I was young when I first heard of the term ‘urine therapy’. I had balked in disgust. Then I heard that our then Prime Minister Morarji Desai used to consume urine regularly and also bathe with it! My dam of disgust burst, and I sniggered with my friends at the thought.
This was till years later when I came across Dr. G.K Thakkar, a Bombay tax consultant and advocate, who had suddenly become the most ardent exponent of urine therapy in the country. Intrigued now, I met him and realised it was a serious health science.
He later went onto set up a charitable trust called The Water of Life Foundation, with the avowed goal of popularising the therapy and guiding new adherents. He was later conferred with a doctorate at the 16th World Congress of Complementary Medicines in 1989 at Athens, Greece. With the zeal of a preacher and missionary, he travelled far and wide, his profession almost forgotten.
“Urine”, he tells you with great enthusiasm, “will cure anything. A pimple? Apply stored urine”. “Today I am 62, but took to the therapy only six years ago. The results of the Shivambhu Kalpa Vidi have encouraged me to go deeper into the subject for mankind’s sake. Imagine my amoebic dysentery, a 20-year-old problem, and eczema, just disappeared. My wife who ailed from constipation, joint pain, etc., was freed from them”!
Inspired by his guru, Kisanlal Tejpal who helped him and his wife get over their initial repulsion, Thakkar says, ‘This beautiful god given gift which we all have from birth can only be compared to divine nectar or water of life.’
The therapy originated in India almost 5000 years ago, although it was John W. Armstrong of England who pioneered it in modern times. It has been referred to in the Vedas, the Mahabharata and almost all volumes of Ayurveda; in Bhavprakasha, it is termed vishaghna or ‘killer of poison’; rasayana, which can rejuvenate the old and raktapamaharam, which purifies blood and cures all skin problems.
From the Allopathic viewpoint, this therapy’s functioning is closely related to the theory of bacterial infection. The bacteria in urine have proved to be effective against any disease. The yellow bodily waste appears to have a beneficial function that can reduce tissue damage in cancer, ageing, inflammation and heart disease.
‘That people believe urine to be a toxic substance or dirty body waste is sad’, says Thakkar. ‘Innumerable clinical and laboratory tests carried out over several years in Japan, China, US and Switzerland have conclusively proved that urine contains enzymes of different kinds, vitamins, antigens, antibodies, amino acids, valuable salts and minerals, carbonates, bicarbonates, pigments, carbohydrates and hormones”, he adds.
For 79-year-old Bao Yafu, urine therapy is just another daily routine: he drinks three cups of his own urine every day, and even washes his eyes and wipes his face with it. “In these 22 years of urine therapy, I have never caught a cold. My eyesight has become clearer and I don’t have any age pigment,” Bao told local newspaper Wuhan Evening News, also revealing that a medical check conducted by a local hospital recently showed that he has the bone density of a 30-year-old.
Let’s end his article by recalling public figures who were urine therapy adherents. They included Morarji Desai, the 5th Indian Prime Minister, who in 1978, averred that urine therapy was the perfect medical solution for millions of Indians who cannot afford medical treatment.
Former Major League Baseball player Moises Alou urinated on his hands to alleviate calluses, which he claimed allowed him to bat without using batting gloves. Madonna explained to talk show host David Letterman that she urinates on her own feet to help cure her athlete’s foot problem.
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A. Radhakrishnan
The writer is a Pune based freelance writer, poet and short story writer.[/column]