ways I could take the castor oil. I had realized that the “main event” happened about 6 hours after taking the stuff the first time, of course in the middle of the night. It was only about 2 in the afternoon, so I thought that if I took it now instead of at bed time, 6 or so hours from now the event would happen and I would be able to sleep all night. (This was what Daren had done.) I could still be active in the late afternoon and closer to evening I would park myself on the bed and watch a movie until it was time. (This sounds like I’m getting ready to give birth or something.)
While I’m sitting in the hotel room, thinking about drinking warm milk and castor oil again, I became nauseous. At that point in time I realized there was no way I was going to be able to drink the toxic mix again. I keep thinking that this was the last time, and it would do me good, and I’ve spent all this money so I should make sure I get the most out of it, but I resolved it wasn’t going to happen. Sitting on the night stand was a bottle of water that was about 1/4 full. (Not 3/4 empty!) I’m not sure why I thought this, but since the oil has no smell maybe water would be the better choice over milk. Without much more thought, I poured the bottle of oil into the water bottle. I wasn’t drinking it with milk, so if I can’t drink it with water then I wasn’t drinking it, and would just through it away anyway.
As I was shaking the water and oil together in the bottle, I decided that I would start drinking it, and see how far I could go before the awful taste hit my mouth and I needed to stop! I didn’t even give myself a chance to second guess what I was doing, I just did it. I’m happy to report that I was able to drink the whole thing. (The 1/4 amount of water in the bottle, and all 6 gallons of oil!) The after taste was not however pretty at all, and once again made me nauseous, so I simply brushed my teeth! Done. Easy!
I’m happy to report that the rest of the day actually went as planned with one minor drawback. I was slightly nauseous all day long. Daren had reported this as well when he did it. The next day for breakfast and lunch I had that incredible warm salty rice soup, but instead of those scrumptious boiled veggies for dinner I had a warm lentil soup that was very tasty and I felt great after.
There is one more thing I would like to mention, and I have intentionally left this out until the end. After knowing this, it might be fun to go back and re-read all 4 entries having this piece of information. All three hours of treatment, everyday, was done completely naked!
Namaste!