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Aptavani-4
and you will bind karma of merit. These people have been
fasting through countless lifetimes. The Lord has called it
fasting without understanding. This is because all the fasts that
you have done without the right awareness, have been done in
vain!! You are more likely to succeed in doing penance if you
sit with someone who does penance. The Self never eats; it is
only the body that eats. You will only understand this after you
realize what the Self is, and unless you do, you will never
understand this.
The Lord said, that if you do just one single fast with pure
applied awareness (upayog), you will accomplish your work.
Since You have attained the knowledge of the Self, You will be
able to fast with upayog (applied awareness) of the pure Self
and therefore, your fast will be done with pure applied
awareness (shuddha upayog). You have the ‘main’ thing (the
Self) in Your hands; the kite’s string is in Your hands. To stop it
taking a dive, is in Your hands. If you can manage a single fast,
then try it and see for yourself. Experience the ‘taste’ of it
yourself! On a Sunday. When you do not have to go anywhere,
you can do it then. On that day, you should not sleep. You
cannot maintain awareness during sleep, now can you? This fast
should be done with pure applied awareness (shuddha upayog).
During this time, if you read or sing spiritual songs (pado)
throughout the day, there will be inner and outer purity. Or else,
use Dada’s Five Agnas for support.
If you spend the entire day in shuddha upayog in this
way, you will not even feel that you have fasted the whole day.
You will only feel hungry, if you happen to slip away from
upayog (awareness of the Self). You will be aware of the
hunger, but You will not suffer its pangs. If you suffer the hunger,
it means that you have lost the upayog. But ‘to know’ the
hunger, is upayog. Many people feel very good on the day of
their fast. They feel comfortable experience (shata vedaniya).
Therefore, everything depends upon the belief.