Grishm Ritu or Summer season

Ayurveda divides the year in to six seasons based on the revolution of earth. Three seasons are observed during the period when the sunrise seems to have shifted towards north or “Uttrayan” which are “Shishir”, “Basant” and “Grishm”. These three seasons combined are also called as “Aadaan Kaal” and the other half when the sunrise seems to have shifted towards south is called “Visarg Kaal”. “Visarg Kaal” consists of “Varsha”, “Sharad” and “Hemant”. Entire “Aadaan Kaal” experiences dry air whereas “Visarg  Kaal” experiences moist air.

It’s said that humans are relatively weaker during “Grishm”/ summers and “Varsha”/ rainy seasons.

During “Grishm Ritu” (Mid May - Mid July) or summer season hot rays of the sun dries up the fluid from earth. So the “Kapha” from human body is also lost which results in increased “Vaat” dosha.

Food preferences:

 1) Cool and sweet drinks.

 2) Unctuous and easily digestible food stuff should be consumed. Unctuous is heavy to digest but if taken in small quantity is still light.

 3) “Sattu” or roasted gram flour mixed with sugar.

 4) Meat of dry forest animal and birds.

 5) Rice with milk or clarified butter (Ghee). Or rice with soup of dry land animals meat. Again the meat soup should not be thick.

6) Panchsaar is a drink prepared with honey, dates, raisin (munnaka), grewia asiatica (Phalsa), sugar candy and water. The entire ingredient are crushed and mixed in water.

7) Buffalo’s milk mixed with sugar candy is allowed in summers. Night is the best time for milk. Milk can be exposed to moonlight.

Donts:

1)   No liquors and if you must have to, then mix more water than usual. Too much of alcohol can cause swollen body.

2)   Salty, sour, bitter and foods hot in potency; should be avoided else it will aggravate “Vata”.

3)   No exercise or half of your strength exercise.

4)   Least exposure to sunlight.

Lifestyle tips:

1)   Sleep in cool places during day time.

2)   Night sleep should be enjoyed in open terrace under the moonlight. One can apply sandal paste on body during sleep.

3)   Mating should also be reduced to once in fortnight.

Note: “Vata”, “Pitta” and “Kapha” are three doshas of body mentioned in ayurveda which in balanced state keeps the person healthy.

“Vata” is gas or air in your body. If aggravated, it causes joints pain and gas trouble.

“Pitta” is acid and heat in the body. If aggravated, it  causes burning sensation, thirst, over hunger etc.

“Kapha” is cough or lubrication which lubricates the body.

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Pregnancy

Pregnancy is a condition which every couple wait for. Despite of all the care and precautions, unfortunate things happen due to lack of knowledge. Ayurveda suggests food, practices and routine which can ensure a healthy child. When a mother suffers from a disease during pregnancy or is on medicine for any condition, it is going to impact the child.

Precautions:  A pregnant lady should never be treated with medicines of high potency or very strong medicine.

She should avoid food or medicine which causes vomit/diarrhoea. She can’t be given Leech Therapy. After 8^th month, she can be made to vomit if it really requires.

Conditions with solutions:
If periods appear after 2 to 3 months of carrying, then it can be concluded that pregnancy will be lost.

 If a pregnant mother experiences periods in her 4^th or 5^th month of pregnancy due to anger, sorrow, jealous, fear, tragedy, mating, physical labour, suppression of natural calls or hunger or thirst, then womb installation method is suggested as below.

Mother should take a very comfortable bed to sleep which should be slightly high at the leg side. Mulhatti (Liquorice) and clarified butter (Ghee) should be mixed and cooled. A piece of cotton should be dipped in it and kept at the vaginal entrance. Apply 100 times water washed clarified butter on the area below navel. Apply the below navel area with cow’s milk or cool soup of “Mulethi” (Liquorice). Soak a cloth in the juice of leaves of trees like banyan, peepal, Ficus glomerata Roxb(Gular) or Blue Berries and place it on the pelvis part. Clarified Butter proven with new leaves of banyan, peepal or Ficus Glomerata Roxb(Gular) should be soaked in cotton and placed at vaginal entrance. 46 gms(4 Tola) of same clarified butter or just clarified butter should be consumed orally. Pollen of lotus flower mixed with honey should be given to the mother. Bullnut or water chestnut (Singhara), Lotus seed and Scirpus Grosus(Kaseru) should be fed. Sugar Candy, Root bulb of Indian blue water lilly, unripe fruit of Ficus glomerata Roxb(Gular) and new leaves of banyan should be grinded together and taken with goat milk. “Bala” (Sida Cordifolia), Atibala(Abutilon Indicum), Shali(Oryza sativa), Sugracane root and kakoli (Tuberous Root) should be proven in milk. This proven milk mixed with cooked red rice, honey and sugar should be given to the mother. Flesh of quail, deer family, rabbit etc. should be fed. Mother should avoid anger, sorrow, labor, mating and work out. Should spend time happily. The above practices stabilize the womb.

