I’M NOT THIS BODY, I’M NOT THIS MIND

Do you know, what fasting (upavasa) is? Fasting is not about starvation. Fasting is also not about skipping your meals. No, the real value of fasting, lies in the fact that, fasting provides you an opportunity to become spiritual. Fasting is about making a conscious choice, i.e. choosing to be hungry, instead of just eating by habits. Choosing is consciousness and un-choosing i.e. doing habitually, is unconsciousness. By making a conscious choice, you are breaking away, from your fixed pattern and thus, you’re becoming conscious or spiritual.  

Therefore, important thing about fasting is to realize that, one can choose, consciously, to stay away from food and not just eat unconsciously i.e. by habits only. Fasting is about realizing, that eating by habit or eating, as and when the body demands, is being unconscious and is existing here, as a body but choosing to stay hungry, is to exist here, as something, more than this body. Fasting, thus, is about realizing, that I’m not this body, because, I can exist without food, too. Fasting or starvation, is about knowing, that food is the requirement of the body and not the requirement of that dimension, which is beyond this body. Fasting, thus, is an opportunity to become aware of that spiritual or nonphysical dimension, which we know, as the divine. 

By denying food to your body, you are denying existence of your body and by breaking away from your habit of eating, you are denying existence of your mind too. Habitual existence i.e. doing what body or mind demands, is unconsciousness. Mind is nothing but habits only. Thus, by ignoring your mind, you are denying that, ‘I am not this mind’ also. Please know that, mind and body exist, in and by our recognition only. Because, we just do what body and mind demand and hence, they exist for us and rule us totally. 

Further, habitually, repeating the same things again and again, we just reinforce, existence of our body and mind. However, fasting is an opportunity to create that ‘gap’ or ‘break’ from the set pattern and exist in that ‘gap’ or that ‘break’. Staying in this ‘gap’ is distancing from your body-mind and thus, going beyond your bodily existence. This ‘gap’, is neither your body, nor your mind but that which is beyond or that which is transcendental. 

Fasting, is just one example but if you learn to exist in this denial mode i.e. just ignoring your mind, each time, it demands something, you become conscious and you, thus, grow on the spiritual path. Every time, you create that ‘gap’ by distancing from your mind, you come a step, closer to the divinity. If you, thus, continue denying existence of your body and mind, then one day, you will become aware of that non-physical dimension, which we know as the divine. Because, we are always in acceptance mode i.e. just following or obeying, what body or mind demands, and hence, they exist for us. But, if you switch over to the denial mode, then a distance will arise, between you and your body. That ‘gap’ or ‘distance’ is the consciousness, the awareness, the reality, your svabhava, your nature, whatever the name, you give. 

Fasting, thus, becomes helpful in your vertical growth or evolution, as consciousness, only, if you bring this awareness, that you are not this body and not this mind but something more than that. Else, if fasting is done, just at the level of the body i.e. staying hungry for a certain period of time, then it just becomes another ‘doing’ and is of no help in your evolution, as a conscious being. If you learn to create and stay in this ‘gap’, then, you really, do not have to do fasting or for that matter, any other ‘doing’ because ‘doing’ is not the requirement of your Self or consciousness or the real ‘you’. Meditation, too, is nothing but a kind of fasting i.e. fasting of the mind because, in meditation, you deny food (thoughts) to your mind and you thus, know that you are not a mind.

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