I wrote this a week ago –
It’s almost the end of my two weeks here at Rasa Ayurveda. A hugely deep rest. So it’s actually hard to write. This blog is really to share some photos (see below). However, one amazing experience deserves some attention. Because it’s kind of gory, I’ll skip the details and give an overview.
Excerpt from journal Wed. Dec 23 09: “Just had a most amazing experience. Basti .Unlike any other basti I ever had. First came the divine abhyanga. Next - steaming of the belly area. Then bath. Then . . .”
In my room the therapists administer the basti (enema made of some oil, water, herbal decoction according to one’s constitution). Dr. Geeta supervises. After that’s finished, I lie on my back--two of the therapists and I are left to wait it out. "Is anything bubbling?" Dr. Geeta cones in the room to ask. I check - "a little" I say. After a few more minutes, Dr. Geeta returns and asks if I need to go the bathroom, "not yet" I reply.
While we're waiting the therapists and I engage in a game of counting to 5 in Malayalam. Then it happens. I realize I need to go. They help me to the toilet and ... well, shall skip the full picture, but needless to say the basti has done its work. During this process I think "how can anyone do this more than once?" The therapists are great, they discreetly ask how I’m doing, rub my back, offer me rice water. On the second offer I give it a try and if vomiting is the desired effect, it worked. And all the while I'm chanting in my head, "it's only an hour, it's only an hour."
After things seem to have subsided, Dr. Geeta instructs me to come out. 2 of the therapists help me get up. They bring me to . . .
My table and chair. Nicely placed on the table is a plate of food - rice, 2 vegetables, some dal, some ghee. "I'm supposed to eat now?" I ask incredulously. Dr. Geeta assures me that this is so, and speaks of how this is really important. After an attempt to eat a little, I stop. Dr. Geeta asks me what do I need. "To lie down" I respond. They help me over to the bed and I gratefully lie down.
This is when a miracle happens. One therapist feeds me small spoonfuls of food, and the other feeds me spoonfuls of rice water. I feel like a baby bird, opening my mouth so mama bird can put some food in it. I chew, swallow, open, chew, swallow, open. After about 5 spoonfuls I realize that I'm feeling better. Some energy is there and I think how amazing this is, because I thought I was going to be in agony for the rest of my life.
With one short interruption I manage to eat and “drink” about 20 more spoonfuls. During the “interruption” the therapists set up my bed so I sit to eat, “like a queen” says Dr. Geeta, without any sarcasm. They continue to feed me, and I continue to feel better with each spoonful. At one point after Manju gives me the glass of rice water, I say “cheers” and I actually mean it. The whole thing took one hour and ten minutes. Dr. Geeta is pleased and says I was fast.
I found it amazing that in that space of time I could go from feeling “normal” to being at death’s door, to feeling more or less normal again, thanks to food. In fact, more or less normal doesn’t quite get it. It’s more like a fresh start, a newness to the experience of living.
Earlier in the day Dr. Geeta had prepped me psychologically by telling me what would happen. I had to trust her, otherwise there was no way on earth that my instinct would have been to eat—it felt completely counter-intuitive. But trust actually worked.
After everyone left I lay there, still feeling kind of “fresh”. What comes next?