WATER: SWEET MEDICINE FROM THE HEAVENS
Hema Patankar

“May I offer you a glass of fresh rainwater?” our server asked. We had arrived at an organic restaurant set amidst the lush farmlands and fresh air high in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia. The rainwater he offered had been carefully harvested during the previous days' rains and stored in clean vessels. The glass of rainwater was thrilling to drink, and revived us far beyond quenching our mild thirst. It was in a league quite beyond any bottled or tap water I had ever tasted. We were drinking a living example of a description in the ancient Ayurvedic texts of the purest source of water.

The sages of Ayurveda call this pure rainwater Gangambu, water whose origin is divine and whose journey through the skies has brought it in contact with sunlight, moonlight, and wind; water that is so pure and healing that it must surely have come from the Milky Way, the great river of light across the night sky. The Ayurveda sage Vagbhatta says this pure rainwater, collected before it touches the earth, is enlivening and satiating, it revives and refreshes the body and spirits, and stimulates the intellect. It has a subtle sweetness, is light and easy to digest, cooling though it is not chilled, and gives the effect of drinking nectar.1

The knowledge society amidst which the spiritually rooted science of Ayurveda evolved was engaged in a quest to understand the interconnectedness of the human body and nature, the individual and the divine, and how these insights could be harnessed for health, spiritual insight, and material success. Classical Ayurveda emerged as possibly the most comprehensive and profound approach to health care the world has ever known. In this context water was revered for its life-giving and purifying powers. Falling from the sky infused with life-promoting qualities to nurture people, plants, and animals, water was revered as a vehicle that brought healing gifts from the heavens to earth. Just as rivers carry whatever enters them towards the sea, within the body it is water that circulates nutrition, water that delivers the healing power of herbs where they are needed, and water that carries away the waste. In Vedic rituals, water is the conveyor of prayers and vows, blessings and protection, and is used to express our for desire physical, mental and spiritual purification.

The sages of Ayurveda explored the qualities of water in close detail, observing the varying effects of drinking water on the body, mind and spirit according to the air and the ground it came in contact with, the season, whether it fell as rain or hail, snow or frost, whether it was exposed to the sun, the moon and specific stars, whether it sat in one place or moved rapidly, whether is was collected from mountain streams or coastal lakes or from underground, and how it was stored.

While it may not be feasible for people living in today's pollution filled urban environments to harvest our own Gangambu, Ayurveda offers valuable and personally customizable insights into exactly how to purify, store, prepare and enjoy the drinking water we do have access to, in order to derive its most healing and health-promoting qualities. They developed answers to the common questions of health conscious people today: What kind of water should I drink? Does it matter if it's hot or cold? Should I drink water with my meals? How much water should I drink each day? Does drinking herb tea and soup count as drinking water?

There are easy means available to us to enhance our available drinking water and make it a valuable ally in regaining and maintaining health..

How the Yogis Drink Water
When I first went to India as a teenager, I discovered the hard way that drinking one glass of ice cold water after another was not the ideal way to counteract the heat and stay healthy. In Muktananda Swami's ashram in Ganeshpuri I learned why. He admonished teenagers like me to understand that while the iced water we loved to drink continuously was clean and filtered, it was dampening our digestive fire, making it hard to digest our food properly and leaving us feeling that Indian food must give you diarrhea and gas.

He taught us the traditional wisdom that has been practiced for yogis and vaidyas – learned healers --  for thousands of years: fill your stomach half with food, a quarter with water, and leave a quarter empty. The water, he told us, should come from the dal soup we had with each meal and the juicy vegetables, as well as from sipping a little water from time to time throughout the meal. He cautioned us not to drink more water than this for an hour before or two hours after the meal, if we wanted to digest our food properly and stay healthy enough to pursue the meditation and sadhana we had come there for with energy and focus. This teaching became one of my pillars of health wisdom. 

How Much Water Should You Drink?
Lovers of good health often wonder: Should we all consume eight glasses of water a day rain, hail or shine? How much should a person drink with meals? How much should you drink at other times?

According to the wisdom of Ayurveda, there is no one-size-fits-all formula. The quantity of water we need varies according to factors such as our constitution, the season, whether we are doing heavy physical work, our direct exposure to the wind and sun, and the state of our health. For example, in dry weather we feel thirsty and need to drink more. But when it is raining and damp, our skin is absorbing moisture from the air so we are unlikely to need as much to drink in order to keep the body hydrated. If you work or exercise heavily in the hot sun, you are likely to need more to drink than someone working at a desk in the shade. If a meal includes soup and juicy vegetables, then you don't need to sip as much water as you would with food that is dry and needs more lubrication.

It's a matter of becoming attuned to our thirst, rather than imposing an external formula. The human body is astonishingly intelligent and wired to alert us accurately to our basic needs, if we learn to observe carefully. Ayurveda places great importance on becoming keenly aware and responsive to our important natural urges of thirst, hunger, and elimination. When the fluid-bearing channels in our body need replenishment, dryness develops in the palate. But often we are distracted and don't pay attention to this natural sign, or we don't give it much importance until we feel really parched. Or we go to the other extreme by keeping bottles of water on hand that we go on drinking whether or not we're thirsty, because we think we need to consume a specific quantity each day or we've been told that our bodies don't know when we need to drink. Certainly letting yourself get dehydrated makes you feel faint and dizzy, and disturbs the process of digestion. But getting over hydrated dampens the digestive fire, disrupts the process of digestion, and contributes to weight gain and obesity. It aggravates phlegm-related conditions and can strain the kidneys and bladder.

