FAST, Vrata, Upvaas – Dictionary meaning specifies this as “Abstain from all or some kinds of food or drink, esp. as a religious observance”.
Most of the religions have this concept of keeping fast on some special days of religious significance. It is believed that we offer our devotion & respect to GOD by keeping these fasts. This in result develops a faith that GOD will listen to our prayers & will give us desired results.
There are several types of fasts—-Some allows eating selective food items, some allow eating only once, some allow eating without salt, & some are so hard that restricts drinking water also.
Now, does this mean that my GOD is pleased if I stay hungry & thirsty? This doesn’t seems to be true as I have always heard that GOD is kind. Why will then GOD listen to us when we keep fasts? Or is it a misconception created by humans themselves?
It is said that to attain GOD one needs to focus & concentrate. One needs to disassociate from worldly attractions & just think & feel the existence of GOD. One shall not have any desires and shall act thinking that every action is service of GOD. One shall not rejoice on success and cry on defeats as every success & defeat is also the will of GOD. But, most of the times we try to take ownership of what we do & we try to act the way we feel like. If we can control our senses & our feelings then we are on a path to understand and reach GOD.
Here is a small story to share, in which a saint tried to control his feelings & desires. He felt like eating sweets but he controlled himself & decided not to eat. He kept getting the urge to eat those sweets & he strongly fought against that feeling & didn’t eat. But, after lot of struggle it became very difficult for him to let go-of that feeling. So, he decided to eat. He was satisfied & his stomach was full. Still he kept on eating & eating. And in the end, he landed up vomiting & everything he ate was out. So, he finally succeeded in not letting his feeling or urge to eat sweets conquer him. He spitted out all he ate & questioned himself- “Do I still feel like eating sweets?” And, the answer was- “NO”.
So, while keeping fast and eating selective food items we are not just restricting ourselves on eating other things. We are in fact, trying to control our temptation & feeling to eat other items. When we eat once a day we are not just trying our capacity to stay hungry but we are trying to show our determination & dedication. When we stay thirsty whole day on the name of fast, we are not trying to show how difficult it is but we are actually trying to understand and believe how everything is so easy when GOD is with you. In all, we strengthen out trust in GOD & HIS trust in us. We develop a bond with GOD telling HIM that we can sacrifice all our desires; we can control all our temptations & feelings if our Almighty GOD is with us.
After every successful fast, I get that pleasure of seeing & feeling that GOD is with me. Thank you GOD for supporting me, guiding me, being with me and walking with me..!! 🙂
May GOD Bless you all..!!!!!
Akanksha's Blog 
As a matter of fact, i am a believer in GOD, yet i am strongly keep challenging his existence for the fact that whatever he wishes with me or others he gave me no reason to rationally accept his existence. Okey so let us move on to why should he have faith in us ? He got no reason to, considering he is omnipotent. So whats the need to have faith in. Take for example Lord Krishna,
Did he had any faith in us. If he had he didn’t need to give sermon of Bhagwat Gita. My perspective which might be wrong considers God as an entity who is both self and others profit seeking, it is the entity whose part whom resides in each of us. So we can remove others from previous line and just say a selfish entity. And God decides to take path of maximum profit. No totally wrong. He sometimes just throws a dice and take path. If he didn’t there would have been no crimes at all. The recent rape of child in Delhi clearly shows he isn’t that kind you think of him to be. So when someone will suggest me to have fast, i will say stop praying and eat healthy diet, workout often and lets fight evil. Occasional fasts may give you tendency to survive on day with less food fine. But its should be only occasional not frequent, more over for health only. And trust in a war one with sharp mind, powerful and healthy body wins, not who keeps fast and never do any evil things. Because if i had been God i will never ever favor any short of food cut offs. Yes if you eat just enough and give extra to needy ones or just cook enough, this is true fast someone can do. No offenses to anyone, its just my perception.
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Hi…Thanks for reading & leaving your views…
By faith in us…I don’t mean that we become perfect and do not need his preaching..It is a faith tat shows how true our devotion is..
And about crimes…I would just say we see a small fraction and start making judgments & opinions..Don’t forget that GOD is both creator & destroyer. Presence of crimes does not mean there is no GOD or that GOD is not kind..& I am probably not learned enough to give proper reasoning for such instances but this world is a blend of good & bad.. In our day to day life we will come across several pleasant & unpleasant experiences. But. one thing is sure..there will always be victory of Good over Evil.
About fasts…I would again like to emphasize that its not about staying hungry but about how well you can control your temptations.
