Ayurvedic Remedies: Dinacharya Part 2 – Evening and Night Routine

Dress :- Wearing clean apparel adds to the bodily charm, reputation, longevity and prevents inauspiciousness. It brings about pleasure, grace, competence, and good looks.

Use of perfumes :- Use of scents and garlands stimulates libido, produces good smell in the body, enhances longevity and charm. It gives corpulence and strength to the body; it is pleasing to the mind.

Use of ornaments :- Wearing of gems and ornaments adds to the prosperity, auspiciousness, longevity and grace, and prevents dangers from snakes, evil spirits, etc. It is pleasant and charming. It is also conducive to ojas.

Care of hair and nails :- The dressing and cutting of hair, beard (including moustaches) and nails, etc., add to the corpulence, libido, longevity; cleanliness and beauty.

Food :- One should eat in proper quantity. The quantity of food to be taken again depends on the power of digestion (including metabolism). The amount of food which, without disturbing the equilibrium of dhatus and doshas of the body, gets digested as well as metabolised in proper time, is to be regarded as the proper quantity. Items of food like shali, shashtika, mudga, common quail, gray partridge, antelope, rabbit, Indian sambar, etc.; even though light in digestion by nature are to be taken according to the quantity prescribed.

Similarly preparations of flour, sugarcane and milk, til, masha and meats of marshy and aquatic animals, even though heavy in digestion by nature, are also required to be taken in proper quantity. The light food articles are predominant in the qualities of vayu and agni and heavy ones inprithviandjala mahabhutas. Therefore, according to their qualities, the light articles of food, being stimulants of appetite, are considered to be less harmful even if taken in excess of the prescribed quantity. On the other hand, heavy articles of food are by nature suppressors of appetite and harmful if taken in excess unless there is a strong power of digestion and metabolism achieved by physical exercise.

If the food article heavy, only three fourth or half of the stomach capacity is to be filled up. Even in the case of light food articles, excessive intake is not conducive to Me maintenance of the power of digestion and metabolism. Taken in appropriate quantity food certainly helps the individual in bringing about strength, youthfulness, happiness and longevity without disturbing the equilibrium of dhatus and doshas of the body.

Use of collyrium :- One should regularly apply the collyrium made of ir.timony because it is useful for the eyes. Rasanjana is to be applied once in every five or eight nights for lacrymation of the eyes. Of all the mahabhutas, tejas dominate the eyes, so they are specially susceptible to kapha. Therefore, the therapy which alleviates kapha is good therefore keeping the vision clear.
A strong collyrium must not be applied to the eyes during the daytime is the eyes, weakened by drainage, will be adversely affected at the sight of the sun.

Smoking :- In Ayurveda different types of cigars are prescribed for smoking. They are made of vegetable drugs and do not include tobacco or narcotics Sue cannabis. Smoking cures heaviness of head, headache, rhinitis, hemicrania, earache, pain in the eyes, cough, hiccup, dyspnoea, obstruction in throat, weakness teeth, discharge from the morbid ear, nose and eye, purulent smell from nose and mouth, toothache, anorexia, lock jaw, torticollis, pruritus, infective conditions, paleness of face, excessive salivation, impaired voice, tonsillitis, uvulitis, alopecia, greying of hair, falling of hair, sneezing, excessive drowsiness, loss of consciousness, and hypersomnia.

It also strengthens hair, skull bones, organs and voice. Eight times are prescribed for habitual smoking because vata, pitta and kapha get vitiated during these times. One should smoke after bathing, eating, tongue scraping, sneezing, brushing the teeth, inhalation of medicated material, application of collyrium and after sleep.

Study :- One should not study if there is insufficient lighting, during an outbreak of fire, nor during the earthquake, nor during important festivals, nor during the fall of meteors, nor during the solar or lunar eclipse, nor on a new moon date and nor during the dawn or dusk. One should not study without being initiated by a teacher. While studying, one should not recite words incomplete in sounds nor in high voice nor in hoarse voice, nor without proper accents nor without proper morphological symmetry, neither too fast, nor too slowly, nor with excessive delay, nor with too high nor too low pitch.

Night meals :- Food should be taken as early as possible at night. There should be sufficient gap between the time of intake of food and the time of going to bed. This will help in proper digestion of food which will result in good sleep also. The food should, as far as possible, be light and easily digestible.

Use of curd at night :- Intake of curd at night is strictly prohibited. Curd is otherwise good for health. But it has a bad effect on the channels of circulation which are obstructed. This results in impairment of sleep and disturbances in mobilization, specially for patients who are suffering from asthma, bronchitis and rheumatism.

Sex :- One should not indulge in sexual intercourse with a woman during her menses or a woman who is suffering from a disease or is impure or is having infection or a woman with an ugly appearance, or with bad conduct or manners or "with the one devoid of skills. One should not indulge in sexual intercourse with a woman who is not friendly or has no passionate desire or is passionately attached to somebody else or is married to somebody else or a woman of another caste. Sexual activity in any organ other than the genital organ is prohibited, Sexual activities are also prohibited under sacred trees, in a public courtyard, on a cross-road, in a garden, in a cemetry, at a slaughter house, in water, in medical clinics or in the house of brahmins or teachers or in temples.

Such activities are again to be avoided during dawn and dusk 2nd on inauspicious days. Nor one should indulge in such activities while impure or without intense desire or without erection or without having taken rood or with excessive intake of food or in an uneven place or while under the. pressure of the urge for micturition, after exertion, after physical exercise fasts having exhaustion and in places having no privacy. One should make i habit to take a glass of milk added with sugar after a sexual act.