Fasting in the Sadhana of the Integral Yoga: Impact on Vital Energy and Physical Body

Fasting has often been utilized by spiritual and religious practitioners as a way of gaining some measure of control over the vital desires, cravings and urges, as well as a means for increasing the vital and mental energy available to them. In some cases, it has been used to induce altered states of awareness to help achieve vision and clarity of purpose by the seeker. At the same time, since much of the history of spiritual practice has been focused on liberation, and a virtual abandonment of life in the world, not much attention was being paid to the downsides of fasting, including weaking of the body, and upsetting of the nervous, vital and mental balance of the being. For a practitioner of the integral yoga, which aims at transformation of life rather than abandonment of life, this disregard of the negative aspects of fasting as a means of sadhana cannot be accepted.

The science of Ayurveda describes different ‘body types’ that have differing needs in order to maintain and restore their physical balance and well-being. Vata, Pitta and Kapha types therefore respond differently to any kind of dietary regimen, such as fasting. Kapha types, which tend to hold more body weight and bulk may benefit from moderate fasting, which may help them increase energy, burn off excess weight and maintain an optimal balance. On the other hand, Vata types, who already tend toward less body weight and a more ‘mobile’ nervous energy, are less able to sustain any form of fasting. The more they try to implement a fasting routine, the more chance they have of becoming imbalanced and exhibiting nervous reactions, or experiencing an inability to concentrate. Pitta types may get caught up in the process and overpower the body to achieve some goal or ambition, thus, potentially harming the body, the nervous envelope and the mental stability through excessive fasting.

For the spiritual seeker, it is useful to understand this dynamic of fasting in relation to body type and the forms of response the body and vital being give when subjected to any kind of fasting regimen, but particularly any of the more extreme forms of fasting.

For all body types, a reasonable approach is to maintain the balance and health of the body, and holding a strong foundation as the basis for the spiritual development. Instead of any form of vital grasping or mental ambition around achieving spiritual results, which may tend to accentuate attempts to ‘push’ the body, including the use of fasting, to gain new experiences and energies, a more moderate view that focuses on the spiritual aspiration and receptivity, and concurrently creates a solid basis to hold the energy that the divine Force brands into the being is a more useful approach for long-term development.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “It is a fact that by fasting, if the mind and the nerves are solid or the will-force dynamic, one can get for a time into a state of inner energy and receptivity which is alluring to the mind and the usual reactions of hunger, weakness, intestinal disturbance, etc., can be wholly avoided. But the body suffers by diminution and there can easily develop in the vital a morbid overstrained condition due to the inrush of more vital energy than the nervous system can assimilate or co-ordinate. Nervous people should avoid the temptation to fast, it is often accomopanied or followed by delusions and a loss of balance. Eespecially if there is a motive of hunger-strike or that element comes in, fasting becomes perilous, for it is then an indulgence of a vital movement which may easily become a habit injurious and pernicious to the sadhana. Even if all these reactions are avoided, still there is no sufficient utility in fasting, since the higher energy and receptivity ought to come not by artificial or physical means but by intensite of the consciousness and strong will for the sadhana.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pg. 68