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Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door zeddie

The Truth is obtained not by fasting but by improving the will. Inspite the popular view which measures the greatness of a saint by his privations and self imposed tortures.Fasting is not permissible in the Ashram, as its practice is more often harmful than helpful to the spiritual endeavour.

If the body is not strong enough a disharmony is created between the body and the energies taken in which may upset the system. Fasting or sleeplessness make the nerves morbid and excited and weaken the brain and lead to delusions and fantasies. This excitement is not a higher state of consciusness. Some faculties get refined and increased but this has nothing to do with spirituality.

Fasting gives a sort of excitement or an impetus to the vital being but the general effect does not seem to be sound or healthy. It is a fact that by fasting, if the mind and the nerves are solid or the will-force dynamic, one can get for a time into a state of inner energy and receptivity which is alluring to the mind and the usual reactions of hunger, weakness, intestinal disturbance, etc., can be wholly avoided. But the body suffers by diminution and there can easily develop in the vital a morbid overstrained condition due to the inrush of more vital energy than the nervous system can assimilate or co-ordinate. So this puts you in a kind of state of excitement, and if your body is very strong and can bear being without food for a certain length of time, then you keep your balance and can use these energies for all kinds of things, as for example, to progress, to become more conscious and transform your nature.

Nervous people should avoid the temptation to fast, it is often accompanied or followed by delusions and a loss of balance. You lose your balance, and all the balance of forces is destroyed, and anything at all may happen to you. In any case, you lose much control over yourself and become usually very excited, and you take this excitement for a higher state.

Prolonged fasting may lead to an excitation of the nervous being which often brings vivid imaginations and hallucinations that are taken for true experiences; such fasting is frequently suggested by the vital Entities, because it puts the consciousness into an unbalanced state which favours their designs. It is therefore discouraged here.

The Gita says, yoga is not for one who eats too much or sleeps too much, neither is it for one who does not eat or does not sleep, but if one eats and sleeps suitably − yuktāhārī yuktanidrah—then one can do it best.

The higher energy and receptivity ought to come not by artificial or physical means but by intensity of the consciousness and strong will for the sadhana.

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