The dangers of the sauna²⁰

Vinaya’s car-sauna is hotter than the hottest. It can kill the strongest man on earth. On that day we drove about ten miles in his car-sauna along my running course on Union Turnpike. After ten miles I got out. When I opened the door and stepped out onto somebody’s lawn, I almost fainted. I told him that the owners wouldn’t appreciate it if I fainted on the lawn, and I got back into the car.

Once I entered the car, I asked him to drive as fast as possible back to my house and not to worry about the police. On Union Turnpike we were going seventy, seventy-five, eighty miles per hour. I am a fool and he is a fool. We didn’t think of lowering the heat or opening the windows. We just went on driving as fast as possible. He said, “Guru, before I joined the path, I did this kind of thing. Now you are asking me again to drive eighty-five miles per hour.” He was so delighted to go back to his old life!

When we reached my house, some boys had to carry me out of the car onto the lawn. One was massaging my head, one my feet. They put ice all over my body, and there were two fans. I couldn’t recognise anyone, and I couldn’t even get up.

My next door neighbour Mrs. Chino came out of her house in a panic. She said that she didn’t want to lose me. “I recently lost my husband and I don’t want to lose you,” she said.

Finally the boys took me upstairs. I closed the door — only to have a more serious attack. I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

I always used to advocate that Amita and others ride in Vinaya’s sauna. Amita says she enjoys it like anything. But for me, Vinaya puts it on the hottest. He wants to show off — to show me how powerful his sauna is. Before I enter into the car, he runs the motor for ten or fifteen minutes. When he shows off and when I show off, where do we stand?

You may ask why my inner beings didn’t warn me that this would happen. They could have, but they knew I was not going to die, and they wanted to give me an experience. This suffering that I went through was necessary; otherwise, I would not have learned the needed lesson and taken the message seriously. Now this message I am giving to all my disciples.

The sauna can be very dangerous if you try to lose five or six pounds all at once. The sauna should be used only for ten or fifteen minutes — not for an hour or two. Eat less and run more: this is the only cure for weight problems. The only answer is to run and then to not eat, to not eat and then to run. In my case I also put weights on my legs and get very good exercise when I walk.

Those who say they don’t eat and still gain weight have to pray to the goddess of air: “Please don’t come near me.” As the Indians traditionally pray to Saturn, “Saturn, please don’t come near me,” they have to pray to the air goddess or the wind god, “Please don’t come near me, because if you come, I gain weight.”

Recently I took some pills which Dhananjaya bought in Mexico. If you take these Mexican pills, you may lose nine pounds but you get unbearable cramps. The other day I took them, only to die. When I got the cramps, I screamed from upstairs for help. Baoul and Databir were outside. They heard me calling, but because of the birds’ screaming, nobody in the house could hear me. Now Dhanu has installed a buzzer system in the house so that I can be heard from upstairs. It rings in every room of the house.

The Mexican pills were not as dangerous as the sauna, but they were still quite dangerous. From now on I have decided, “No pills, no sauna!”