The verse and its meaning · Yoga in Practice · Yoga in Practice — Cleansing

Air, water, fire, outside

Gheranda Samhita 1.14

वातसारं वारिसारं वह्निसारं बहिष्कृतम्। घटस्य निर्म्मलार्थाय अन्तर्धौतिश्चतुर्विधा ॥

Meaning · English

Air-washing, water-washing, fire-washing, and the one made outward. For the cleansing of the body, the pot, the inner washing is of four kinds.

Take the name first. Antar means inside. Dhauti comes from a root meaning to wash or rinse, so antardhauti is inner washing. Gheranda calls the body ghata, a clay pot, and the washing is for making that pot spotless, nirmala. The text gives the washing's purpose and nothing more than the names of its four kinds. Vata is wind or air, and sara here means the essential flow, so vatasara is the air-washing. Vari is water, and varisara is the water-washing. Vahni is fire, and vahnisara is the fire-washing. Bahiskrta joins bahis, outside, with krta, made or done: the one made outward. The verse does not say how any of the four is done. It does not say what each one reaches, and it does not say who should do it. It sorts the inner washing into four and leaves the method to the verses that follow. The same teaching carries a plain consequence: these are four separate practices, each with its own method, and a reader cannot learn them from a list of names. The verse asks nothing of the reader yet. It tells them what the next verses will take up.

The verse gives no method, so this card says what the tradition does with these four, using the next verse where it speaks. Gheranda describes the air-washing as sipping air slowly through a mouth shaped like a crow's beak, moving the belly, and letting the air out slowly afterwards. The body does something simple here. The belly wall is worked in and out, the gullet and stomach take in air, and the gut carries it on. The breath is not the usual nose breath. It is air taken by mouth in small sips, which asks for slow control. The water-washing, as the later teaching has it, passes water through the length of the gut. The fire-washing works the belly muscles by drawing the abdomen toward the spine. The outward one is the most difficult, and what it asks of the body is left to the teacher. The mind is held on one thing in each: the belly and the passage through it. That is a steadying kind of attention. The tradition's own account is that these practices clear the body of what clogs it and feed agni, the digestive fire. That is the tradition's account, not physiology. Read literally, the water and the forcing can do real harm, which is why they are not taught here.

The verse itself states one purpose: the cleansing of the body, the pot. It makes no further claim for the four kinds as a group. The next verse, speaking of the air-washing, claims more. Gheranda calls it a great secret, the cause of a cleansed body, a practice that ends the body's disorders of every kind and increases the fire of the body. These are the text's claims for that one practice, not for the other three. The verse promises no result for the water, fire or outward washings. Where later teaching praises them, it is the teachers' claim and not this verse's.

A man sits on the evening before a colonoscopy, drinking the preparation his doctor gave him, and spends the night near the bathroom. This is the nearest everyday match to the water-washing, and it shows two things. The gut can be emptied, and doing so is a real strain on the body, which is why it is done under medical instruction, with care about fluids and salts. Today's mainstream understanding holds that a healthy gut keeps itself clean. Routine washing is not needed, and there is no good evidence that washing the gut as a habit improves health. Swallowed air mostly leaves as belching or wind and can cause bloating and discomfort. Strong abdominal movements are ordinary muscle work, with no established link to better digestion. Agni maps loosely onto digestion and appetite. The idea that these practices kindle it has no support in well-established knowledge. The notion of a body made spotless like a pot has no modern match, and the body is not understood as something that fills with residue and needs scouring.

This is not medical advice, and a page cannot correct a practice that works on the gut. All four inner washings are learnt with a teacher, not from a page, and they are not taught here. Without one, a person can swallow too much air or water, bring on cramps, vomiting or dizziness, or upset the body's fluids and salts. Forcing the belly or the lower passage can cause injury. Pregnancy, a hernia, an ulcer, recent abdominal surgery, high blood pressure, heart or kidney trouble, and any ongoing digestive complaint call for a doctor's word first, and for leaving these practices out unless a teacher who knows the person says otherwise. Stop at any pain. Never force the belly or the breath.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: The six cleansings · Gheranda Samhita 1.12
• Next: Two kinds of basti · Gheranda Samhita 1.45
• All of Yoga in Practice · Ask Krishna about it

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