“Aam” is a gelatinous substance which gets accumulated in the stomach and intestine due to indigestion of food. If a pregnant mother experiences period due to increased “Aam” then treatment becomes difficult because treatment of “Aam” opposes the treatment of womb stabilization because soft and sweet medicines used for womb stabilization increases “Aam”. Eating food of too hot potency or pungent food can cause periods or fluid discharge from womb which stops the growth of womb. It is called “Upavistak” in Ayurveda. 

Those expecting mother who observe too much of fasts or do not eat nutritious food, who do not consume clarified butter or oils and one who eats food which aggravates “Vata” also experience low or no womb growth because the womb gets drier. The womb becomes still with no movement. It is called “Naagodar” in Ayurveda. In such cases the mother should be fed with “Yush” (watery food) made of animal flesh with clarified butter and one made of radish with cooked red rice. Mother should be given whole body oil massage and warm water bath around the womb, stomach, thighs, waist and back repeatedly.

Mother who experiences gas problem causing indigestion, anxiety in stomach and heart during 8th month should be treated with “Basti”.Left untreated can cause serious damage to womb and mother. “Basti” is enema but Ayurveda never recommends enema with water as it creates dryness in large intestine which aggravates “Vata” further. “Anuvashan Basti” is enema with fats and oils which is not recommended to an 8 month pregnant mother. “Niruh Basti” is recommended which is prepared with roots of “Shali Dhanya” (Paddy which matures in 60 days), “Kush” (A strain of Cannabis indica), sugarcane, “Vetas” (Salix caprea), “Parivyadh” (Streculiaceae) ,and water of “Bhootaak”, “Sariva” (Hemidesmus Indicus), “Gambhari” (Gmelina arborea), “Phalsa” (Grewia asiatica), “Mulethi” (Liquorice), “Kishmish” (Dried Grapes). To prepare the water, two tablespoon of each ingredient is boiled in a glass of water till half or quarter amount of the water is left. Mix milk to half of the water. Then boil the powdered roots in it to prepare “Kwath”. Grind and mix “Piyal” (Buchanania lanzan), flesh of “Bahera” (Terminalia bellirica) and “Til” (Sesame) in the liquid and boil. Make the liquid a bit salty. Slightly warm liquid should be used for enema. After the obstruction clearance, warm water bath is recommended and plain food afterwards.

Practices for healthy pregnancy :

When mother finds that she is pregnant she should start sipping raw milk several times a day. She should eat nutritious and plain food. In second month, milk proven with sweet herbs (like Mulethi) should be taken. In third month, milk should be mixed with “Ghee” (Clarified Butter) and honey.

(Note: Ghee and honey mixed in equal quantities is poisonous)

In the fourth month, milk should be taken with 11 gms (1 Tola) of butter (Makkhan). Fifth month milk with clarified butter should be taken. In the sixth and seventh month, clarified butter proven with sweet herbs should be taken with milk. After seventh month, mother experiences burning sensation which further causes skin irritation and cracks. To treat this, water prepared from Jujube (Ber) leaves should be mixed with butter (Makkhan) proven with sweet herbs and a tablespoon of it should be given to mother after intervals. Sandal paste or paste of “Neem” ( Azadirachta indica), “Ber”(Indian jujube), "Tulsi" (Holy Basil) and  “Majith”( Rubia cordifolia) should be applied on the area between breast and stomach. Massage can be given with oil proven in leaves of Thevetia nerifolia (Kaner). In the 8th month, “Yavagu” prepared in milk mixed with clarified butter should be given. 

“Yavagu” is prepared with cereal and milk/water in 1:6 ratios. In the 9th month, oil proven with sweet herbs should be used for “Anuvashan Basti” (Enema).

Those mothers who follow the above tips properly from 1st to 9th month will experience soft waist and back during pregnancy which results in an easy delivery.

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