Annexure 2 - Skin Health

SKIN Problems

The skin is the biggest organ of the body as it covers all the other organs. But it is not treated as an organ but it is subjected to a lot of torture. All kinds of things are applied over it from outside because it is visible from outside. We want to keep it healthy, beautiful and we apply all sorts of creams and lotions. I do not know their names, because I do not use them. All sorts of things are applied. Some of them are chemicals. Some of them are very bad for health. They suppress the disease.

Body generally throws out the impurities through the skin. When the bodily impurities are thrown out of the skin, if you apply some ointment, lotion, powder, this or that and try to suppress it, are you trying to do a good thing? Do not apply anything and everything over it. “Beauty is not in the skin” so the saying goes. Yes, real beauty comes from within, not through skin alone. Simply by applying some medicine, you do not become beautiful. You hide only your ugliness, nothing more. They are capable of weakening the skin. Kindly do not apply any chemical over the skin.

Remember, the health of the skin depends upon the general health. It depends on your digestive efficiency. The skin is constantly throwing out foul matter. If the foul matter is more in the body it will throw out more. If it is less it will throw out less. If the blood stream is fairly clean it will not throw out anything. So people whose kidneys function if efficiency will have their perspiration with a foul stench. It may even stain the clothes. You go on drinking tea or any such thing. Well if you go on drinking tea, coffee, cola and all these stimulating drinks you will know as to what extent you are taxing your kidneys. The drugs suggested for reducing the high blood pressure and hypertension, the drugs suggested for reducing acidity, the alkaline powders, mixtures, all these and many other things, tax the kidney. Well, modern man takes all these and taxes the kidney to such an extent that ultimately, he needs dialysis. The kidney has been provided, so that it could be of service to us throughout our life. Let us not overwork any part of the body. If the kidneys, by any chance, were to become very much inefficient, your skin, which is a partner with it, will start throwing out the foul matter. Now the skin is throwing out, in addition to perspiration the foul matter also. It is also exerting an oil called sebum. It is this natural oily secretion that keeps the skin supple and smooth. If you upset your nervous system too much by drinking coffee, tea, alcohol and smoking, you upset the glandular system. Well, the secretion of sebum is greatly disturbed and you start getting dry skin and so many other diseases.

Do not apply soap while bathing. The soap remove the oily secretion and makes the skin dry. Any amount of oil applied is only outside oil. It cannot replace the natural secretion. Remember, many of the hair troubles are only skin troubles. The scalp, the skin over the head, the skin covering the skull, becomes unhealthy and gets dandruff. People get falling hair, people develop so many kinds of disorders. Some people ask, what to do with body odour. “If the soap is not used we look ugly’. If it is so than 100 or 150 years ago everybody should have looked ugly. Soap industry is not older than that. The toilet soaps were not known more than a 100 years ago. Were they not living clean, healthy?

So, keep it clean by not applying soap. If you want to keep the skin healthy avoid all artificial methods of living. Start living naturally. First of all reduce your salt intake. Take plenty of raw salads. Live rightly. The impurities in the body will be so little that there will be no body odour and the little body odour which is there can be removed by applying gram flour or the sihakai powder. Some people use simple earth. So keep the skin healthy by living rightly. Do pranayama. Well keep yourself from constipation by sensible dieting. Do a little sensible exercise. Do not adopt the wrong posture. Live rightly. Eat rightly. Have occasionally fasting. The skin will take care of itself. Here is the unity of treatment. Do not allow the skin to become unhealthy.

One thing more about the skin. The skin is always kept covered by us. It has to be kept covered. One cannot help it. But why not cover it sensibly. Why should we do it insensibly? I am refereeing to dress. The dress that you put on the skin should be such that it will absorb the elimination. The dress that you put on the skin should be such as to allow plenty of air to go in and to come out. The skin needs air all the 24 hours of the day. Remember that five percent of the breathing takes place through the pores of the skin. If the skin is deprived of the air, if the skin is deprived of light, and if it is kept dark all the time by dark coloured clothes or if you put on very tight dress not allowing air in between, skin health will suffer. And if the skin health suffers the general health suffers.

So what shall we do so far as dress is concerned? There are two aspects. One is comfort. The other is tradition. The lawyers who goes to the court has necessarily to wear some kind of dress. He cannot go dressed like me. So long as you are in the court you wear that dress. Why should you not wear that inside your own home? That is not a court. Inside your own home you are Mr. so and so or Mrs. so and so, or something. When you are at home, wear the minimum dress. And then the dress should be such as not to exert any pressure on the body. Many people tie their dothis, tie their clothes tightly over their abdomen, so that a permanent mark is seen there like equator over the globe. Well they tie it so tightly with pressure on the skin. How can there be blood circulation? So many people complain of gas trouble. One of the major causes of gas-trouble is just a tight dress. Do not wear the dress very tightly. There is a method of wearing the dress by which it can be worn not tightly. Menstrual disorders of some ladies are due to wearing saries very tightly over the hip region. Constantly wearing it so tight, it disturbs all functions including the function of reproductive organs in the pelvic region. It causes so many troubles. Pelvic congestion occurs. Wearing the clothes tightly by young boys leads masturbation. Due to the same pelvic congestion masturbation, night discharges and so many troubles occur. So do not wear the dress very tightly over the body. Let the dress be a little loose allowing a little air column in between you and the dress. That air should be capable of moving in and out. So the cloth that you wear should be a khaddar cloth. Well whether you agree with Gandjhiji’s economics or not for other purposes, if you wear the synthetic fibres, if you wear very closely woven fabrics, no air will go in. No air will come out. Your skin will suffocate. Khadi is not only the lever to freedom as Gandhiji put it, but also the lever of health. So wear the traditional dress outside. When you go home wear khadi. Today anybody can wear khadi anywhere. Some khaddar is also like muslin. Do not use that. Use the thicker ones and have loose clothes, preferably white clothes, the churidar pyjama. The neck tie will create cervical spondylitis. Well do not apply anything very tightly. Remember that air is a food for the skin which the skin directly feeds on. So have sensible clothing for comfort and not clothing for fashion. Avoid all the synthetic fibres. The synthetic fibres coming in tough with the skin creates various kinds of diseases. Even the plastic handles of the bags and the umbrellas, which you are using, affect the skin health. The wooden handle of umbrellas are far better. They may not look so fine. But they will protect your health. When you get a little wound or injury [I am not referring to fracture] do not apply the penicillin ointment, or sulpha ointment or any kind of poison over the skin. Poison inside is bad. Poison outside is equally bad. You all know that when you apply such ointment or such drugs and dress the wound, you get a permanent scar. When the skin is formed the skin over that part is not skin. It is scar tissue. The scar tissue. is not the healthy skin. So whenever there is a little wound, whenever there is a little injury do not apply anything from outside. Apply a simple wet pack. Take a piece of cloth, ordinary cloth of cotton, preferably khaddar cloth, fold it to the extent needed dip it in cold water, rinse it and apply. And observe a little fasting. Start living on vegetables and fruits. Purify your body. The wound will heal by itself without the scar. The scar left on your body by improper treatment is nature’s seal of disapproval, reminding you for ever that you had an injury there, you treated it wrongly and that she disapproves it even now. Do not apply any chemical over the skin and weaken the skin. You can apply any wet pack over the body. A wet pack will improve the blood circulation. It will not create any botheration. Doctors advise you not to apply water at all. They do not mind putting a poison on it. They deprive the particular portion or air etc. by tying it very tightly. Not a little air would enter. But they go on putting poison over it and tell you to eat anything you like. That is not the way. Nature heals perfectly. Only you must know how to live in tune with the laws of nature.