On the path of worshiping God, we spent so much time, money in doing things that, we thought, would impress God. If not to 'impress' God, we did them because we were asked to do them, or we saw our ancestors and parents doing it. Most of the times we did not even know the meaning, purpose, and goal behind doing something. We just did it, probably as a habit, or more often to brag about it.

Fasting or dieting (better words for starving) from the regular food was one of the dedications to God. It still is one of the most prevalent ways of worshiping God. During such a day, we probably end up eating much more delicious items, in more quantity than we would otherwise do. We need to be firstly careful about what we eat and how much. Today, health is deteriorating sooner than the old days.

Hardly anyone of us will be able to answer the reason why we fast. I believe each one of us should ask ourselves as to why we fast. Is it just because others do? Is it just for a fad? Or is there any reason really behind it?

We remembered that one God through various deities and forms, and we all know that God is one and that the idols we still worship are of the deities that existed many thousands of years ago. Yes, the path of worship that we have been following for so many years now, has given us some results. It is that one God who has given us the fruits of our good deeds, be it charity of any kind, kindness to any human, serving the poor, etc. He is the one who has sat up there and given us perks and returns to our actions in the form of blessings. However, since our actions and deeds were only temporary, we got only momentary benefits out of it. We considered these benefits as the fruits of the God's worship we did.

However, in this uni-directional (one way) communication with God, we have failed to know what God wants. We never tried to establish a bi-directional (two way) communication with God and know whether He wants us to bathe in the Ganges (and pollute them), or sacrifice animals (goats, hens), go bald, and fast (and end up eating much more), or does He want us to get rid of our weaknesses.

We always believed all relationships to be of the form of 'Give-and-Take', and thus, we assumed, that if we Give or Do anything for God, He will give us back. However, it is important to note and realize that God is self-sufficient, He is the benevolent, He is the Ocean of all the qualities (that are probably missing in us today), He does not need anything from us. That is why He is God. He is just there to Give. Did we ever ask Him what He wants from us?

It sounds very superficial and artificial that God wants us to give up our weaknesses and vices and become positive, and pure. However, if we sit back and think, these are the core reasons for all the problems on the earth and the world. Greed, Lust, Ego, Fear, Anger are the primary reasons why all of us have problems in our own lives, and this collectively is the sum total of all the problems in the world.

God, with the knowledge that He has imparted us, wants to eradicate every single trace of negativity, problems and vices from this earth. However, He cannot solve our problems, because He has not created them. We have ego, we have lust, we have anger. Thus, it is a challenge and a responsibility of ours to get rid of them through God's knowledge. He is there to empower us, He is there to love us. We just need to make use of Him to transform our negative thinking patterns and vices to positive thinking patterns and virtues.

The Hindi word Upvaas literally means Staying (Vaas) Close (Up). [Upaas is not the right word] Thus, we need to stay close to our virtues and values (at least today), and avoid gossiping, avoid cheating someone, avoid hurting someone, avoid saying anything bad in front or behind the back, avoid looking at others lustfully, avoid getting angry, and instead letting everything and everyone be the way they are. This is only how love will blossom in this world.

The other word used during fasting is parhej, which means refraining from certain foods. Thus, the true spiritual meaning of what God asks us to do is to refrain from the vices we have accumulated.

Yes, if you really want to go on a diet for a day and refresh your body and give rest to that stomach, go ahead and eat light food, fruits, and juices, however, this write-up is more focused on checking our age-old belief systems, and today, that same God has descended on the earth and is Himself telling us to leave bad habits (at least for a day), instead of leaving food.

My mum called me early in the morning to convince me that I should also fast. I do not want to dishearten her, so I will be eating light and staying on a diet. However, I will also be staying away from my weaknesses and empowering myself with God's love, with the bi-directional communication of God. This is, however, not just today's task, it's a life-time activity for the rest of my life. (Hey, I'm not referring to dieting for the rest of my life. I will vanish. :P)

Eradicating vices needs a lot of efforts (and fasting is quite easy comparatively), so almost everybody prefers fasting. That's fine, after all, everything that is going on is for the best!

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