CHAPTER NINE
Arthritis and rheumatism
ONE of Yoga’s answers to the problems with which this chapter is concerned reads a little like black magic. Still it adds a touch of the bizarre and the exotic to this exacting science of discipline and, as with all Yoga practices, there is sound good sense behind its methods. The Indians claim that people who are afflicted with arthritis or allied complaints should keep a raw, unpeeled, winter-crop potato—yes, I did say a potato!— close to their skin day and night until the condition is relieved. It sounds a little like an old gipsy legend and as a matter of fact I did meet a gipsy some time ago who was afflicted with arthritis in the shoulders. I told him this Yoga story about keeping a potato near one’s skin and he looked at me in sheer amazement. He was completely puzzled as to how I had got hold of this old ‘gipsy’ secret, so it seems that way back in time, gipsy or Yogi, they had respect for the humble potato as a powerful cure for arthritis.
It need not be a very large potato as apparently the smaller ones work just as efficiently and I must say more conveniently. An over-large potato carried upon the person could lead to all kinds of questions and complications. The potato should be discarded when it either grows very hard like a stone or else becomes soft and wrinkled, and should be replaced by a fresh one, but make quite sure it is a winter-crop one.
You could keep it in your pocket during the day and at night slip it into the toe of an old stocking and draw the other end over your hand so that the potato does not roll away from you while you sleep. If you are married this practice could produce some hilarity from your partner but the laugh would be yours if you cured your arthritis by this unorthodox method.
So bear with the jeers of your mate and try the experiment. You may be agreeably surprised.
For good measure, while you are on the potato cure, you should drink potato water, which is one of the very best alkalizing drinks and helps the system to eliminate the impurities which are to blame for your complaint. To prepare this drink, and it need not be unpalatable if you flavour it well, wash four or five fairly large potatoes but do not peel them. Put them in a saucepan with two pints of water and bring to the boil. Simmer them slowly for about an hour and then strain through a fine sieve or cloth. Drink the water first thing in the morning, at least once or twice dur