Anandakanda 1.17

Āk, 1, 17
<Dawn-Drinking Rejuvenation Therapy>
Then the joyful goddess, the Supreme Lady, asked: / Śrībhairavī: / 'O Primordial Bhairava, Lord of the Gods, cause of creation, maintenance, and dissolution!

'O Omniscient Śiva, Lord of the Worlds! By your grace, O omnipresent Lord, / various divine rejuvenation therapies have been heard by me;

'[tell of one that is] easily accomplished, easily obtained, divine, bringing immediate conviction, / especially for children, women, eunuchs, the elderly, and the sick,

'suitable for those eligible for rejuvenation therapy; tell it, O Lord, ocean of compassion!' / Thereupon, his lotus face smiling, Bhairava, the Bhairava of mundane existence, [said]:

Śrībhairava: / 'Listen, O goddess! I shall proclaim that which is suitable for all, which produces happiness, / purifying, easily obtainable, and destructive of inner and outer sin;

'from which the worlds are born, as well as the life-breaths of living beings; / it protects the entire universe and contains all deities, O beloved!

'It pacifies the three humors, brings ease, is wholesome, superior to all tastes, / endowed with the six qualities beginning with vivification, endowed with taste, and conferring strength.

'And vitality and strength in living beings are largely rooted in fire; / water is fuel for that fire, therefore the wise man should drink water.

'Lightning fire, submarine fire, and digestive fire are the three fires / that have water as their fuel; indeed, wood and the like are fuels for the others.

'Therefore, O goddess, I speak of what is auspicious; listen to the rejuvenation therapy of water. / At dawn, one should fill a new jar with waters fit to be purified,

'whether from the Gaṅgā, or from rivers, or from ponds, or from lakes, / or from wells, or indeed from summer heat or rains, according to availability.

'One should place that jar on a platform, its defects destroyed / by the divine rays of the sun, and inundated at night by the nectarous rays of the moon,

'scented with cardamom, uśīra, camphor, and sandalwood, / perfumed with pāṭalī, ketakī, jātī, mallikā, and blue lotus,

'gently fanned again and again with a palmyra leaf fan made of uśīra / moistened with water; this is declared to be "swan-water" (haṃsodaka).

'Before the rising of Anurādhā, having touched neither feces nor urine, / a man should drink the water; after that, he may discharge feces and urine.

'Performing rituals such as twilight worship, he may eat according to his desire. / A one-year-old child should drink one pala of water daily.

'In this way, until the end of the sixteenth year, year by year, the wise one / should gradually increase it by one pala each time, up to a limit of sixteen palas.

'After sixteen years, sixteen prasṛtas of water are to be used; / in this way, he should use it daily with devotion until the end of twenty years.

'By this, all diseases are destroyed, without a doubt; / he will live a hundred years endowed with intellect, strength, sense faculties, and happiness.

'And for long life, he should drink a prasṛta, namely eight palas, / [or] water according to the strength of the fire; from three days or five days,

'or after seven days gradually, the wise man should increase it by prasṛta by prasṛta / or again by a kuḍava, slowly, slowly,

'as long as sixteen prasṛtas; after that, it should be consumed. / In proportion as the water is increased, so the defect is pacified.

'He should drink the water for six months, or for a year, or continually; / just as the increase was, so is the decrease, down to just a handful (culuka).

'One who fasts by day or night, eating wholesome food, should give it up; / and when there is extreme exercise, [he should drink] merely an añjali,

'a quarter, a half, or three quarters, or drink an añjali according to his regimen, / combined with honey, ghee, oil, milk, clarified butter, water, or any other [substance].

'It will quickly destroy vāta diseases; or with medicines held in the mouth, / pacifying that particular disease, having consumed the medicine,

'he should then drink water, or when a muhūrta has passed, / or when the water is digested, it should be consumed, or at the end of a meal, or at night.'

If a disease such as fever has arisen and fasting occurs, / one on a light diet should drink half [the amount] as before, at ease.

If fasting is for the sake of a vow, then [one should drink] milk or a pala [thereof] at night; / O goddess, when one does not eat at night, water dries up in the belly.

One should drink half an añjali or an añjali of water daily with effort; / in every circumstance, the wise person should drink water equal in measure to food, vitality, and digestive fire.

If elimination of feces and urine occurs before the brāhma-muhūrta, / then only after drinking water should one discharge feces and urine.

