Why do we fast?

We often hear this statement from the elders of our traditional Hindu family “I can’t eat today I am keeping a fast”. If someone doesn’t believe in fasting, then he or she is not a Hindu, right?

While most of the Hindus fast at least once in a week or any particular religious day that merit a fast. It is an accepted fact that fasting is good and it is associated with religion. Fine, but what is the outcome?

The Sanskrit word for a fast is “Upavaas” which is the amalgamation of the words “Upa” meaning near and “Vaas” meaning to stay. So the word “Upavaas” would literally mean staying near God. So what does not eating have to do with that? Surely you can stay near God even if you do eat three full meals during the day? Apparently the old school of thought disagreed.

You see a lot of time was spent each day in preparing the meals. There were a large number of chores involved in procuring, cooking, eating, and digesting food. Also eating too much rich food can dull a man’s senses, just see what happens after a lunch of tandoori naan and butter chicken if you don’t believe me. So basically food took your focus off God. That’s why a conscious decision was made to eat light food on certain more religious days.

So when you fast you eat fruits and uncooked vegetables. This also gave your digestive system an off day. Plus you remained alert and full of energy. Also, you were trained to overcome your desire to eat specific food on a daily basis, again helping you in overcoming your “vasana” or desire for food. After all gluttony was amongst the deadly sins in the Hindu religion as well as in Christianity,