Do not hurt your soul by fasting
Jul 16, 2011
When the mother of Shankara died, He became ready to do the rituals. Ignorant priests resisted that and He was not allowed to go to the burial ground because a saint should not perform the rituals. Therefore, He cremated His mother in the backyard of her home. When priests opposed it saying that it is inauspicious, Shankara replied that such rules of ignorant people succeed to exploit the other ignorant people and not to a scholar like Him, who knows the entire truth. Nivrutti is the subject of God and Pravrutti is the subject of this creation. As long as you do not hurt any other living being including yourself, God is not bothered about the rules of Pravrutti. By fasting, you hurt your own soul and the Gita criticizes it (karshayantah…). Your self is also one of the souls in the universe. According to medical science, on the day of fast, the digestive system starts digesting the remains of excretory matter left over in the rectum, which means that the fasting person eats his own excretion on that day leaving the pure food from outside. This point is stated in a book ‘Vemana Shatakam’, written by the famous saint Yogi Vemana.