Water purified [in this way] has little toxicity after the elimination of feces and urine; / if the time was unknown at night, one should drink water again at dawn.

One should drink a quarter, a fourth part, or an añjali of water. / <Wholesome and unwholesome things in the regimen of water-drinking> / Wheat, boiled rice of sixty-day rice, barley, and meat of arid-zone animals;

cow's ghee, curds, milk, buttermilk, fresh butter, / honey, sugarcane, pomegranate, grapes, banana, dates, and sugar;

mango fruit, āmalakī, fresh coconut water, / kūṣmāṇḍa, gourd, and nimba leaves and fruits;

leaf, flower, and fruit of śigru, prepared soup and juice of mung bean, / suniṣaṇṇaka, goraṇṭī, and the two kinds of jīvantī;

rājavṛkṣaka, śothaghnī, cillī or laghucchadā, / śatāvarī, taṇḍulīya, matsyākṣī, and vidārikā;

upodakī, eggplant, and the fruits of kāravallī, / laghukośātakī, lakṣmī, paṭola, and palm-root;

banana flower, daṇḍa fruits, kṣudradantikā, / bilva, candied sugar, ginger, and rock salt;

sour citron, ripe āmalakī fruit, alarka, / vāyasī, kuntalī, and likewise vasukanyālikā;

coriander, sarasī, cāṅgerī, cakramarda, / maṇḍūkaparṇī, spinach leaf, and likewise gāṅgeruka;

ākhukarṇī, kāsamarda leaf, and likewise gāṅgeruka; / and for seasoning: kaiḍarya, rock salt, black pepper, and cumin—

all these are mostly sweet, pleasant, cooling, and bestow ease. / Unripe fruit of kataka and of harītakī smeared with salt;

stalks, flowers, rhizomes, and filaments of blue water lily and lotus. / Anointing oneself with oil, one should bathe, wearing white garments, pure;

anointment with musk, sandalwood, and cooling camphor; / gentle breezes, flower garlands, moonlight, and gem ornaments;

wholesome, appetising, hydrating, mostly sweet, and liquid food, / boiled rice mixed with ghee and milk—the drinker of water should eat.

He should chew betel packet with camphor, [resting on] a comfortable seat, / coconut water in the evening, and milk with sugar at night;

a mattress of silk-cotton tree down, and sleep at night as is comfortable. / Foods that are deficient, excessive, constipating, obstructing, hot, and rough;

dry, unpalatable, sluggish, heavy, slimy, and unseasonal dining; / half-cooked barley cakes, bṛhatī, the two kinds of coṣa, bottle gourd, enemas;

horsegram soup, kāliṅga, guñjā, tree fruit, / onion, garlic, all tubers, and mustard;

non-arid-zone meat, fish, eating food with a little milk, / unmentioned leafy vegetables, and fruit eaten with milk;

all meat juices mixed with any milk, even sweet ones; / sesame oil and its paste, and medicine combined with these;

excessive talking, sun, shade, worry, [sacrificial] rites, anger, / grief, riding in vehicles, fear, laziness, and excessive sexual indulgence;

carrying a load on the head, swimming in water, fasting, / physical exercise, envy, sleeping by day, and waking at night;

headwinds, snow, dust, places exposed to wind, / smoky houses, and a bed made of cotton;

fire, generation of sweat from exertion, wearing hot clothing, / wearing silk, striking the thighs, and a hard seat;

hot house, water from alkaline wells, pungent and bitter tastes, / sour, astringent, and bitter tastes, asafoetida, and drying substances;

wine, muscle fat, marrow, urine, spoiled waters, / intoxication, cold, unwholesome food, eating devoid of oil;

oil massage, cold fermented gruel, decoctions when there is no disease, / burning items, drying items, and even bathing the head with hot water;

he should avoid whatever else causes provocation of the defects and is censured. / <Signs of digestion of ingested water> / Healthy, seated comfortably, restrained in speech, and pure after drinking water,

he should discharge feces and urine, and avoid betel and the like. / When urine is passed in an amount equal to the water drunk,

then he may know the water is digested. When the ingested water / passes out without medicine, he is considered very healthy.

When the water drunk has come out completely, hunger arises; / then he should perform oil massage and adopt the prescribed wholesome diet.

