Every now and then, a concerned aunt or a health-conscious friend posts
on social media groups about how many glasses of water we must drink each day
and why.
Thanks to these wellness-minded people, I now start my day with two
glasses of lukewarm water tinged with turmeric, ginger, and lemon.
The questions ‘what’ and ‘how much’ being answered, I seek answers to the question - ‘how ’.
From vaguely remembered TV programs, I know a saffron-clad guru
who advised people to sit down to drink water.
So every morning, I pull a kitchen step-stool and sit on it to sip
water.
One day, S saw me and mentioned in passing that he had seen his devout Muslim
friends sit in a particular way to drink water.
Intrigued by the congruity in these customs, I do some research and
come across a cultural parallelism.
According to Ayurveda, this is the method to drink water:
- Sit down and drink water.(Here are the reasons given: If you drink water while standing, it flows down with pressure and damages the internal organs. It also passes without filtration and the impurities settle in the bladder. Arthritis and joint damage may also occur because of the high-pressure flow of water.)
- Avoid gulping down large volumes of water in a single breath.
- Drink room temperature water. Warm water is even better.
- Drink only when you are thirsty.
- Know the indicators your body gives when you are thirsty.
- Drink water first thing in the morning.
- Drink water stored in silver and copper vessels.
The Islamic Sunnah prescribes the following seven steps on how to drink
water:
- Take a clean glass and fill it with water according to your requirement.
- Praise God for providing water.
- Drink water with the right hand.
- Sit down and drink water.
- Drink water while taking three breathing pauses.
- While drinking water, do not blow or exhale your breath into the glass.
- Praise God after drinking water.
There is an apparent similarity in teaching from two diverse cultural traditions
on something as mundane as how to drink water.
A more comprehensive study of convergence of different cultures could,
perhaps, provide a rich historical basis
for the formation of a world culture.
