Fasting "Upavasa"

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.

In general, people will question all these regulations. They will not understand. They understand that fasting is restraining yourself from some food for one day, one week or one month. Or you eat a lot in the morning, not eating during the day and then you eat again during the night. That is why fasting is not the correct translation of Upavāsa. Fasting is an important part of Upavāsa. When you discipline yourself with food and drink, it will help your mind to become calm, improve concentration, relax you and bring you closer to God. That is why fasting is needed. When you fast, your mind and body will be calmer. It will not become lazy, but calm and fresh. Your mind will be stable and peaceful, and your soul will be stable.

When you remember God, do meditation and pray, your mind and body will give attention to what you are doing; prayer, meditation, etc. That is the importance of fasting. When you fast, many bad thoughts will go away. Your body will get rid of all diseases. A great number of bacteria will die. When you fast, fast according to the proper rules and regulations. The real fasting will be from morning till the next morning. That is only if you want to do real fasting for one day.

In Bali we celebrate Nyepi on the 7th of March. We fast from morning till the next morning. We eat and drink nothing. We don’t even swallow our own saliva. That is only if you do the strict fasting. By doing Upavāsa, it will help your body to become healthier and stronger.

Nowadays, people pay most attention to their bodies. A little attention goes to the mind and barely any attention for the benefit of the soul. Fasting is mostly done for the benefit of the body. It’s not bad to fast for the body. It’s actually very good. Everybody should do that. However, Upavāsa does not mean to fast for the body.

When you go on a diet, your face will look good, you will look more handsome, more beautiful, you will be healthier, you will be stronger, and your soul will be purified. You will lose weight and fat, which is the cause of many diseases. So, fasting for the body is not bad. Everybody should follow this. We just need to understand that it is not only for the body.

Fasting is for the soul and to bring ourselves closer to God. In this modern life, everybody is busy. You have no time. Even no time for organising your food. Actually, there is time, you just need to be disciplined and to organise your food well. People will ignore this and take refuge in claiming that they are too busy. We can organise our food. Even when we are the busiest people.

We give no attention to organising our food well. When you manage your food well, according to the benefit of your health, according to the peace of mind or spirituality, your mind will be relaxed, calm, steady and you can do your daily work or work in the office better.

You will not become tense so easily. That is also the benefit of Upavāsa. Nowadays, you see children eating very unhealthy food and drinks everywhere in the world. The taste of that unhealthy food is good. I like the taste, you like it as well. Once in a while, it’s okay to eat that. However, if you eat that type of food daily, and feeding it to your children, you are increasing the chance of having to take them to the hospital later on. Lots of children got operated in their stomachs because tumors were found.

Fasting will help people avoid many diseases. It is a must for everybody to fast even if you are not doing it for spiritual purposes. It is important to fast when it comes to the body. Also, many foods cause you to not only become ill but also become weak. Your body will become weak. Even though you are eating and drinking you will still become weak when you eat unhealthy food. You will be affected mentally and become spiritually blocked. Certain food and drinks will block you from spirituality. You will not be able to understand the importance of spirituality due to certain foods entering your body. So be careful with certain food and drinks.

Upavāsa does not only consist of food and drinks. That is only the base of Upavāsa. Good food and good drinks will help you do your spiritual practice in a more focused way. After food, cleanliness, and purity follow. That is the base of spirituality.

If you are a special soul, or Nitya-siddha (liberated soul), there is no need to take a bath wearing clean clothes, etc. The external environment will not disturb you. You are a good and perfect soul. There is no need to practice meditation. The soul is and has always been spiritually aware and awake from the very beginning. Materialistic things cannot touch your soul.

In general, we need to keep cleanliness and purity. We need to organise our food well, keep clean and keep our purity. Then we practice perfect meditation. You should do the right meditation, not a meditation that just makes your mind relaxed. So that is Upavāsa. Chanting mantras, strict fasting and keeping the same time to do your practice. When you do serious practice, you will also count the seconds until the exact time and then you will start your practice. This practice is very focused. People do it for one month, for 40 days or for one year. They will not cut their nails, shave their beards and cut their hair. Whether they are in a cave, ashram or at their own place they will not step out from there. That is Upavāsa, the essence of fasting. Upavāsa is not fasting and fasting is not Upavāsa. But in English, it is translated that way because no other word in English to translate it other than fasting. (Darmayasa)