<Signs of indigestion of water and its remedy> / Without avoidance [of unwholesome things], diseases arise without question: / fatigue, exhaustion, vomiting, stabbing pain in the head, dizziness,

retention and drying up of water, eye inflammation, suppression of natural urges, / abdominal lump, upward movement of vāta, loss of digestive fire, aching of the limbs,

pricking pain in the bladder, penis, groin, heart, and eyes, / cramps in the calves, dyspnea, aversion to eating, and anorexia,

urinary calculi, chronic rhinitis, cough, and severe diarrhea. / If water dries up once due to actions such as dryness and exertion,

that is not to be understood as a defect; but if retention of water occurs repeatedly, it is a defect. / When the ingested water is retained, treatment is prescribed here:

The wise person should cover the belly and bladder with kūṣmāṇḍa leaves, / and apply a paste that causes the discharge of urine, for releasing the water.

Or, one should bathe with the body smeared with ghee and āmalakī, [which is] rejuvenative; / or drink milk with jaggery, or buttermilk with sugar;

or coconut water with sugar and cucumber seeds. / For one whose water digests with difficulty, he should take ghee before meals;

or he should remain in water for a long time and bathe with cooling substances such as āmalakī; / or when the ingested water is retained, he should purge with sweet and cooling substances.

He should induce vomiting with a paste of pippalī, madana fruit, and rock salt, mixed with honey; / he should purge by drinking harītakī powder with coconut water.

Or, with trijātaka, vyoṣa, viḍaṅga, āmalakī, and mustā, / trivṛt equal to all of them together should be added, and sugar equal to all of this combined.

Having made a pill with honey, one should lick it for the release of water. / If [triphalā, the] excellent [three fruits], is consumed at night, it destroys all defects.

One should place a wet cloth below the navel for just a moment, / or cold water by immersion, or apply cold water to the head.

Or one should cast oneself down in a water-spray chamber adorned with a bed of wet sand, / or one should sit [there]; seed of trapusa cucumber or ervāru cucumber,

should be drunk with the juice of varī and grape, or saffron and vāśā; / or karkaṭī seeds should be drunk with grape juice.

Or liquorice or sugar should be taken with rice-washing water, / and jaggery with grape and tree turmeric in combination with rice-water.

Or grape combined with sugar [should be taken] with amalaki fruit juice, / or varī combined with sugar, or grape along with curd whey.

Or jaggery should be drunk with water or with coconut water, / or a paste prepared from bamboo manna, or karkāru seed,

or a preparation of tāmalakī, or the root [of tāmalakī], or a paste of liquorice; / a ripe fruit of wild plantain accompanied by honey and sugar,

or with coconut water, or with buttermilk, or even with curd whey, / or with the water of plantain corm, or with milk, or with amalaki juices,

or with the juice of guḍūcī, or with the fresh juice of white gourd melon, / or with pomegranate juice, or likewise with the juice of abhiru,

or with the juice of bottle gourd, one should drink cardamom with sugar; / plantain corm, liquorice, gokhru, and kasheruka,

the roots of the five grasses, śukrā, and indeed śatāvarī: / a decoction of these beginning with plantain corm,

accompanied by honey or accompanied by sugar, should be drunk for the discharge of urine. / <Virtues of drinking water at dawn> / Water that is drunk in this way at the Brahma-hour is a rejuvenation therapy:

It pacifies all defects and destroys diseases as well: / blood-vāta, disorders of the vāta humor, heart disease, dyspnea, and cough,

internal hemorrhage, disorders of the pitta humor, impaired digestion, vomiting, loss of appetite, / consumption, fainting, skin diseases, urinary disorders, delusion, goiter, and tumors,

abdominal lumps, spleen disorders, urinary calculi, colic, flatulence, indigestion, acute gastroenteritis, / parasites, anemia, jaundice, chlorosis, and erysipelas,

ulcer, swelling, vitiligo, impaired digestive fire, threefold poison, / diseases above the collarbone and of the genitals, epilepsy, and vertigo,

fevers, tympanites, abdominal swelling, retention of urine, and hemorrhoids. / Freed from wrinkles and grey hair, one lives for three hundred years,

firm in intellect, powerful, resolute, handsome, and an eros to charming women. / <Rejuvenation therapy by nasal drinking> / If a person drinks water through both nostrils in the morning,

just an oyster-shell's measure every day, eating wholesome food and with senses subdued, / he gains sharpness of the senses, destruction of wrinkles and grey hair,

and attains a lifespan of a hundred years through this nostril-drinking rejuvenation therapy.