The following rules assume importance to keep up health during Ashaad.
Neither to drink flowing water of rivers nor the fresh water of lakes. Use well water and that too boiled if possible.
Not to eat the vegetable growing in fresh rainwater or eat as little of them as you can.
Use sour lemon freely.
Neither to drench ourselves in the rains nor to breathe in moist air. Patients of cough, hard breathing, Asthma, tuberculosis of the lungs should be more careful.
Not to roam about barefooted in the rains.
To maintain body heat by wearing warm wools or thick cottons.
To eat, according to taste and appetite of fried, sour, and hot (chili mixed) foods.
The above-mentioned fried articles should be eaten hot i.e. freshly fried and immediately, for if these get cold and stale they become difficult to digest and so harmful to health.
To fast or take very limited food if there is indigestion. If these rules for Ashadh are followed, Ashadh proves a very useful and important month during this recreation period of the seasons and it lays the foundation for good health and energy that enable people to guard against the diseases of Sharad.
August (Shravan)
The following things should be done during Shraavan.
To check the accumulation of impure material from getting accumulated in the bowels and then decay, observing fasts or taking light diet.
Salty, sour, hot, fried articles should only be taken hot so that they remove Vaayu.
In the last days, milk products such as rice gruel, and if one can digest it, milk and rice porridge with hot fried diet should be taken.
Not to take fresh raw water; if one has to drink it, it should be drunk well boiled and well cooled.
To eat less green vegetables.
To take daily a mixture of 3 grams of dried ginger powder and 3 grams of gud to help the digestion of undigested food or Aama that creates diseases, and to maintain heat.
Women under labour, who have already delivered, should take a lot of dried ginger in this season, in the form of sweet balls or other sweets containing a good deal of dried ginger powder. This will help them to be free from vaayu (gas) and indigestion and step up digestion, and also produce a larger supply of milk in the mother?s breasts. The most useful fruit for this season is sour lemon. It should be taken freely.
September (Bhaado)
The following instructions may be followed with advantage in Sharad :
Take milk, milk gruel, milk and rice porridge.
Take either ghee-besmeared chapattis or fried in ghee.
Take sooran(yam), moong (green gram), or vegetables with little water.
Oranges, sweet lemons, sour lemons, grapes and such other sweet citreous fruits are givers and sustainers of good health.
Crushed banana with sour lemon juice sprinkled over it is highly beneficial.
Bitter tasting leaves and vegetables are also necessary for the cure of excited pitta-caused diseases.
In this season the following do's and don't s should be borne in mind:
Don't take sour buttermilk. Take it only after adding sufficient salt so that the sourness may be counteracted.
Don't move about in the heat.
Walk about in the moonlight and play games etc. enough to cause perspiration. Dance in the rings and sing songs. If this much care and caution are taken to keep healthy in the unhealthy weather of Sharad and medicines necessary to purify and control disease causing things are taken good health will result.
