On Life and Liberation

Author(s): Mukesh Chhajer
Publisher: Mukesh Chhajer

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On Life and Liberation
The physical level of upvaas is most easily understood. It means fasting, i.e., abstaining from taking food. Every time we take food, the bodily machinery is activated to digest the food, extract the juices useful for the functioning of the body and discard the rest. Each full meal takes nearly four hours to process completely. Thus, three meals per day keeps the body machinery engaged for nearly 12 hours. It is suggested that one should not meditate within 2-3 hours of taking a heavy meal because the body is heavy and mind is body centered. We also know that mental tendencies are strongly affected by the quality of food we take. Pure and wholesome food generates satvic (calm and quite) quality of the mind, hot and spicy food generates the rajasic (restlessness) quality and, overcooked, old and rotten food generates the tamasic (dullness) quality of the mind. As long as qualities are present, one needs to reduce the rajasic and tamasic qualities and increase satvic qualities. However, one has to go beyond all three qualities to fully comprehend the nature of the soul because the soul is beyond all the qualities. When one does upvaas, the intake of food is absent and we reduce all three qualities in ourselves. Thus, by doing fast, the bodily vibrations and influence of three qualities are reduced and body becomes calm. This is an important first step in progressing toward our spiritual upliftment, especially when the mind is still untrained, intimately connected with the body and senses are in control of our lives.
As the physical upvaas is going on, one should direct attention towards the sensual level. We have five sense faculties of seeing, hearing, smelling, touch and speaking. The next level of upvaas requires control and regulation of these five faculties. They all have powerful influence on our mind. If we hear gossip all the time, our thoughts would naturally follow them. If we see some pleasing object, our mind starts to dwell on it. Upvaas of these faculties means not engaging them in objects for mere
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