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I totally agree on fasts are about control over temptations, and i generally don’t point out what i agree in my comments. But what you say about win of Good over Evil, i don’t agree there rationally but irrationally i do. Rationally we modeled many things with loss of both individual and society good only because of security related issues in past (Again its not always the case). So now considering world as whole entity like a human it will also go for the best choice it has. Which in many places is with evil. Another example is consider two good person in love with third one. And third person has to choose one of two. Its a fifty fifty between more good and less good. Take someone with goodness in between as standard, one becomes good one evil. Basically all i wanted to say is although i am a believer in God, i favor rationality over irrationality. If you or anyone else can provide some concrete thing to make me favor irrationality please do so ASAP. But remember i don’t believe in whats written in some text, all i believe in is what my mind, heart and soul think right.
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Hi..Thanks for sharing your views again.
Well, I would say this life span itself is such a small fraction that we are probably not in a situation to decide what is good & what is bad.
Yes, human mind has lots of skills…human brains can observe, analyse & think and of course a normal human ( leaving saints) will surely evaluate the instances around as good / bad. Its totally upto us then to choose the path
.
Now, about your clarification on “more” good & “less” good. I would again say these things can’t be generalized. What seems good to me …may not be as good for you..I would suggest we should do all…. that is justified by our own conscious.
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My more good and less good was basically given a situation when asked by someone totally unbiased to it, his/her reply would be considered true answer. For example asking anyone about What happened in Mahabharat, everyone will agree defeat of Kauravas was good. Similarly we can ask given a situation with two different but good directions which one is better. An example would be consider two guys nourishing a tree which gives one rare fruit each year. So who should claim the first fruit. Assuming that both persons have equal life expectancy surely first one will have more or equal chances in no. of fruits obtained(Simple probability analysis). So such decisions when done by God if exists, to him would be more like who is more “good” who is less. So seen from Global point of view there would be one better than other, hence decision remains subjective not objective. All we need is broad vision to judge.
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I stumble across this blog as I was searching around the net for water fasting. So if I may, I might have the answer to your question.
Always remember that Satan – not God – is evil, and is behind evil deeds. Satan is all about death, but God is all about life. So Satan is behind all evil, perhaps you thought, “But isn’t God powerful enough to stop evil acts?” God is indeed powerful enough to stop anything, but He operates under certain laws, which He Himself established, that give humans the choice either to submit to Him and obey His commandments, or reject Him and do evil. God created us to love Him and have a relationship with Him. The relationship would not mean anything if we were controlled by God like puppets. So God has given people the freedom to make choices—and to reap the rewards or suffer the consequences of those choices. (Prov 1:29-33, 2 Thess 2:10, Jer 2:17)
God brings good from the bad. God promises to bring good out of all things, which would include evil deeds, for those who love Him and entrust their lives to Him:
Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
This does not mean that, if we entrust our lives to God, we will never suffer as a result of evil in the world. In fact, Jesus told His followers that they would certainly suffer, but that He Himself would give them the inner peace to have courage and joy in the midst of the suffering:
John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
The verse that comes right after Romans 8:28 indicates that God uses circumstances to make His children more like Christ (conformed to His image), whose spirit lives within them:
Romans 8:29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.
God may allow a few individuals to suffer, or even die, in order to protect and bless greater numbers of people. Remember the story of Joseph, in the first book of the Bible? His brothers, jealous of their father’s love for him, sold Joseph as a slave to the Egyptians. But over the next several years, God gave Joseph favor with the Egyptians and he ended up second in command under Pharoah. By God-given wisdom and insight, Joseph stored grain during seven years of prosperity so that the people of Egypt would have food during seven subsequent years of drought. Through Joseph God saved thousands of lives. People even came from other countries to buy grain during the seven-year drought. When Joseph’s brothers came to buy grain, they did not know that Joseph was second in command in Egypt, because they had not seen him since they sold him into slavery many years prior. When they realized that the one from whom they had to request grain was Joseph, they were gripped with fear, thinking Joseph would have them killed. But Joseph did not have them killed. He even treated them with kindness, because he knew that the evil his brothers did to him was allowed by God in order to save thousands of people from starvation. He told his brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive” (Genesis 50:20). The crucifixion of Jesus is the ultimate example. God allowed Satan to work through evil people to crucify Jesus. Jesus didn’t deserve it; He was perfectly righteous and totally innocent. But God the Father allowed Jesus (God the Son) to suffer and die in order to bring life to those who call upon Him. Jesus Himself could have used His deity to crush those who persecuted and killed Him, but He allowed the evil to be done to Him for our sakes:
Luke 22:52,53 Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who had come against Him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against a robber? 53 “While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me; but this hour and the power of darkness are yours.”
John 10:17,18 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
2 Cor 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
1 Pet 3:18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God.
Those who seek God and ask Him to take control of their lives can be assured that He will watch over them. Although they will suffer to some extent because of evil in the world, they can be sure that God is ultimately in control and will bring good from all circumstances, even evil deeds.