Just as timely rains are the vehicle of fertility making the landscape fresh, bright and fragrant, excessive rains cause floods whose muddy waters are a source of disease and destruction. But the definition of excessive rain varies from one place to another. The monsoon rains falling on the porous soils of the coastal plains of Maharashtra, for example, make the rice paddies flourish, while in nearby Mumbai the same rains cause terrible flooding due to its highly inadequate drainage system. It is the same in the human body. The water intake that makes one person flourish is excessive or inadequate for another.

Our emotional connection with water also runs deep. Think of the exhilaration of watching the ocean, the inspiration of sitting by a running river, the serenity we feel by a lake. We should trust our instinctive connection with water at a physical level as well.

Hot Water: A Great Friend
Then there is the question of how hot or cold our drinking water can be ideally. This is a key understanding in Ayurveda. Whenever I visit my Ayurveda teacher, Shunya Pratichi Mathur, the first thing she gives me is a cup of hot water. It is not only refreshing, but also soothing after dealing with freeway traffic, and stimulates my digestive fire. In fact, the very first regimen she gave me as a client was to drink a glass of hot water first thing every morning, in order to activate the process of digestion and elimination at the start of the day. For those who are trying to lose weight , improve a sluggish digestion, get rid of constipation and gas, hot boiled water is a great friend. Drinking warm to hot water during the day and sipping it during meals keeps the digestive system lubricated and the body hydrated while simultaneously keeping the digestive process suitably fired up so food gets fully digested without leaving any stagnant residue.

According to Ayurveda, one of the best gifts we can give ourselves is to take good care of our agni, the digestive fire that transforms food into nourishment not only in the stomach, but at multiple stages of digestion from the production of energy to nourishing our organs, perceptions and core immunity. This interplay of the fire and water elements in the body is of central importance.

Yet so many people only want to drink chilled water, preferably with added ice cubes. And many of them suffer from constipation and gas without realizing there's a direct connection. This chilled water may be refreshing to the palate, but it dampens the precious fire of digestion, causing the breakdown of food to be incomplete and little pockets of unwholesome matter to linger in the digestive system. Cold water is particularly contra-indicated when you have a cold or indigestion.

Medicinal Power of Boiled Water
Ayurveda takes the study of water beyond simple hydration. In an ayurvedic home, water is always boiled first, then cooled to a drinkable temperature. Even in hot weather or when serving water to people who always feel hot, the guidance of the traditional texts of ayurveda is very specific: bring water to a boil, then let it simmer gently until it has reduced by at least one fourth. Then let it cool to room temperature in hot weather or drink it hot at other times.

This is not a left-over practice from village life and the era before bottled water and filtration systems. This boiling process make water twice as fast to “digest” and absorb compared with water from the tap or a bottle, and three times faster if you drink it while it's still hot. Just as cooked food is lighter to digest, so is “cooked” water. It pacifies all the doshas and relieves gas.  When water is simmered down to half its original quantity, it's good qualities increase even further.

When water is simmered down to a quarter of its original quantity, it becomes Arogyambu,  water with a vibrant ability to promote health. Not only is this water universally beneficial, but it also plays a special role in the treatment of asthma, bronchitis, and all conditions of aggravated phlegm. It is used as a remedy for gas, anemia, water retention, and colic pain. When you drink it hot, it stimulates the digestive power, cleanses the bladder, and is useful at the onset of fever. When this Arogyambu is cooled, it is alleviates burning sensations, diarrhea, vomiting, fainting, drunkenness and hangovers. Such is the power of a humble glass of properly prepared water. It is medicine in its own right.

Water Containers To Promote Health
In traditional Indian homes, we often see drinking water stored in large clay pots, or notice that a silver cup filled with water has been covered and kept aside. There is wisdom in these actions. Clay pots keep water amazingly cool in summer. Silver removes toxins from water. Keeping a clean silver coin in water has the same effect. Keeping water overnight in a well cleaned, pure copper pot and drinking it regularly first thing in the morning is a traditional way to promote good bowel movement at the start of the day – one of the pillars of health from the Ayurvedic perspective. Trace amounts of copper are infused into the water, making it heating, light and able to scrape out toxins as it passes through the digestive system, gently cleaning up the environment in the lower intestine   that can cause constipation.

So water is both wonderful medicine when taken in the appropriate ways, and a source of strength and invigoration.

A Sip of Heaven
And for those of us who would love a sip of water infused with a touch of heaven, but who can't harvest our own pristine rainwater, there is another way. Drinking water that has been exposed to the sun's rays throughout the day and the moon's rays all night has many of the same qualities. It is called Hamsodaka. Around the time of the full moon, if the skies are clear, simply stand an open glass jar of previously boiled water in a place that gets plenty of sunlight, covering the mouth with cheesecloth so nothing falls inside. During the day, sun rays infuse the water with their purifying heat, with the health promoting energy of the sun. At night, moonlight infuses the water with gentle, nourishing ambrosia. When you drink this water the next day, it is not only pleasing to the palate and balancing to all three doshas. It enhances the strength of your mind and memory, and nourishes your essence as though you had been drinking nectar. It is a sip of sweet medicine from the heavens.

A hymn of the ancient Rig Veda says:
Ceaselessly they flow from the depths, pure, never sleeping,
the Ocean their sponsor, flowing through channels ordained by the Thunderer.
How sweet are the Waters, crystal clear and cleansing!
Now may these great divine Waters invigorate and protect me.