XXXI. FASTING
Just about the time when I gave up milk and cereals,
and started on the experiment of a fruit diet, I
commenced fasting as a means of self-restraint. In this
Mr. Kallenbach also joined me. I had been used to fasting
now and again, but for purely health reasons. That
fasting was necessary for self-restraint I learnt from a
friend.
Having been born in a Vaishnava family and of a mother
who was given to keeping all sorts of hard vows, I had
observed, while in India, the Ekadashi and other
fasts, but in doing so I had merely copied my mother and
sought to please my parents.
At that time I did not understand, nor did I believe
in, the efficacy of fasting. But seeing that the friend I
have mentioned was observing it with benefit, and with
the hope of supporting the brahmacharya vow, I
followed his example and began keeping the Ekadashi
fast. As a rule Hindus allow themselves milk and fruit on
a fasting day, but such fast I had been keeping daily. So
now I began complete fasting, allowing myself only water.
When I started on this experiment, the Hindu month of
Shravan and the Islamic month of Ramzan happened to
coincide. The Gandhis used to observe not only the
Vaishnava but also the Shaivite vows, and visited the
Shaivite as also the Vaishnava temples. Some of the
members of the family used to observe pradosha
in the whole of the month of Shravan. I decided to do
likewise.
These important experiments were undertaken while we
were at Tolstoy Farm, where Mr. Kallenbach and I were
staying with a few Satyagrahi families, including young
people and children. For these last we had a school.
Among them were four or five Musalmans. I always helped
and encouraged them in keeping all their religious
observances. I took care to see that they offered their
daily namaz. There were Christians and Parsi
youngsters too, whom I considered it my duty to encourage
to follow their respective religious observances.
During this month, therefore, I persuaded the Musalman
youngsters to observe the ramzan fast. I had of
course decided to observe pradosha myself, but I
now asked the Hindu, Parsi and Christian youngsters to
join me. I explained to them that it was always a good
thing to join with others in any matter of self-denial.
Many of the Farm inmates welcomed my proposal. The Hindu
and the Parsi youngsters did not copy the Musalman ones
in every details; it was not necessary. The Musalman
youngsters had to wait for their breakfast until sunset,
whereas the others did not do so, and were thus able to
prepare delicacies for the Musalman friends and serve
them. Nor had the Hindu and other youngsters to keep the
Musalmans company when they had their last meal before
sunrise next morning, and of course all except the
Musalmans allowed themselves water.
The result of these experiments was that all were
convinced of the value of fasting, and a splendid esprit
de corps grew up among them.
We were all vegetarians on Tolstoy Farm, thanks, I
must gratefully confess, to the readiness of all to
respect my feelings. The Musalman youngsters must have
missed their meat during ramzan, but none of
them ever let me know that they did so. They delighted in
and relished the vegetarian diet, and the Hindu
youngsters often prepared vegetarian delicacies for them,
in keeping with the simplicity of the Farm.
I have purposely digressed in the midst of this
chapter on fasting, as I could not have given these
pleasant reminiscences anywhere else, and I have
indirectly described a characteristic of mine, namely
that I have always loved to have my co-workers with me in
anything that has appealed to me as being good. They were
quite new to fasting, but thanks to the pradosha
and ramzan fasts, it was easy for me to interest
them in fasting as a means of self-restraint.
Thus an atmosphere of self-restraint naturally sprang
up on the Farm. All the Farm inmates now began to join us
in keeping partial and complete fasts, which, I am sure,
was entirely to the good. I cannot definitely say how far
this self-denial touched their hearts and helped them in
their striving to conquer the flesh. For my part,
however, I am convinced that I greatly benefited by it
both physically and morally. But I know that it does not
necessarily follow that fasting and similar disciplines
would have the same effect for all.
Fasting can help to curb animal passion, only if it is
undertaken with a view to self-restraint. Some of my
friends have actually found their animal passion and
palate stimulated as an after-effect of fasts. That is to
say, fasting is futile unless it is accompanied by an
incessant longing for self-restraint. The famous verse
from the second chapter of the Bhagavadgita is
worth noting in this connection:
'For a man who is fasting his senses Outwardly, the
sense-objects disappear, Leaving the yearning behind; but
when He has seen the Highest, Even the yearning
disappears.'
Fasting and similar discipline is, therefore, one of
the means to the end of self-restraint, but it is not
all, and if physical fasting is not accompanied by mental
fasting, it is bound to end in hypocrisy and disaster.
|
