Tips on fasting
A question arises, “when does fasting begin?” Fasting begins, not from the time the last meal is taken, but when a meal that is to be taken is omitted, that is, after the previous meal has been digested and the resulting wastes expelled, and hunger for the next meal is felt. This hunger is satisfied by drinking some water, not by eating. In the beginning for a day or two, hunger may arise now and then at the usual meal-times but each time is must be turned off by drinking water alone.
Every day, beginning from sunrise, the faster should go without food for six hours or more, until natural hunger is felt and then eat a light meal of positive food. If hunger comes the same day again, a much lighter meal of positive food may be taken, or the fast may be kept on till some time in the afternoon or in the evening. If the patient takes two principal meals daily, he is unlikely to make any appreciable progress to a cure, or the cure may be slowed down, and postponed to a far-off date.
Generally, if it be possible, the chronic patient must not engage in strenuous labour of any kind. If he is able to work, he must not work for too long at a time. Also, he must refrain from work after taking a meal. For weak patients more rest and relaxation are necessary, if they are not to suffer injury to health. After months or years of such treatment, a high level of bodily lightness will be noticed, and from that time onwards there may be curative crises, which will take the form of ‘acute’ diseases, as in the first stage of disease progression. The curative crises are a sign that the vital power has increased, and the load of foreign matter has been greatly lessened. So these crises are not to be feared but welcomed and gone through with fasting, as prescribed for acute conditions. By this process health is recovered and the disease comes to an end. In some cases recovery of health comes without noticeable curative crises.
Another mode of fasting is possible and may be resorted to by patients of chronic ill health. In this method some highly positive drink is taken not more than four times a day. This mode is suitable for weak patients who feel that absolute fasting is beyond their capacity to go through.
Patients must fast for some hours daily, and for a few days monthly. In many cases the former alone may suffice. In others, both should be put into practice. These instructions are for the cure of chronic diseases and those of degeneracy, explained before.
In fasting the patient should drink water as often as necessary, when thirst is felt. Also, it is proper for the fasting patient to take non-violent enemas to keep the bowels clean and empty. The same methods are necessary for local diseases, causes by accident or injury, or a local eliminatory effort of life. A local disease may be utilised by Nature for effecting elimination of matter, and this must be aided by several health building measures.
Below are some tips on fasting
Fasting in Destructive Disease
In diseases of degeneracy – of the third and last stage of disease-progression – fasting of some kind must be gone through, as explained for chronic cases.
Every day, fasting until noon or longer, waiting for hunger, partake sparingly of some light, positive food – fruits or vegetables, raw – uncooked. He should only so eat, a little each time, that the sense of bodily lightness is not lost, as in chronic cases.
In allopathic practice these rules are disregarded and the patient is fed on flesh, milk and other heavy foods, which he cannot digest, or eliminate, and this too many times a day. Patients who are thus overfed, ultimately die due to exhaustion of their vitality. There are, even among professors of our own system, many who feed their patients on the same lines as the allopaths, thereby killing them, not knowing the basic principles of our hygienic system.
The truth is that in chronic and destructive diseases there is dyspepsia and consequently an inability to digest heavy foods. Hence patients suffering from such diseases need to be treated like dyspeptics.
Fasting in Mental Disorders
Mental disorders are also curable by resort to fasting, because these are due to the presence of toxic foreign matter deposited in their brains. When the brain is freed from this encumbrance, it becomes normal. There is no need to employ a psychopathic physician. It is however needful to state in this context that if some virulent poison, such as vaccine, has entered the brain, the cure of the disease may prove difficult, or even impossible.
Fasting in Addiction
Addiction to the use of tobacco or other poisonous stuff can be got rid of by resort to fasting. For such patients both fasting and dieting are necessary as also other hygienic measures.
Mental Poise Necessary
One should take to fasting only after studying and understanding the theory and practice of the system, and firmly believing in it, not at the command of a ‘doctor’ of Nature Cure; one must rely upon oneself and God and use his own discretion.
While fasting, the patient must not engage in talks with anyone who might frighten or discourage him. But if the patient is equipped with knowledge and strength of mind, and if not influenced by others, he may do so.
In latent and chronic disease conditions, one should fast only with a pure and strong mind, not otherwise. Purity and strength of mind are to be achieved by having faith in this true science, surrendering oneself to God and being fearless. This means and implies that one should be a devotee of God.
If, during fasting, the mind gets upset or is weakened, the fast should be given up at once, and dieting carried out as described for breaking the fast.
Breaking the Fast
Most persons are able to go through a fast. The difference between a man of superior mind and one with an inferior mind will show itself in the breaking of a fast. A fast should be broken according to the rules so as to ensure its good results. If the rules are not followed, no good results will be achieved even unfavourable results may follow.
After a fast one should not eat a heavy meal at once so as to ensure best results The patient should, in the beginning, take a small quantity of some very light food, which can be digested with ease. The reason is that, during the fast, the digestive organs have very little power of digestion. They are unable to do this work then. They need to be trained by easy stages, so that they can recover their digestive capacity.
In the Chandogya Upanishad there is an analogy which helps in the understanding of the right procedure. “Just as the bits of live charcoal left over in the ashes, after a big fire has consumed all the fuel, are not equal to the burning of heavy fuel, so the digestive power at the end of a fast is unequal to the work of digesting heavy meals. But the bits of burning charcoal can be made into a fire by first putting on very light material, such as dried grass or twigs, so the digestive organs can be fed with very light food in very small rations, the food being increased gradually, so as to become fit for digesting heavier food.”
How can the digestive organs have more power of work than that there is in the body as a whole? So in this procedure, one should have regard for the vital power manifest in the body as a whole, and increase the digestive load accordingly. As the bodily vigour increases, so should the food-load be increased. If one, without having regard to the increase of vitality, eats food too heavy for the organs, he will become weaker and not stronger. If, by doing what is not proper, one gets worse, he should fast again and then proceed with the method of breaking the fast on the right lines.
We have heard reports of people starving during a famine; when available, they eat heavy food and die of indigestion. So those engaged in helping these people should give them only so much food as would ensure their survival.
While breaking a fast there often arises a voracious appetite which, if indulged, will prove fatal. So the faster should be on his guard. If he does not resist this onslaught of appetite and experience an upset of health he should fast again.
In breaking a fast, the faster should take diluted fruit juice, tender coconut water, soup of vegetables, or thin buttermilk*, which is curd mixed with water and churned. So long as there is no increase in the digestive power, the same food should be taken. If the power increases, there should be a changeover to heavier food. At this time, either fruit or conservatively cooked vegetables should be eaten sparingly. By this non-violent and safe procedure the fast should be ended. The food should be well chewed and insalivated, so as to avoid overeating.
* The curd should, for obvious reasons, be made from fresh milk and not from pasteurised milk or from powdered milk. The curd should not be sour. It should not be sweetened with sugar or salted.