Upavasa — fasting is one among all Daivavyapashraya (spiritual) therapies and one among ten Langhana (that which produces lightness of the body) therapies. ‘Upa’ means “near” and ‘Vasa’ means “to stay”. So fasting means “to sit or stay near (the Lord)” to keep the Lord close to your heart and mind.
Fasting is defined as “complete voluntary abstinence from taking any kind of food for a particular time, in order to give rest to the digestive system”. Fasting is a break from ingestion. The main source of energy is glucose.
It is used by various organs for different bodily functions. However, the excess glucose gets stored in the adipose tissues and liver. It is this unused excessive glucose that gives rise to metabolic diseases like diabetes, thyroid and obesity.
When we fast and stop eating, your body wipes up all the glycogen that is in the liver and the muscle and when this excess glucose is used up , your level of glucose will be maintained and therefore, it brings a balance to the functioning of various organs. Fasting is common to just about every major religious tradition. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates believed it helped the body heal itself.
Besides religious practice, there are a number of health reasons. It is an ancient wisdom based approach towards ailments reversal and age reversal. Fasting creates a lot of space and allows your body’s coping mechanism to get unburdened from the day to day food, digestion, absorption, assimilation and elimination.
The lag which builds up gradually creates the burden of toxins, which we call ‘amavish’, gets harboured in organs and creates cellular inflammation. This cellular inflammation becomes the root cause of every ailment. Ailments emanate from the stomach.
When the body is not digesting food, there are miracles happening to the body. So when you allow your stomach a break, we allow a system reboot, a digestive system reboot, organ system reboot, but most importantly the endocrine system. Typically, an 8 – hour gap between meals is very good, it allows the body to recover and digest absolutely well and eliminate everything unwanted out so technically keeping you disease free.
Some benefits of fasting are better insulin control, detoxification of the body, stimulation of the digestive fires, removal of toxins, anti-ageing effect, improved metabolism, cell rejuvenation, feeling light and healthy, feeling more energetic, better weight management, better concentration and focus. It also increases our mental energy and makes us disciplined. Fasting is actually slowing down.
Fasting means gap and space from consumption of food and drinks. You can choose to have a moderate approach towards it by going with fasting raw — so only fruits and salads. Or you can choose to do fasting of fluids — vegetable juices, fruit juices, herbal tea and soups.
You can choose to have a combination — choosing light grains like samak and buckwheat khichdi with ghee. You can choose to do just warm water fast. Or simply, you can choose to do a complete fast without any water or anything else.
You can also choose to eat once a day. When you eat only once a day, you go a few notches higher in excellence of health and health means healing, healing means allowing your body to come back to wholeness again. Just allowing it space, so balancing of ether.
This balancing of ether typically allows your body to reorient itself in terms of the elements. Because we are made of 5 elements and ether is the universal, omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient element of all. Ether is present in every other element and it is the pacifier, the equaliser and the regulator.
The spiritual significance? Because fasting is a cleansing, the system becomes vibrant. This helps the meditator to sit up with eyes closed and still be fully alert. To create this vibrancy, it is important to observe how we eat, what we eat, how much we eat.
Fasting purifies the mind and the body and allows it to divert and think beyond. It strengthens one’s conviction and teaches you self-control. That’s when you can meditate, focus, concentrate.
Fasting helps in the development of the body, mind and soul. It helps to destroy the tridosha (phlegm, bile and wind) of the body. I recommend supplementing the fasting ritual with some deep self-reflection, meditation and swadhyaya to unravel different layers of our being.
Also exposing yourself to sunlight, fresh air and water will help the process of fasting better. We live in a society of abundance and fasting is self-imposed scarcity but so what when it brings about so many health and well-being benefits. Fasting is not starvation.
It is a beautiful system. We must do it the right way. Fasting initialized.
.. Healing optimized.
.. Life Mickeymized!!! (Dr Mickey Mehta is a global leading holistic health guru and life coach; website: www.
drmickeymehta.com).
