What is Shatkarma? You clean your house every day. But what is the reason? This is because the place we live in often gets contaminated by dust, dirt, and clutter. Living in an unhygienic environment can make us unhealthy over time. Therefore, we prefer cleaning it every day and making the place we live in healthy and happy. The same is with our body. Our soul lives in our body. But when we live, we get exposed to various factors that can be physical, emotional, or mental that can contaminate our body, leading to various ailments, which can be mental, physical, or emotional.
For example, having a hectic day at the office can fill our brain and mind with a lot of stress. This stress needs to be cleaned. If not, it can create major problems that can affect your overall well-being. Similarly, when we are running to complete our house chores for the whole day without getting enough time to rest, we become physically exhausted.
This is where we need to clear that exhaustion by using various relaxing ways to stay healthy. Likewise, when we are spending a day with somebody very toxic or with a person whose vibes and aura are not good for us, we become emotionally burdened. We feel heavy. That feeling needs to be removed. To live happily and healthily, we need to restore our overall health. Now, this concept of keeping our emotions, our mental health, and our physical health clean is called Shatkarma.
What Does Shatkarma Mean?
It is a yogic principle that is mentioned in Hatha Yoga. What is Shatkarmas are a set of various techniques of purification. Hatha yogis often use such techniques to keep their mind and body healthy for practising yoga without any hindrance. Shat stands for six, and karmas means action. Therefore, this is a mix of six beautiful healing and purifying techniques that cleanse different body parts of a human. Hatha Yoga Pradipika is a scripture that dates back to the 15th century.
It speaks a lot about how important the harmony of body, soul and mind is. Similarly, it offers various ways to keep them clean and in union. When the mind is unhealthy, it will affect both the soul and body and the same with the body and soul. Everything within humans is interconnected! We can keep ourselves in union using yoga, and for yoga, we need to be away from contamination. We cannot avoid it,t but we can clean ourselves whenever we find it necessary. In this blog, we will understand almost everything about What is Shatkarma, different types of Shatkarma, and why it is important. Let’s move forward.
What are the types of Shatkarma?
What Is Shatkarma? There are six different types of Shatkarmas that yogis perform to keep their bodies energised and healthy for performing yoga efficiently and leading their yogic journey without any disturbance. The different types of purification processes or Shatkarmas are as follows.
1. Neti
Neti is a decades-old method for keeping the respiratory system healthy holistically. Neti helps in purifying the nostrils and the sinus area. Your sinuses often get filled with allergens and can get blocked due to mucus. Yogis perform Neti in two different ways. The first one is using a Neti pot for pouring the saline water from one nostril to the other to clean the sinus area. The second one is Sutra Neti, in which a special thread is used to clean the nasal passage.
Keeping the nasal passages helps in preventing allergies and respiratory diseases. It also opens the pathway for the life energy that regulates our body and is known as prana. Neti is used to create balance between both of our nostrils, i.e. left and right. It helps in attaining mental clarity. It also helps in attaining mental health. It removes stress. It creates a peaceful feeling in our crown. It also stimulates the ajna chakra, which is present between our eyebrows, which in turn ensures good functioning of the endocrine glands, pituitary, pineal and hypothalamus glands.
2. Dhauti
What Is Shatkarma? This Yogic Cleansing method purifies the entire alimentary canal. There are different types of dhauti- Sirsha dhauti, in which the head and upper region are cleared using the yogic techniques. Then there is Hrida dhauti, in which the chest area is cleaned by inducing vomiting by drinking salty water, which is also known as Vamana dhauti. It also cleanses the oesophagus and stomach. Next is Antara dhauti, which helps in internal cleaning using swallowing air, salty water, abdominal heat generation or cleaning the rectal area, etc.
3. Nauli
What Is Shatkarma It involves a particular self-massage of the abdominal area. This aims at muscle toning and improving the internal organs present in our digestive system. This yogic practice is divided into three stages. First is the Central isolation, where the practitioner focuses on massaging the central abdominal muscles. Lateral isolation is the next, which focuses oneither the left or the right side of the abdomen. The last one is the Abdominal churning, in this, the rhythmic rotation is produced to churn the whole abdomen. It helps in maintaining the good health of the gut and ensures clear bowel movements. It also impacts the nervous, reproductive, urinary, and excretory systems.
Read More: Explore every detail about the ancient holistic Nauli Kriya
4. Basti
It is also known as a yogic enema. It is also used in Panchakarma therapy or Ayurveda. Her,e yogic anima is given to clean the bowels. There is also Jal Bast, in which the practitioner has to submerge inside the water up to his or her navel. The water is drawn into the rectum, and the toxins are flushed out. Another one is Sthal Basti. It is an air-based approach in which the air is drawn inside the bowel,s making it clearer and removing the impurities of the colon.
5. Kapalbhati
What Is Shatkarma? Another most important shatkarma is Kapalbhati, which is a kind of pranayama. It helps in forceful contraction of the abdominal muscles while you are breathing consciously, inhaling the good fresh air and exhaling the toxins from the other nostril.
Read More: What is Chandra Bhedana Pranayama?
6. Trataka
Trataka means focused gazing. This helps in cleansing and rejuvenating the eyes. In this, you directly have to gaze at a single object, which is still. It can be a flame of a candle or a beautiful spot that you adore. You do not have to blink for a particular period. It helps in improving ocular health and also helps in enhancing brain power.
What is Shatkarma Kit?
There are various What is Shatkarm Kits now available and are ready to use. For exampl Neti Set! In the market today, there are various Neti Kits available, ranging from beginner to advanced. This makes the What is Shatkarmas easy. These kits are really helpful in performing the What is shatkarmas effortlessly. The direction is also mentioned. But always prefer a reputed brand for buying such vital kits, and always practice under an experienced guru.
Why is Cleansing Important?
When you wake up or come home after a rigorous gym session, sweating and dirty, you take a shower to clean your external body. Similarly, your internal systems also need regular cleansing. People who are stuck in a busy lifestyle and have forgotten the need for What is Shatkarmas in their lives are always prone to various diseases. This is the reason why modern life has given birth to various modern ailments. Because the concept of Yoga and Shatkarma was forgotten, but by the nature’s grace, it is again gaining limelight, because of its natural ways and wisdom of healing the human race.
Cleansing is important to flush out the daily toxins and impurities that can harm the body once built up to a very high level. What is Shatkarma works along with diet; therefore, a good Satvic diet, daily yoga routines, and proper Shatkarmas can help you attain a wonderful yogic lifestyle that will keep you healthy and away from these modern-day ailments and problems. So if you want to live disease-free, take the help of yoga.
Read More: Uttana Kurmasana ( Tortoise Pose )
Closing thoughts
What is Shatkarma reflects the wisdom of our yogis in ancient times. Before modern science came, they knew the concept of how a body works, how bad impurities can be for the human body, and how important it is to flush the impurities out of the body using the various natural ways, without any surgery and without any harsh chemical-based medicine.
This forgotten science is recently gaining a lot of limelight due to its time-tested benefits. What is Shatkarma is one of the vital routines of every yogi living today. It has been usedfore decades to keep our body clean naturally. It is a way of living a life that people today dream of. What Is Shatkarma? It is a path towards a disease-free generation; people who practice Hatha yoga know the importance of Shatkarma.