We won’t always understand why God allows bad things to happen. We should rely on the Bible for our understanding of God. Although the points made above may help us understand tragic events, we will still face situations—either in our personal lives or as a nation—that cause us to question our understanding of God and His ways. It is at these times that it is especially crucial to view the circumstances based on what the Bible says about God, instead of trying to figure out God based on the circumstances. The Bible confirms that God is perfectly righteous, holy, faithful, and just, yet full of compassion, kindness, mercy, grace, and love: (Deu 32:4, Psa 71:19, Psa 89:14, Psa 145:8,9, Psa 145:17, Lam 3:22,23, Psa 103:13, Isa 30:18)
God is not human. Some aspects of God and His ways are impossible for humans to fully comprehend. For example, humans cannot fully understand how God can exist in three persons (the trinity). If you insist on fully understanding everything about the god you worship, then your god will be nothing greater than a human:
Isaiah 55:8,9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
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Hello,
Thank you so much for this valuable comment & the details / information that you shared here. This has given a new perspective to my thoughts. I agree most of the things given here and the crux is that “Whatever happens is the will of GOD, we may not always understand the reasons behind it, we may not always like it, but yes, it happens for a reason.”
Few important lessons that are worth capturing from your comment above –
1) God is indeed powerful enough to stop anything, but He operates under certain laws, which He Himself established.
2) God created us to love Him and have a relationship with Him. The relationship would not mean anything if we were controlled by God like puppets. So God has given people the freedom to make choices.
3) God promises to bring good out of all things.
4) Those who seek God and ask Him to take control of their lives can be assured that He will watch over them. Although they will suffer to some extent because of evil in the world, they can be sure that God is ultimately in control and will bring good from all circumstances, even evil deeds.
5) God is perfectly righteous, holy, faithful, and just, yet full of compassion, kindness, mercy, grace, and love.
Thanks again for sharing this wonderful piece of information, & throwing light on this topic.
May GOD Bless You.. !!
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Likewise ….
Might Bless someone you know, God’s Love Letter ….
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Hey..Thanks again for sharing this wonderful video 🙂
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Nice post Akanksha 🙂
When faith & love for God is questioned… I feel, I’m blessed with all his love n care! I feel like his favorite child 😉 I’ve always felt his blessed hand on my head and ve always felt him walking by my side. My faith in him n his acts in my life n for others is unquestionable…. I strongly believe that what is done by God has good purpose behind it… (exceptions are everywhere… till date I’ve not found out the answer to molestation of kids/girls :X) and as far as FASTING is concerned, practically, I never believed in doing so… As I had the feeling that all fastings are associated with something to achieve, for instance, most common 16 mondays fast 😉 (I think all girls will know this ;)) reason for doing- for getting a GOOD HUSBAND like Lord Shiva 😉 n so on and so on… but this is not true in every case! People do keep fast as a devotion to God and to exhibit their respect to God. Although, I’ve observed few fastings (I can count them on fingers ;)) somewhere I felt guilty about something because they were kept for some purpose… but on other side, I felt good too…:)
What I feel about observing fasts is, when My God is there with me, I need not to make him happy through keeping fasts n instead of thinking about him, if I’m just worrying when will I get to eat/drink, the whole idea of keeping fast gets diluted! n that makes me not to observe Fast…
Perception differs….
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Hi Pratiksha,
Its nice to get your views. I agree that there are several fasts with a purpose behind them but then again it all depends on your intentions, GOD is like our parents..& if a child asks for something from parents , I don’t see any harm in that. But, yes it shall not mean that one should pray at the time of need only. And, what we ask for ..what is the purpose/reason behind also matters.
Also, I agree that GOD does not need our fasts to be happy & pleased, GOD just needs true & pure prayers. I feel fasts are just a way of showing our dedication, determination & devotion.
Why most of us cut cake on birthdays? What about those who don’t cut …are they not celebrating properly or doing something incorrect? No, not at all. It’s just a way by which most of us like to celebrate, to make the day joyful & memorable. And the core of celebration lies in making it happy & memorable and one can surely have different & unique ways to celebrate the day.
In a similar manner, I would just say most of the people try to show their devotion to GOD by keeping fasts on auspicious days, that have historical religious significance. Its a way to fill the atmosphere with festive mood. But, it never means that those who don’t keep fasts are not HIS true devotees. They may have different ways to show this devotion. All that matters is your devotion.
So, on a concluding note I would also say that..Yes, Of course, it all depends on Perception..!!
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Your real life examples convinced me 😉 ya.. it truly differs from person to person… as there are so many places to reach one place, there are so many ways to express your devotion to God… so one can not blame other for being Atheist or non-religious if the person is not observing fast…
Once again signing off by saying “It all depends on Perception” 😉 🙂
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Hi…Thank you so much for reading my posts & leaving your valueable opinions.
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It’s my pleasure dear 🙂
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