How to fast on ekādaśī? Who can try to fast and who should not, and how to make it easy?
Fasting is an individual choice. The scriptures offer fasting as a way to advance faster on spiritual practice, but ultimately, it is an individual decision to try it or not, just like everything else
One who researches passages from Prabhupāda about fasting on ekādaśīs and festival days will find a mixture of recommendations. On some passages he recommends it strongly, on others he just suggests it, emphasizing instead some other aspect, while on others he appears not to recommend fasting at all, suggesting that instead one can eat fruits and milk or some other light food. How to understand that?
The point is that fasting is an individual choice. The scriptures offer fasting as a way to advance faster on spiritual practice, but ultimately, it is an individual decision to try it or not, just like everything else in spiritual life. By definition, devotional service must be voluntary, just as love must be voluntary. Ultimately, there is nothing forced in spiritual life; everything should be a result of a conscious choice.
When we come specifically to the point of fasting, there are also specific prescriptions. The scriptures mention several classes of people who should not fast completely. The list includes children less than 12 years old, elderly persons, the sick, pregnant women, as well as nursing mothers. It's quite easy to understand the reason: when one is sick, one's main priority should be to regain his health. Fasting can be done on some other occasion (there are some diseases for which one is advised to fast as part of the treatment, but fasting is not a general cure for all diseases). The main duty of a mother with a small child is to give the best care for the baby; she can fast later, and so on. Many points in the scriptures are given as part of a hierarchy of different principles, not as a black-and-white rule that must be obeyed in every single circumstance. Understanding this point is essential for properly applying all kinds of religious principles. Even meat eating can be acceptable in some extreme circumstances, when no other food is available, what to say about minor adjustments?
There is then the concept of anukalpa, simple food, without grains, that is used as an alternative to completely fasting. That's the way of fasting without fasting. A nursing mother should not try to fast completely on ekādaśīs, but she should not eat grains either. She can nourish her body so it can produce sufficient milk for the baby by eating roots, nuts, milk, fruits, and so on. The same applies to children, sick people, etc.
However, let's imagine someone who doesn't fall into any of these categories. Let's imagine that he or she heard about the benefits of fasting on ekādaśī and decided to give it a try. Is there any process to be able to do it without so many physical and mental disturbances?
Actually, there is, and it's mentioned in the scriptures. We can observe that often devotees try to fast on ekādaśī and just become too weak to perform any service, and too mentally disturbed to concentrate on chanting or reading. This is often because they don't know about this process.
How does it work?
The first point is that almost anything we do is difficult the first time. If someone has never tried to do push-ups, it can be quite challenging. After practicing for a few weeks, however, it becomes much easier. The body becomes used to what we do frequently. Most things just require some practice. Fasting is no different.
The main point about fasting is that our body can work by burning two types of fuel: carbs from the food or fats from our bellies. When we eat regularly, the body becomes used to always burning carbs, and we start to become weak and angry after just a few hours without eating, as soon as the glucose in the blood starts to go down. If one starts to fast regularly, the body gradually becomes more flexible and starts to be able to change to burn stored fat when necessary, greatly reducing these symptoms. Even a lean person usually has at least 15% of fat in their body, which is quite a lot of fuel. There is no need to worry, one will not starve for not eating for a day, or even two.
The second point is that the hard part of fasting is when the body is struggling to make the switch to fat at the beginning of the fast. Once this process is concluded, we can go on for a few days without much trouble. We can see that people who do long fasts almost always say that the hardest day is the first.
When it comes to fasting on ekādaśī, the scriptures recommend that we start fasting on the previous day. It's recommended that we take a light meal (nothing exaggerated) around midday and start fasting after that. This may seem counterproductive (stopping eating at midday should make us hungrier the next day, not?), but it is actually the opposite. If we stop eating at midday, it means we will already be fasting for 16 or 18 hours the next morning. This means we will pass the hardest part (that comes at around 12 hours after eating) during the night when we are sleeping. When we wake up the next day, the body will already be burning fat, and it will be much easier to continue fasting after that.
We often have the idea of eating a lot on the night before the ekādaśī, but this is not only a form of cheating, but also makes it much harder to fast the next day. That's precisely why the scriptures don't recommend it. It actually makes things harder for us.
Another point that is recommended is that on the dvādaśī day, we should break the fast at the appropriate time by eating something small and then wait until around midday for eating a normal meal. This is not some form of sadism. The point is that at that point, we will be fasting for almost 48 hours. If we start eating a large quantity of food, we can have serious problems. Any type of fasting should always be broken carefully, starting with a small quantity of some light food, like yogurt, and then gradually progressing to heavier foods. When one fasts completely on ekādasī, the fast doesn't have the be broken with grains. It may be even broken with just water, as we see in the pastime of Ambarīsa Maharaja.
It should take a few days until we go back to our normal diets. By doing that, we maximize the positive effects of fasting and greatly minimize the possibilities of problems.
So, in a nutshell, the general recommendation is that we should start fasting at around midday on daśamī (the day previous to the ekādasī), fast on the ekādasī, break the fast with something light at the appropriate time on the dvādaśī morning and them wait until around midday before start eating anything heavy. That's the way the scriptures recommend doing it, and if we try to follow, we can see that it actually makes things easier. That's fasting in the mode of goodness.
A complete fast following this process can be quite difficult the first time we try, and as mentioned, this is not a moral deficiency or anything like this; it is just a normal physical process. To be able to fast, we need to first practice for some time. Instead of trying to fast completely the first time, one may try to "fast" by eating only very light, low-calorie foods, like fruits and raw vegetables. After doing it a few times, one can try to fast completely.
When the body gets used to it, one can fast without so much difficulty. The body gets used to switching to burning fat, and we don't feel weak. We can then properly follow the ekādasī by chanting and reading more and doing the services that are necessary. If we do so in each ekādasī, we will have the opportunity to do a lot of advancement. We will see positive improvements on the other days as well, both physically and spiritually.
Read also:
If you read this article to the end, give it a like. This helps it to reach more people.
If you have questions, use the comments; I will answer as possible. They may even become the topic for another article. Your thoughts and opinions are also very welcome. ⤵️
Very practical & helpful information Prabhu. Thank you.