Spiritual Science of Upawas उपवास
Spiritual
Science of Upawas उपवास
Upwas is equated
with Fasting. This is not correct. Upwas is a holy process of getting to the
source. Etymologically it is composed of
Up + Was उप + वस. To stay near (to self). It does not necessarily mean
to stay near to any particular deity or God in general – though this is the
most commonly understood meaning. As per its original meaning, Upwas can be
done even by atheist and Buddhists. It is much more than mere ‘Fasting’. To
explain it in simple but crude way, we can call it ‘Holy Fasting’. Therefore,
in this note we will use the term Upwas and not Fasting.
It is a gross
error to assume that doing Upwas earns you brownie points or credits in your पुण्य Punya Virtue Passbook. Your sins are posted in
the debit side. When the net balance is above the ‘cut-off’ limit as decided by
the Chitragupt (holy book keeper), a person becomes entitled to get admission
in heaven. In this way, one can assume that he can live a life of debauchery so
far as he does enough number of Upwas to have enough net credit balance above
the cut-off limit. Problem is we can not verify this truth from the departed
souls as one can go to heaven only after death. We don’t have any authentic rule
book of heaven certified by God. The bigger problem is we do not know what is
the exact system of this debit and credit in पुण्य (virtue)
passbook. We only know it conceptually. How many exact credit points we earn by
Upwas and debits by Sins? We have no clue at all. We cancel out this theory
from our discussion as there are many flaws in it.
Another ‘fad’
with Hindu Lovers is to explain the Upwas with the support of material science.
This fad is getting exaggerated of late on social media. Yes, certainly there
is a substantial scientific research pointing out the benefit of eating less to
long life (we will not get into that as it is of NO CONSEQUENCE to our present
discussion). But certainly this was NOT in the minds of our ancient seers when
they designed the system of Upwas. There is no need for explaining everything
ancient ritual or practice with modern scientific evidence.
Another mumbo
jumbo which has creeped into the present day Upwas system is about the
‘allowable’ and ‘non-allowable’ foods. It is all a big ERROR. Nowhere in our
ancient scriptures these foods are mentioned. Take for example Peanuts. They
simply could not have been included in our ancient scriptures because our seers
at that time were completely ignorant of this food item. Peanuts originated in
Bolivia. They are NOT native of Bharat. In same way potatos are from Southern
Peru, Tomato in Central and South America, Tea from Southwest China – and all
these are currently held in high esteem in our list of ‘allowable’ foods for
Upwas.
Does it mean that
the system of Upwas is all hoax ? Certainly not. Ancient Upwas system is a perfectly
valid and extremely useful way for self realisation. We need to see it from the
view point of Spiritual Science to rightly understand it and benefit from it.
Spiritual
Science of Upwas
There are three
major componants of any Upwas systems
1 Food2 Lifestyle3 Meditation
Let us examine
them one by one.
1 Food
First of all,
just FORGET about the current understanding of Upawas उपवास foods. We will break all rules, in that sense.
We need to
understand the concept of सात्विक Saatvik food. It
has two angles : Spiritual and Medicinal or as per Ayurveda आयुर्वेद.
Spiritually सात्विक Saatvik means the food dominated by Sattva
Guna सत्व गुण. Spiritually we are composed of
three Gunas or essences – Satva, Rajas and Tamas सत्व, राजस, तामस. All the three Gunas or essences are
absolutely essential for our existence in this material world. They all have
their own unique characteristics. We will discuss about it separately. In the
current discussion, we will focus on सत्व गुण.
Sri Aurobindo
explains the three Gunas as :
Each of the
three gunas is a reflection or stepped-down version of a power of the higher
existence. “Tamas तामस in the
spiritual being becomes a divine calm, which is not an inertia and incapacity
of action, but a perfect power, sakti शक्ती, holding in itself all its capacity
and capable of controlling and subjecting to the law of calm even the most
stupendous and enormous activity; Rajas राजस becomes a
self-effecting initiating sheer Will of the spirit, which is not desire,
endeavour, striving passion, but the same perfect power of being, sakti
शक्ती, capable of an
infinite, imperturbable and blissful action. Sattwa सत्व becomes not the modified mental light, prakasa
प्रकाश, but the
self-existent light of the divine being, jyotih ज्योती:, which is the soul of the perfect
power of being and illumines in their unity the divine quietude and the divine
will of action. The ordinary liberation gets the still divine light in the
divine quietude, but the integral perfection will aim at this greater triune
unity.”
Ayurvedic and
Spiritual concepts converge. As per Ayurveda, Satvic foods essentially are milk,
butter, cereals, fruits and vegetables. Only non spicy (or less spicy)
vegetarian food should be tamen.
Quantity of Food
: One should have around two third of the normal quantity of food. What is
‘normal’ will vary from person to person. No food should be taken after sunset.
Only light food should be taken just before sunset – preferably only fruit and
may be milk.
2 Lifestyle
During Upwasa उपवास one should not engage in hectic or strenuous activity,
debates and heated arguments. One needs to maintain peaceful and calm
composure. Getting up just before sunrise is essential. Taking bath in the
morning and evening is also needed. Going to bed early – giving around 7 hours
sound and peaceful sleep is recommended. Listening and watching electronic
media and engaging in social media is a strict no no during Upwasa उपवास day.
These are all simple things. One should not be having too much difficulty in
observing them. But as they say, simplicity is the most difficult thing to
obtain in today’s lifestyle.
There is no need to go to temple, do puja or
listen to holy music or chant holy names. One can do them if one gets into
peaceful zone with them easily. It is better NOT to do ANY OF THOSE activities.
3 Meditation
The main reason for taking care of the
pre-requisite of point number one and two – Food and Lifestyle is to prepare a
ground for having a good quality of meditation. Having less food helps in
relieving the digestive system of digestion hard work. Anyway what we call our
‘normal’ food intake is far more than what is really needed by our physical
body to maintain itself. Therefore by taking less food, we are not at a loss of
nutrition in a real sense. Having Satvic food helps in the process of quieting
the thought currents in our mind. This is absolutely essential pre-requisite of
meditation. Having relaxed lifestyle on Upwas day helps in this direction. I
have mentioned that chanting holy names better be avoided for this simple
reason. We have to get away from both GOOD AND BAD thoughts. We have to get to
the SOURCE which is beyond the concept of good and bad. Meditation is often a
vastly mis-understood concept. The concept of pious or holy or religious are
not same as meditation. Meditation is far beyond all these concepts. That is
the reason earlier I have mentioned that belief in God is not critically needed
for doing Upwas. Meditation means turning our gaze INWARDS. At all waking times
our gaze is turned outward. During meditation, we need to turn our awareness
INWARDS. We need to OBSERVE our various ‘clouds’ of thoughts in a neutral
non-judgemental way without participating in it. The breathing has to be
regularised, deep and slow. The scientific technique of Pranayam is NOT needed.
Just simple regularised, INTENTIONAL and OBSERVED deep breathing process is
good.
Does Upwas has to be done on the prescribed
holy days ? Not at all necessary. One can do Upwas on any CONVENIENT day.
Sunday is most suitable as it is a holiday.
The above is based on Spiritual Science as was
originally intended and practiced by our ancient seers. It has a spiritually
scientific basis. It should not be confused with any religious notions. The
object of doing Upwas is certainly not for any holy credit points for Moksha or
heaven after death. The objective is to have a BALANCED and PEACEFUL life full
of ABUNDANCE HERE AND NOW on Earth.
प्रस्तुतकर्ता Shrikant @ 6:01 pm
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