A recent visit to the in laws after almost a year was different in that between father in law and I, we found ourselves talking about illnesses. It started off with my enquiring after one of his colleagues who had recently undergone a Kidney transplant and was recovering.  He mentioned that doctors had advised extreme care to ensure no infection was contracted in these early stages with an alien kidney. “There was a wound on his toe that has still not healed” said my father in law owing to his diabetic condition. I immediately told him that could be dangerous recounting how a distant cousin of mine ,who was well into the third month of recovery after a kidney transplant, suddenly contracted some infection and died at 43 years of age.

As I discussed further, my mind drifted back to an incident during my training days when an operation due to be performed on my batch mate kept getting delayed because a wound on his toe took a long time to heal.  Finally he met someone who suggested urinating on it and sure enough he tried it and it healed in no time. Remembering that incident I wondered if this man in hospital had tried any of that.  More recently in 2004 when I had been to Indonesia, I visited an old Chinese family friend of our (from the time we spent there in the early 80s). She looked much older and frail. If my mother were alive she would be her age – touching late 60s. Whilst I sat there waiting for her to serve me some lung fung soup and Ayam Goren and other exotic dishes we caught up on news from the years gone by. It was then she hesitatingly let me in on a recent development – She had taken to urine therapy. She said in the two years she had been practicing it, she seemed to have rid herself of her frequent colds, flu and even asthmatic conditions. I was really interested in finding out more.

Some more research online and I found that Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) supposedly was the first in the Western world to record and teach the practice of uropoty (the drinking of urine). The theory of urine therapy states: In the excreted urine all the body's experiences -- physical and psychological -- are collected. Reintroducing the urine to the body forces the body's immune system to confront the same experiences a second time, which gives it a second incentive to deal with the problem.

Reading up a little more, I realised there was sense in the argument that urine worked in the same way on our immune system as a vaccination did helping to strengthen its functioning. While one will have to make an effort to get over the natural mental blocks one has regarding its odour, about it being a waste product, about it containing germs and virus etc.  

Having a discussion with my well read father in law, he was quick to recite four lines in Sanskrit on the subject. That’s when I decided to ask him to slow down a bit to let me take it down. I have reproduced what he told me (supposedly from writings about the Gandamarda Yogis) with a translation that follows.

Pitolbanatwad Vihitadhya Dharaam

Nisarya Varjida Madhya Dharaam

Nishevide Sheetala Madhya Dharaam

Kabaligo Gandamado Amaroli

As the first portion contains excess Bile discard it

The last portion has no vital ingredients therefore discard it too

The middle portion is the useful portion and can be consumed

This the Gandamarda Yogis used to call “Amaroli”

Well scientific proof suggests that the method works, my elderly Chineese lady family friend vouches by it and I am tempted to try it. However between temptations to tasting surely there may be many a slip twixt the cup and the lip  I am sure.