Ayurvedic Cleansing Treatments (Panchakarma-inspired)

• Steam Therapy (Swedana)

• Abhyang ( Oil Body Massage)

• Nasya (Nasal Detox) 

• Shirodhara (Oil pouring on forehead)

• Udvartana (Herbal body scrub)

Shatkarma: 6 Hatha Yoga Kriyas for Purification and Their Benefits

As a house stands firmly on its foundation, the same way, in the yogic journey our body and mind needs a strong foundation, which becomes the base of our yoga sadhana. The base here we talking for our body is the cleansing of our internal system of organs. In the yogic tradition, this cleansing is called Shatkarma or Shat kriyas. 

Modern science says, our internal organ comprised of 11 major systems includes circulatory, respiratory, digestive, excretory, nervous, and endocrine systems. To make sure the healthy and proper functioning of the body as a whole, the cleansing of organ systems is very important on a regular basis. 

What is shatkarma?

Shatkarma is a set of 6 cleansing techniques of Hatha Yoga to flush out impurities of the internal body. These cleansing techniques are also known as 6 yoga kriyas or shat kriyas.

Indeed, shatkarmas are more like preparatory exercises in yoga. They are generally practised before any asana, pranayama, mudra or advanced meditation techniques. Why? Because the purpose of these kriyas is to make the body and mind strong enough (not just externally but internally as well) to withstand any advanced practice.   

6 Yoga Kriyas

The 6 kriyas of yoga are complete detoxification exercises that cleanse our whole alimentary canal starting from the mouth to the anus. Combinedly these yoga kriyas are called Shatkarma.

Here the terms kriya and karma are synonymously used to define “specific actions” for achieving some “specific results”. Therefore shatkarma is also mentioned as “shat kriyas” in many yoga and pranayama books.

The 6 kriyas described in Hatha Yoga are:

• Dhauti kriya

• Basti kriya

• Neti kriya

• Nauli kriya

• Trataka kriya

• Kapalbhati kriya

Each of these yoga kriyas is meant for the purification of a specific organ system in the alimentary canal.

• Starting with the mouth, dhauti kriya focuses on cleansing the mouth and food pipe.

• Basti Kriya cleanses the colon or lower abdomen (large intestine).

• Neti kriya focus on cleansing of nasal passages.

• Nauli kriyas massages stomach organs.

• Trataka is for cleansing of eyes.

• And Kapalbhati cleanses frontal lobe (front part of the brain).