The word ‘fasting’ in English is not the correct translation of Upavāsa.
Q: ‘What do you understand by the word fasting?’
A1: ’You eat a little bit in the morning, a little at noon and a little in the evening.’
A2: ‘You don’t eat for long periods of time and it is also an offering.’
In google, the definition of fasting is: ‘Fasting is the willing abstinence or reduction from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period. An absolute fast or dry fasting is normally defined as abstinence from all food and liquid for a defined period’.
This is the meaning of fasting according to google. And that is generally what is understood about fasting by most people. What people understand about fasting is restraining from foods and drink. It is related to eating and drinking only. That is fasting. But Upavāsa is different to that kind of fasting.
Upa means near and vasa means ‘stay’. Upavāsa means to stay near God or close to God. Upavāsa is the way to make yourself come close or closer to God. You do some practice and mostly all the practice; religious and spiritual practice is started by restraining yourself from eating and drinking. Restraining from eating and drinking or “fasting” is an important part of Upavāsa. That is why with time, Upavāsa has been translated into fasting in English. Why?
Food is the base of Upavāsa because when you try to come closer to God, you need to make yourself better, better and even better: ‘as good as God’. For example, I want to come close to you. I should make myself like you or bring myself close to your hobbies. You like football, I will come to you bringing football news; how Ronaldo and Messi play. So, I give attention to what you like. Then, I can come to you, and then you will come to me, and then we will be in togetherness.
When I want to come closer to God, I should keep in my mind what God likes and what is the right way to come to God. I try to bring myself physically, mentally and spiritually closer to what God needs. There are certain criteria for God to accept you. We need to follow these criteria to bring ourselves closer to God. That is Upavāsa. Upa means ‘bring yourself near’ and vasa means ‘to stay’. To be with God, to become closer to God and to be always with God. You make yourself eligible for that. You prepare yourself physically, mentally and spiritually for that.
The base is food (eating and drinking). That is why people say: “You are what you eat”. Whatever you eat, affects the state of your mind. There are 3 kinds of food: sattvic food, rajasic food, and tamasic food. Sattvic food means good food. This type of food will create a calm and peaceful mind filled with love and kindness and is relaxed. The second type of food will create agitation. You will be easily triggered emotionally, you become angry easily, unlimited unnecessary desires will come to your mind, etc. Your mind will be very active. One moment you want this and the next you want something else and reject what you wanted previously. The third type of food will make you lazy. It will not help your brain to work properly, it will make your brain empty, dumb, and stop working. You will resemble whatever kind of food you eat.
When you bring yourself closer to God, it means that you will try and restrain yourself from many kinds of foods, which prevent you from coming closer to God. You should avoid kinds of food like the second and third mentioned previously, the types of foods which make you feel agitated, create an unstable mind, feel angry and lazy. There is a reason why our ancestors and scriptures give rules and regulations for that. The timings and how to follow will be included in the rules and regulations. What kind of food, how to drink, how to eat, how to cook, all of this can be found there.