Ardh Shankh Prakshalana

(Half Conch Posture)

'Shank' means 'Conch'. Just like water is flowed through conch to clean it, this asana is designed to clean stomach. The large intestine is cleaned of all unrequired residual matter and relief from constipation is experienced.

Method

Warm approximately 4 lt. of water. Add little salt. Sit in Bakasana and drink about 1 lt.of water. Perform Tadasana, Triyank Tadasana, Katichakrasana, Triyak Bhujangasana and Skandhasana one after the other. Perform every asana nine times. Drink some more water and maintain order of asanas. Till you feel urge to relieve yourself, keep on practicing asanas. As soon as urge is felt, pass the stool immediately.

After stool is passed, drink water and perform asanas in given order. Keep repeating process till plain water is seen in the stool. After water is excreted, perform Kunjal Kriya.

Ardh Shankh Prakshalana (Half Conch Posture)

Precaution

Avoid drinking cold water and exposure of cold air during and after this yoga. Take specially prepared Khichri (Rice and Moong lentils) with ghee within 30 minutes of performing the yoga. Do not drink water while eating and do not eat anything else. Avoid taking milk, curd etc. for next 24 hours.

Effects on Hormonal Glands

Shankh Prakshalana purifies the blood, detoxifies the body and helps to develop good digestion. The five asanas practiced in this method helps to clean the large intestine. Some asanas also produce good effects on loin and neck.

It is beneficial for adrenals and gonads. It also benefits thymus and thyroid glands indirectly. Due to improved circulation of blood in adrenal and gonads, the person ceases to be aggressive. Human beings suffer from two main problems - Intense emotion (sudden and violent passion) and impulsiveness. Angry person attacks other person. He injures himself in this fit of rage. This makes the person cruel and causes over-secretion from Adrenal glands. The increased secretion causes fear, aggressiveness. The whole process becomes cyclical.

This asana balances the secretion from the Adrenal gland. Bhujangasana and Skandhasana cause beneficial effects on thymus and thyroid glands. Ultimately, this asana stabilizes the body. Perform the asana after practice under a trainer.

Effect on Health

Body functions like a machine where one or the other part experiences damage like wear and tear in any machine and hence maintenance becomes essential. Cleansing is a part of maintenance. Kidneys and intestines function as cleansers. These organs remove most of impurities found in blood. The remaining impurities are removed in form of urine and stool. Even all these waste material is removed naturally but some of it gets stuck to walls of intestine. If intestines are not cleaned then constipation and flatulence can ail a person.

It is possible that these impurities may find their way into bloodstream. Impurities in bloodstream are touted to be root cause of all physical problems in persons. The process of Ardh Shankh Pradshalana has been created with the intention of removing these impurities from body. Large intestine is shaped like a conch. Since large intestine is mainly cleaned in this process it is called Shank Prakshalana. In this process cleansing takes place from food pipe to the rectum.

Practice of Ardh Shankh Prakshalana should be executed generally during Chaitra and Ashwin (April and October) months-from health point of view these months are neither too hot nor too cold. Accoding to Yogacharyas, a special kind of natural and total blood purification takes place twice in a year i.e. during Chaitra and Ashwin (April and October) months. There is a gap of six months between Chaitra and Ashwin months. If during these months Shankh Prakshalana is executed, body is benifited twice. Blood and intestines are cleansed.

Cleans out the entire gastrointestinal tract and tones up and stimulates the alimentary canal.

Other Benefits

This yogic exercise cleans up the stomach and the intestines. It cures inflammation and ulcer of the stomach and intestines. It also has beneficial effect in head and eye complaints, skin problems and in pyrrohoea patients.