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Gaudiya Discussions Archive » HEALTH, TRAVEL, ENVIRONMENT
Health, travel, environment and other related topics. Tips and tricks for keeping your body in shape for spiritual life. Taking care of your health while traveling in India.

Water, dips, caranamrita - Holiness and health considerations



nabadip - Sun, 28 Dec 2003 15:45:01 +0530
Water is the main source of diseases in general, so some special considerations on that.

You are speaking about bathing in Kunds... Could you express your mature views on a holy dip? Is the water in Radha Kund holy due to its presence there, being the confluence of all the holy rivers, or the special blessings of Srimati Radharani and would you go as far as saying, well, a diarrhea caused by bacterias in there is a purifying event...

From someone else I have heard that water outside the Ganga, even though it is from the Ganga, is not Ganga anymore. (Actually Sridhar Maharaja said that, so no chance for you, Rasesh...) Sounds weird, but it seems the idea is that Ganga is the stream, the flow, sort of like in an electrical line...

I drank Ganga water straight and pure when I was first in India in the early 80s. I just took a bottle, let it sit for a few hours, then drank it. I had some diarrhea initially, but then got used to it. I took the holy aspect of it to be more significant than the health risk then. I would not repeat that today though.

Rasesh, I do not think your Ganga water is real Ganga water, it just carries that name. Imagine those Indians with their water treatment plant up in Gomukh... It is just a device to sell to the gullible, I think...

How does a raganuga bhakta take a bath? I guess it is common attitude not to go and wash one's body in a holy source, but what about having fun, cooling down in summer, do they just take it for the darshan opportunity, having a really personal relationship with the devi of the Kund or river?

How is health and holiness related in general? Advaitadasji - would you, with your prolonged experience, take a health risk inspite of the holiness of the event? Like taking bath in a really "living" kund?

How about taking caranamrita at a number of unknown places during parikrama?

Water is such a miracle. Due to its special nature it makes us so much aware of the miracle of creation, of the divine souce of matter. Also the aspect that water is so tolerant, it carries our filth away, nourishes our cells as a drink, water is really wonderful. I just love it and bow down to the element water, its tolerance and power, it is like a siksa guru to me in my everyday life. Jai Nitai, jai Nitai, jai Nitai.