“Period” to the mistaken interpretations of Hindu practices.

We are living in an era where ‘Feminism’ has become new cool! Somewhere in the process of making her realise her strengths, the world has built such theories with respect to specifically menstruation forgetting to revisit the cause behind many of the practices that were once the strengths of our Hindu culture. Girls, nowadays, haughtily stamp these rituals to be nothing but superstition and blind-belief!

In India, there are various practices and traditions followed by women during menstruation cycle. In different parts of India these practices vary and with increase in number of questioning minds there is a huge confusion as to whether these rituals are valid or only some restrictions put on women for unknown reason. Due to not receiving the satisfactory answers to the questions raised by young girls, many of them refuse to follow such practices.

(For today’s young educated mind, any statement without a scientific proof, is a myth and a baseless theory! That’s the education system we have built today.. but this is discussed in another article..!)

In this article, I have tried to summarise certain facts around the topic.

1.      Human body and menstruation – The Ayurveda view

Ayurveda – Ayuh: Life, Vedaha: Knowledge

Human body is made of three Doshas.. Kapha, Pitta and Vata. Vata is of five types – Prana, Apana, Udana, Vyana, Samana (Pancha-Prana).

Of the five Vata, ‘Apana Vata’ is responsible for downward movement (waste-management) in the body. Defecation, Menstruation etc., are regulated by Apana Vata.

One of the names of menstrual cycle in Sanskrit is ‘Rajasraava’. Meaning: Raja - Blood, movement, passion, energy.  Sraav – Flow.

Thus, for the physical body, menstruation is menstrual blood being thrown out of the body. In the spirited body, menstruation represents the flow of excess energy - Apana vayu. In the emotional body, the thoughts and emotions that are uneasy or unnecessary are thrown out.

2.     Why not participate in the spiritual rituals?

• Spiritual activities including Meditation, Yoga, worshiping, or going to temple, cause upward movement of Apana Vayu. Thus, during such spiritual ceremonies and in the temple the flow of energies is the exact opposite of the energy flow of women who is menstruating which may cause emotional upheaval to the women or a physical discomfort in certain areas of body.
• During the menstruation process, women are more likely to absorb other energies in the environment. Temple is a place where a huge exchange of energy takes place at all the times. To protect herself from such environment which might severely impact her energy levels, she may avoid going to the temple.
• For all spiritual activities, a balance and calm mind is must
• Not that the above would happen every time a woman goes to the temple. But no harm in taking precautionary measures.

3.      But then can women still touch the idol at home?

They may if they choose to.. They may end up absorbing the energies out of the idol too. So technically, when it is said that women cannot ‘touch’, it’s not because they are impure but it’s exactly opposite of that!

4.     Why not cook during menstruation.

We say home food is the best food as it’s made with a lot of love. One of the main ingredients in the food cooked at home is the energies of the one who cooks. Thus, a consumption of food that carries and transfers such Rajasic energies as mentioned in Point – 1, may cause certain imbalance though it may not be very prominent even in the long term. Thus, the Bramhins who routinely carried out spiritual rituals followed this strictly.

5.     Why take complete rest and stay outside the house?

Probably the primary basis of this practice would be the same that women have tendency to absorb the environmental energies including the foreign entities in their environment. Also, Ayurveda says, excess physical activity might lead to Dosha imbalance, which may have adverse effect on the health of the woman.

Also, as the emotions are floating at the surface during this phase, this is a period when women must use this time to introspect and cleanse their minds of any stress and negativity.

One more reasons in past for women to stay secluded, could be a practical difficulty during menstruation due to no availability of sanitary napkins. The women in the past lead a lot more different life than what today’s women live. Cooking and household chores required a lot of physical activity. Sometimes they even worked at farms and did more of the work like flour milling etc. at home.

Today, in almost all the urban families the groceries are one click away and modular kitchens are full of gadgets that make life easy.

They western community may have conflicted relationship with menstrual cycle but eastern vedic knowledge always treated menstrual cycle as a period of women’s mental and physical purification. So to conclude, not all the rituals are valid considering today’s scenarios and change in lifestyle, but Indian Ancient Sciences such as Ayurveda, Yoga, Astrology etc. were in fact evolved and even the modern science fails at times to establish a concrete evidence to prove that. Period!