58. Fasting, independence and spirituality
Happy Independence Day to all my fellow Indians! It’s the 75th anniversary of our Independence and a truly proud moment for us. I am currently working on an anthology titled Being Indian Abroad and hope to share it soon. But today, I want to share about fasting.
Freedom fighter Gandhiji spent many days fasting in jail as he continued his non-violent struggle for independence against the British.
Gandhiji is known to have been a follower of the Vedic text Bhagavad Gita that he fondly referred to as his “eternal mother” (do read this text here to know more about how Gandhiji got acquainted with the Bhagavad Gita in London and how it became a part of his life).
The text says that he imbibed 11 main principles of the Gita in his daily life, namely -
Satya (truth), ahimsa (nonviolence), asteya (non-stealing), aparigraha (non-covetousness), brahmacharya (abstinence), parishrama (physical labor), swadeshi (using homegrown or local products), asprushyatanivaran (removal of untouchability), abhaya (fearlessness), sarva-dharma-samanata (equal respect for all religions as well as people), and aswada (palate control).
The last one—aswada or palate control—informed his fasting practice. But why fasting? Yes, he did the Dandi march as a part of his non-violent uprising against the British rule but fasting had a unique power that is deeply embedded in Indian Hindu culture. Banu Bargu beautifully explains the merging of the very inward i.e. spiritual and the very powerful i.e. divine masculine nature of fasting -
“What then is a hunger strike in Gandhian terms? First and foremost, it is a nonviolent form of action. It is characterized by the overarching philosophy of ascetic discipline by which one becomes a master of oneself. Self-starvation is, simply, an extension of self-restraint. It is an exercise in self-purification and the strengthening of one’s soul. In this sense, it is at once a moral act as it is a political one. In fact, insofar as the emphasis is on inflicting suffering on oneself as part of training one’s soul, of eliminating the thought of wrong-doing and injustice from oneself, the moral aspect is much more pronounced. A fast is the expression of a spiritual force.”
It’s this very fact about how ingrained spirituality is in Indian culture that I feel very blessed to have experienced. It seeps through the major like our struggle for independence as well as the day-to-day.
I have been fasting once a week for a while and though I am yet to find the self-restraint and the self-discipline to go completely without food or water for even a day, instead I have been eating sattavik food, i.e. simple food without excessive oil, spices, salt, chillies, or lemon for three out of four meals in a day. And even with that, I find myself craving for salt and a heavy tadka (tempering) of spices in my food for dinner at the end of the day.
I have done this for seven weeks now and it is only last week that I realized that fasting essentially reinforces the realization that my soul is born to be a medium for the divine to act through me. Anything above and beyond that, ie. any strong flavours, pleasures in life, comforts, successes, or even disappointments, and struggles are not to be distracted by. And definitely not to be attached to!
Gandhiji used fasting as a “spiritual force” against the British rule. Through his efforts and the efforts of so many other freedom fighters, we no longer have to resort to desperate means for our independence. But I would still encourage fasting, or at least practicing some form of aswada or palate control to remind ourselves of our temporary halt on Earth - we are spiritual beings having a human experience, lets always remember that and let that guide our thoughts, words and actions, and fasting is a great means to reinforce this reality. Our true nature can be felt, not mentally understood, and fasting makes that experience very real.
Love and light,
Vishanka
P.S. To be reminded of Gandhiji’s struggles, and our people’s struggle for independence, do read this article here by the New York Times dated 11 February, 1943.