Fasting

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

When Hessay’s Siddhartha matched the gold buckles on the shoes of the rich with his wait- fast- pray, Kamala naturally laughed: For a woman of Kamala’s beauty cannot auction love for nothing. Fasting in the Vedic civilization was a virtue. Those who fasted and prayed received divine mercy but love is soulful food which fasting cannot substitute. Fasting is self-denial: Love is self fulfilment. By denying the basic elements or materials for sustenance you can never attain love or god. Voluntary acceptance of pain is often thought of as appeasement of the spiritual powers. The basic philosophy is: life is an endless drama of pain. Relief can be given only by the divine powers. In the context of hunger, sickness and fear the ‘wait-fast -pray’ policy of religious masters was an escapist proposition for the ease of survival.

Fasting was always used as a moral force against autocratic powers to arouse mercy , kindness and sympathy in their stubborn hearts. Women always used it at home to bend the sympathy waves of the menfolk to flow with relenting fury. Mahatma Gandhi made fasting a moral weapon against the British Government during the Freedom movement. Gandhi’s Ahimsa and Satyagraha made fasting a spiritual force. The world admired it for it aroused the conscience of men who never thought beyond the sword. This soulforce as he called this Satayagraha was passive. Yet it shook the Empire to realize that physical power is not the ultimate force to subjugate people. The poor, hungry masses have soulforce before which the gun is not always effective. Fasting for Gandhi was an aspect of the Non –violence of the brave. Voluntary acceptance of suffering to protest against the suffering imposed by the British powers was not passive or expedient, it was a positive counter energy to remind the British that if a nation can abstain from essentials to claim legitimate freedom from oppression, it can go to any length to get what it loves most. Fasting was a political weapon for Gandhi. Its novelty astounded the world.

But after 1947 when India became a free country the same ‘followers’ of Gandhi used the political weapon against their own people to arm twist the elected rulers of the people. Anasana, protest fast, became so common that it was an emotional blackmail of the clever people and soon lost its moral force. But in India fasting as a political weapon has not been totally discarded. Anna Hazare, a Gandhian, perhaps brought fasting to its last gasps by overuse and abuse.

But religious rituals and practices still include fasting as an appeasatory self- flagellation in most Hindu homes. Almost every Monday is a fasting day for devotees of Shiva. Tuesdays and Saturdays are for Hanuman. Those who cannot fast at least don’t eat meat or fish on these days. Besides these all festive occasions are fasting days for Hindus. The Nava Ratri is very auspicious for people and men and women fast for the good of the family. The belief is life cannot go on without divine blessings and appeasement of gods, therefore, is a bounden duty. The hindu widows fast on all occasions for what they know not. If life has denied things in this birth the next birth must be better and for that advance merit must be earned by self- denial. It seems pre paid service is the order of things.

In Islam too Ramzan is followed for a month. During day time no food or water is taken by the devout muslims. Kartik for the hindus  is as important as Ramzan for the Muslims. A month of prayer –fast keeps the elderly (even middle aged) and the widows in particular glued to the temples. Suppression of all human desires and sublimation of instincts fortified by month long fasting reserves space for the individual in the world soul. Modern science, the knowledge society, the pragmatics of new knowledge have no impact on these hindu practises. If you argue with a Vrindavan priest, he will flatten you with the argument that fasting cleans up the body system,  prayers purify your soul and  purity is the only merit  man should crave for : life is a continuum, death is a pause to permit the spirit to put on  a new garb, These rituals are pre ordained requisites for an improved situation in your next birth. One has no questions to know the form, nature and content of purity for a snub would be the answer.

Ask any medical practitioner, his patients mostly suffer from acidity, malnutrition and anaemia; and the cause is frequent fast and irregular food habits. But the devotees of next Dream Life will smile away the comments and go to the puja room gulping a few tablets. Religious faith is required for peace of mind and comparative moral purity in living; No debate. But self- denial, I think, is too harmful to the body and soul. Let’s sing the praise of gods in full belly and in full throated ease.