PALAKKAD: A nonagenarian is getting ready for recapturing the agility and virility of youth - the ayurveda way. Beating the process of ageing and remaining young forever is stuff that dreams are made of.
Can one be in the pink of health, regain youthful vigour and increase immunity as well as the life span by staying in a closed chamber for 45 days with not even a ray of sunlight entering it and consuming only ayurveda medicines and milk? It may sound incredible but it may be possible.
The Padinjarekara Ayurveda Hospital and Research Centre at Palappuram near Ottapalam has embarked on such a research.
The 91-year-old Mahant Yugal Sharan Ji Maharaj of the Girivar Ashram, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, who himself is an ayurvedic practitioner, also wanted to undertake a research on the subject since he is the lone surviving person who participated in such a treatment done on freedom fighter and academic Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya in 1933.
At the age of 73, Madan Mohan Malaviya underwent the treatment for 41 days when he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease, stiffness in the neck and a blurred eyesight at Palampur near Gujarat.
He remained shut in a room (kudi) and was administered ayurvedic medicines.
“It was the interest of Maharaj, who is a bachelor, which made us also experiment with such a treatment as part of our research. Usually for the ordinary people this treatment can be resorted to till the age of 70. But since Maharaj is a yogi, age does not matter,” says Dr Sethumadhavan of the Padinjarekara Ayurveda Hospital and Research Centre.
The treatment is known as Kudi Praveshika Rasayana Vidhi in Ashtangahrudaya, the ayurveda treatment text.
Maharaj will enter a multilayered chamber with minimum ventilation. There are only small cavities provided for the entry of air and light.
The inmate in the “kudi” (chamber) will be provided with medicinal food (rasayana chikitsa) at 5.30 am and milk of a home-grown breed administered with rasayana, grass and feeds.
The medicinal food and milk will be provided in the evening also before dusk. A toilet has been provided in the second layer of the chamber.