Healing by using Nature Cure, also known as naturopathy, is a
combination of a variety of natural therapeutics and methods of healing. Passed down
through the ages, this system leans upon the wisdom of ancient as well as modern science.
The curative properties of Nature's elements - the sun, air, earth and water - are
employed as natural cures.
Within the big universe (supreme consciousness and the scattered matter throughout the big
cosmos are made up of basic five elements) is the small universe (individual consciousness
and the body with it's same basic five elements). Five elements viz. Ether (Space), Air,
Fire, Water and the Earth are present in the big universe and these same five elements are
also there in the small universe but in different forms. Any disharmony or imbalance
amongst them either causes turbulence in the universe or the imbalance results in diseases
in the body.
The possible cosmic intelligence becomes aware of the imbalance in the universe and tries
to balance it with whatever resources available. The brain (individual intelligence) does
the same thing in the body. For e.g.In winter the blood vessels contract to conserve the
heat. Subsequently, in summer the energy from the body evaporates to become sweat, so as
to balance the body temperature with the outside.
Sneezing, coughing, fever and diarrhea are the natural reflexes to remove the foreign
source of trouble, e.g. an allergen or any microorganism. Any acute disease or symptom of
a disease, according to nature cure, is an expression of the balancing act by the body
intelligence.
The primary cause of all diseases, according to nature cure, is the conscious or
unconscious violation of Nature's laws and the disease in reality is a self-purifying
effort by the body to heal itself.
Nature cure professes that what affects one part of the body, affects the entire body, no
matter by what name the disease is called. The body is a complete entity and reacts to a
disease in totality. It must therefore, be treated as a whole and not in parts.
All healing comes from within the body itself. There are self-curative forces inherent in
the human body working towards health and healing, the physician lends only an intelligent
assistance. Ancient civilizations believed that some disorders of the human body could be
cured or relieved through natural stimuli and without the use of any drug. Indian
religious texts like the Vedas and Upanishads lay the greatest stress on living in harmony
with Nature and making use of natural stimuli for promotion of health and cure of disease.
They regularly turned to simple herbal remedies, therapeutic diets, hydrotherapy and
exercise for cures, discovering that many a times, a stomach upset due to indigestion was
relieved by abstaining from food, aches and pains were relieved with the application of
hot fermentation etc. Fresh air and sunshine, use of water at bearable extremes of
temperature, fasting and so on were used as agents to promote health or to cure diseases
in ancient India, Egypt and Greece. The Great Bath of the Indus civilization at
Mohenjo-daro, the elaborate baths during the Roman times and the hamams or saunas of the
Mughal period in India are witnesses to the popularity of such methods.
The nature cure movement found support from enthusiasts in Germany and some other
countries of Europe in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The term Naturopathy was
coined by a nineteenth century German homeopath, John H. Scheel.
In recent times, Gandhiji was one of the greatest propagators of nature cure methods. He
stuck to these methods even when his own health or that of his near and dear ones was in
danger, due to serious illnesses.
