EE7.5 - Nocturnal Emission

Nocturnal Emission

Published in:
Yogic Treatments and Natural Remedies

Notes:

this version: is the Yogic Treatments, 4th edition, version (obvious spelling, punctuation and typographical mistakes only may have been corrected). I.e., this is the most up-to-date version as of the present Electronic Edition. Words in double square brackets [[ ]] are corrections that did not appear in the printed version.

Online additional information

Occurrence of nocturnal emission more than four times a month; weakness on awakening, especially weakness of the knees; voice becoming rasping for one’s age, or cracking; swelling of cheeks and neck; frequent colds; etc., are symptoms of this disease.

Generally a portion of the semen produced in the body is surplus. In single men, this surplus semen is expelled with the urine or during three or four nocturnal emissions per month. In married men it is discharged during intercourse. This discharge is harmful neither physically nor mentally. But if the discharge becomes greater than this, or if one does not enjoy any nervous pleasure during the discharge or if the semen becomes watery, or if one does not wake up after a wet dream, then it must be taken as a serious disease.

Generally nocturnal emission is a disease of adolescence and early youth. It can have various causes –

1. If due to the bad habit of masturbation a large amount of semen is wasted or the semen becomes thin, one will contract this disease.

2. If the genital organ is not kept clean, a particular kind of microbe can start breeding and cause nocturnal emission.

3. The disease may occur if, due to lack of knowledge about sex or due to any other reason, personal hygiene is not maintained properly; or

4. If, at a young age, a boy does not take part in sports, perform ásanas or enjoy the outdoors, and instead studies excessively; or

5. If the nerves of adolescents or youths are stimulated by reading erotic literature or seeing erotic pictures and films.

6. The disease can occur when one lacks control over his thoughts or lacks concentration on the Supreme and lets his vrttis (mental propensities) run towards sensual experience.

7. Eating too much spicy food, non-vegetarian food or rich food, or eating late at night, can make the stomach hot. In such cases, or if one suffers from constipation due to a defect of the liver, the shukra cannot ascend from the lower to the upper part of the body. Instead, it flows out of the body and causes this disease.

Morning – Utkśepa Mudrá, Mayurásana, Sarváuṋgásana, Matsyamudrá, Naokásana, Pashcimottánásana, Ámbhasii Mudrá and Ámbhasii Práńáyáma.

Evening – Matsyendrásana, Agnisára Mudrá, Ud́d́ayana Mudrá, Bandhatraya Yoga Mudrá, Gomukhásana, and Vajrásana.

Patients will have to stop eating non-vegetarian food at night and reduce the amount they eat during the day. A suitable quantity of fruits, roots and milk can be taken. All kinds of intoxicants should be avoided. Láu [Lagenaria siceraria Standl.], green pumpkin [Benincasa hispida Cogn.], kalmii shák and sháṋkálu [Pachyrrhizus erosus] are good in this disease.

Taking vyápaka snána⁽¹⁾ now and then is good for patients. If health permits, patients should bathe at least twice a day. Patients should also drink four to five seers of water a day. Doing ample physical labour and walking or running in the open air in the morning and evening is a must in this disease.

To keep the disease hidden from others out of shame is very harmful. Therefore, as soon as the symptoms become apparent, the advice of appropriate persons should be sought and acted on.

Patients should observe the rules of fasting on ekádashii, púrńimá and amávasyá, and should live as far as possible in natural surroundings.

Nature’s rules should be observed in all respects, whether in food, in behaviour or in one’s daily life. At the beginning of adolescence and youth, one has to acquire a correct knowledge about the arrangements that nature has made to meet the demands of human bodies and minds, because through such knowledge one can protect oneself from the onslaught of disease.

Due to the quick development of physical energy at this age, nature has provided necessary hair at the joints of the body to keep the body heat balanced and, because of the possibility of rubbing, to keep the skin healthy. So when people remove this hair owing to lack of proper knowledge, they harm themselves both physically and mentally.

Dinner should be finished by 8:30 or 9 P.M., and one should not retire to bed within one-and-a-half hours after dinner. After a meal the breath should flow freely through the right nostril for some time.

Excessive mixing of the sexes, reading or seeing pornographic books, pictures and films, are to be strictly avoided. Water should be used after urination, and the genital organ should be kept clean, keeping the foreskin pulled back. When bathing, the joints, especially the groin and the armpits, should be properly cleaned. It is very important to take vyápaka shaoca⁽²⁾ before and after every meal, before and after study, and before going to bed. Remember not to take the disease lightly, because nocturnal emission effects a pervasive waste of shukra, the most essential element of the body, and causes all the organs of the body to become weak. It is shukra that nourishes all the brain cells and nerves. Therefore, too much loss of shukra makes the brain weak; the memory becomes short; in adolescence one becomes mentally old; one suffers from palpitation in the chest for no reason; and courage and spiritedness are lost.

1. Eating an inch of basil [Ocimum sanctum Linn.] root with betel [Piper betle Linn.] every morning for 10 to 15 days, chewing carefully, will cure the disease.

2. Taking 1 tola of basil-leaf juice on an empty stomach every day in the morning for 10 to 15 days will also cure the disease.

3. The disease will be cured if one regularly chews a piece of myrobalan after one’s principal meal.

(1) [[Regarding vyápaka snána, the author’s Ananda Marga Caryácarya Part 3, “Different Yoga Practices” explains:
A bathtub is most convenient, but if this is not available, an earthen trough will suffice. If this is not available either, a wet towel can be used, soaking it repeatedly in water. Fill the bathtub with cold water, and sit in it undressed so that the area from the navel down remains submerged. Keep your feet dry and out of the tub. The area from the neck to the navel should be kept covered with a shirt or dry cloth. The crown of the head and the back of the head should be kept covered with a wet towel.
Now take another towel and rub the area from the right side of the abdomen to the groin seven or eight times. Do likewise on the left-hand side and horizontally from right to left and left to right. You should make sure that the towel on the head remains wet.
After this, wipe the abdomen, hands and thighs and take a full bath. If this is not possible, then leave the tub wearing a shirt.
This should be practised behind closed doors. In the absence of a bathtub or an earthen trough, a wet towel may be wrapped around the areas to be bathed, but in order to compensate, cold water must be poured constantly over the towel, and the towel which is to be used for the massage must be kept wet. After vyápaka snána, the thighs, pubic area and abdomen should be warmed with a dry towel.
Before and after this bath one should not eat, in order to allow the stomach to rest.
–Trans.]]

(2) [[Regarding vyápaka shaoca, the author explains in Ananda Marga Caryácarya Part 2, “The Body”: “Method of doing vyápaka shaoca: At first wash your genital organs; then hands up to elbows and legs up to knees; then, taking a mouthful of water, splash water on the eyes and face at least twelve times. Finally wash the ears and the neck. Do násápána (flushing the nostrils with water) also (only if your stomach is empty).” –Trans.]]