Informative

Fasting- Fascinating journey from Vedas to Nobel Prize

A refrigerator, full of snacks. A bowl on the dining table, loaded with fruits. Containers overflowing with post-Diwali sweets, dry fruits, and Laddus calling us. A tingle in our right thumb, to unlock our mobile and order from food delivery apps.

A fragrance of corn being barbequed, reaching us somewhere from the neighboring house. Accepting the fact that Diwali is over is one of the hardest things to digest every year, and right after that, fasting on the eleventh day of Kartik month does not make things easier, especially when you are in your home, in a lockdown.

Fasting is a lost art, to deny yourself the food for a certain period. A remedy to stay away from the simple pleasures of life that we take for granted. It’s a process, to practice control of a mind over the body, to establish our control over the temptations, rather than us being controlled by them.

In 2016, Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi won a Nobel prize for his research on autophagy. Autophagy is a process by which body cells recycle and renew their content, which is triggered by fasting.

It has been at least 3500 years since Indians are practicing this. Word fasting can be found in ancient texts like Vedas and Upanishads, constructed thirty-five hundred years ago. In each and every religion, the process was paired with an act of penance and worship, being followed for thousands of years.

The ancient art of feeding your soul, by staying hungry, yields multiple spiritual benefits.
Let’s take a look at them one by one. 

A Soul Cleanse.

Fast food, fried food, overcooked food, and food with fats. We are surrounded by toxic food items that we consume daily. Our body works hard to digest these nearly indigestible things. By fasting, we give a break to our body from the digestive process, allowing our soul to undergo Detox. We make space in our subconscious to be filled with the grace of the almighty. 

A deeper connect

As the body does not have to work on digestion, apart from burning our fats, it has more energy to concentrate on other things. The blood flow, circulated towards the stomach for digestion of food, gets redirected towards the brain, making our senses sharper, and perceptive for new things. During normal days, we spend a lot of time thinking about what our next meal should be. Here, as our thoughts are not occupied with what we are going to eat next, get diverted to more meaningful and deeper thoughts. In this condition, when we meditate, we establish the connection with our subconscious and with the divine, quicker than usual.  

Appreciation

In these modern times, we tend to forget how lucky we are. Satisfaction is nowhere to be seen these days, we can come off as ungrateful from time to time. As our hunger for materialistic possession grows stronger, disconnecting them makes us appreciate what we have with us. Fasting opens up space for your relationship with the supreme divine, by appreciating. 

Fasting is the time when you appreciate the people who are closest to you in terms of spirituality. In the live session, His Holiness Shree Chamunda Swamiji says, ” Appreciate your Guru. Thank Him. Thank the Mother Goddess, the Almighty, and your Ishtadev.

Appreciate them from the bottom of your heart. Thank them in such a way that the power you are thanking should feel your appreciation”. That’s exactly what we are trying to achieve when we keep fast. 

Better harmony with the Universe

An empty stomach leads to highlighted senses., resulting in improved focus and awareness of the surroundings. The spiritual benefits of fasting include a stronger sense of connection with the universal consciousness.

Freeing yourself from the things you consider essential for survival, you turn outwards, towards the universe, becoming less and less self-centred.

A different perspective

It is said in ancient texts, that when one remembers the divine during death, he gets merged with the divine. In spirituality, fasting is also considered as the rehearsal of death. On a deathbed, a person is weak, hungry, suffering from pain, and remembering his loved ones.

During fasting, we create the same scenario of hunger and sleeplessness, putting our minds on God, practicing meditations. So that when our time comes to meet our creator, we would not forget to remember him.

Fasting and Tantra

The gravitational pull of the moon is responsible for the high and low tide in the sea. A human body consists of 80 percent water. It is believed that the position of the moon even affects the water content in the human body.

It may cause emotional effects to the more perceptive human being resulting in the mental imbalance. Almost all of the auspicious tantric festivals occur either during the full moon or on the moonless nights. Most of the Tantra practitioners follow fast during these nights, celebrating the universal divinity.

The Crown Chakra

The seventh Chakra, located on the top of our head, is also called Sahasrara Chakra. The Chakra is all about spiritual connection, awakening, and transformation from within. It is believed that each and every Chakra has an affinity towards certain types of food. But the Crown Chakra is said to be stimulated by Mantra meditation and fasting. 

If you are new at fasting, fasting will test you. If you are used to chewing something constantly, fasting will test you. And the most important thing, if you are trying to fill that emotional void within you by stuffing food in you, you are in a pickle. You will need a tremendously determined resolution to complete this fasting Sankalpa, and Mantra chanting will help you in this.  

As Swamiji says in his sessions, visualizing your Sankalpa, visualizing your goal is vitally important when you start something new. Mantra is Man + Tra. (Man means mind, Tra means direction) The one which directs the mind, which increases the determination of resolution.

During meditation, if you feel like giving up on your fasting, if you feel like you are in a desperate need of inner strength to carry on with your Sankalpa, you can chant the below Mantra.

Om Aim Hreem Kleem Chamundaye Viche

While meditating, with your eyes closed, chant this, while taking your pitch higher and higher for three minutes, and post that, start chanting in your mind without moving your lips.

This potent Mantra contains the concentrated powers and blessings of Mother Goddess Saraswati, Mahalakshmi, and Mahakali.
When all three powers of Mother Goddesses accumulate, they take the form of Mother Goddess Durga, the powerful one, to aid you in your conquest.  

From a modern perspective, fasting can be an opportunity, to get closer, to spend time with the divine. These days, just restraining yourself from consuming food is not enough. It’s about making a space in your cluttered timetable, to spend that extra time with your almighty.

Apart from refraining from consuming the food, you can refrain from watching your favorite TV show, from logging on your favorite social media website, or you can refrain yourself from speaking as well.

Remember, millions of people do this, all the time. If you are new at fasting, it might feel like an impossible challenge. But with willpower, a strong mind, stronger determination, and with the strongest devotion, you can do this power boost for your body and for your devotional progress as well.