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RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
discipline. In this system, fast (vrata or upavāsa) connotes a vow to abstain from food and drink, in whole or part, for a fixed period of time, and to devote that period to religious activities, deva-pūjā, study of scriptures, telling beads, observing silence, cultivating equanimity, and so on. Fasting is a form of tapas (austerity) and it is indulged in principally as a process of self-purification and spiritual meditation. If kept in the true spirit, such a fast certainly ennobles and elevates the individual, morally and spiritually, no less than physically and mentally. Lord Rşabha, the first Tirtharkara, voluntarily went without food or drink for six months at a stretch, and involuntarily for the next six months in continuation, because nobody then knew how to entertain a nirgrantha ascestic. Mahāvīra, the last Tirthankara, is equally famous for keeping numerous fasts, some of them lasting for months, during his twelve years' ascetic life. Not only Jaina monks and nuns and the very pious elderly people, but common men and women, even young children, occasionally indulge in fasting. Every now and then one may hear or read in newspapers the remarkable feats of endurance performed by many a Jaina, young and old, man and woman, in the field of keeping very austere and prolonged fasts.
A standard fast (proșadha) is of fortyeight hours duration; after mid-day meal on the day before, the person takes the vow not to eat and drink anything for the next forty-eight hours, breaking the fast with the midday meal on the third day. If a person feels it is beyond his capacity, he may vow to keep a thirty-six hours' or even twenty-four hours' fast, that is, taking food only once throughout the whole of the fast-day.
On the other hand, there are others who keep fast continuously for two days, three days, or even longer. Some fast on alternate days, or after every two or three days. People who
