Air
No one can live without air without water for a few days and without food much longer. Therefore, nature has surrounded us with air on all sides to get it without any effort.
We take in air through the nose into our lungs. The lungs act as a sort of bellows. The atmospheric air which we breathe in has a life-giving substance-a gas known as oxygen. The air that we breathe out contains poisonous gases. These can kill us if they are not immediately spread out and get diluted by the atmospheric air. Hence the necessity of proper ventilation.
Many people do not know the art of breathing. This defect prevents an adequate purification of their blood. Some people breathe through the mouth instead of through the nose. This is a bad habit. Nature has designed the nose that acts as a filter for the ingoing air and warms it. The air comes into close contact with blood in the lungs and purifies it. In mouth breathers, the atmospheric air reaches the lungs without the preliminary filtration or warming. It follows, therefore, that those who do not know how to breathe should take breathing exercises. They are as easy to learn as they are useful. I do not wish to go into a discussion of the various asanas or postures. I do not mean to say that these are not important or useful. But I wish to emphasize that a well-regulated life outweighs the advantage of studying and practicing elaborate postures or exercises. Any comfortable posture that ensures breathing through the nose and free chest expansion is enough for our purposes.
If we keep the mouth tightly close, the breathing will have to be carried out by the nose. Just as we wash our mouth every morning, the nose should be also be cleaned. Clean water, cold or lukewarm water, is the best agent for that purpose. It should be taken in a cup or the palm and drawn up through the nostrils. It is possible to draw the water up through one nostril, the other remaining closed, and expel it by opening it and closing the former. The process should be carried out gently to avoid discomfort.
Water
Next to air, water is a necessity of life. We cannot live without it for more than a few days, just as without air, we cannot live for more than a few minutes. Therefore, as in the air, nature has provided us with an ample amount of water. Man cannot live on barren land where there is no water. Vast tracts of desert land lie utterly uninhabited.
To keep healthy, everyone should take 5lbs. of water or other liquid food in 24 hours. Drinking water must be pure. In many places, it isn't easy to get pure water. There is always risk in drinking well water. The water of shallow wells, and even deep wells with a staircase leading down to the water level, should be considered absolutely unfit for drinking purposes. The difficulty is that the appearance and even the taste of water are no guide to its purity. Water that appears perfectly harmless to look at and to taste can act as a poison. The old custom of not drinking from an unknown well or a stranger’s house.
In Bengal, almost every house has a Bachchan tank attached to it. As a rule, the water of these is unfit for drinking purposes. River water is also frequently not fit for drinking, particularly where the river is used for navigation or passes by a big city and receives its drainage and sewage water.
Despite what I have said, I know millions of people have to drink what I have described as impure water. But that does not mean that their example is worthy of being copied. Nature has provided us with sufficient reserve of vitality. But for that, man would have long ago disappeared from the face of the earth because of his own mistakes and transgressions of the rules of health.
Here we are concerned merely with the role of water in health. Wherever we are doubtful about the purity of water, it should be boiled before drinking. In practice, it amounts to this that everyone should carry his drinking water with him. Many orthodox Hindus in India do not drink water whilst traveling on account of religious prejudices. Surely, the enlightened can do for the sake of health what the unenlightened do in the name of religion!
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