If spirituality tells us to fast and science tells us to not fast what should we do?
Podcast
Transcript
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so, you know, science tells us that we should take food regularly and spirituality tells us that we should fast or we should have austere lifestyles now I am coming to your point so if at one level we want to fast but then our body does not help body obstructs us too much in fasting so if we keep doing this for a long time then we get some health consequences because of that because of following standards of austerity or spirituality and then if we are medically advised that you should not do this then what should we do? should we follow science or should we follow spirituality? see, it is not a competition the important thing is that we see our body as a tool for serving Krishna and if a particular tool requires a particular facility we can provide that so, yes, there are some devotees if they don’t eat anything immediately after within a few hours of waking up then they may get too much acidity or they may get too much problems so then if that is what is biologically required it is not that it is not a principle of bhakti that after waking up for six hours you cannot eat anything that’s not a principle of bhakti somebody has to eat something we can have some simple food we have some fruits, some salads, some vegetables something which is not very tasty in the sense that we should not get into sense gratification over there we should not get distracted looking forward to when I can eat we want to be looking forward towards Krishna when we are doing sadhana but if the body needs it, we can provide it so we can just decide when I wake up after this I need five to ten minutes to take some food I go and take some food some people need to take medicines at that time they take medicines if you need to take food, that’s fine so, there are standard practices in bhakti but bhakti always has the facility for individual customization if a particular person needs a particular thing then it’s not against the principles of bhakti we just have to focus on making sure that whatever adjustment we are doing it is helping us in our spiritual growth not that we use that as a that it doesn’t become our mind’s way to choose the path of least resistance that the mind’s way to take the easy way out no, if we can take care of that if we find that doing a particular thing in a particular way it just keeps our health so much good it keeps ourselves clearer it keeps us calmer, healthier and then we are able to serve Krishna better then, we have to see the whole picture yes, by doing this for ten minutes in the morning if my overall service is improving much more my health is much better that’s fine what we shouldn’t do is if we need a particular customization we don’t have to go on a campaign for it no, we shouldn’t say that everybody has to do this I’m eating, I’m feeling so much better you should also eat in the morning you’ll also feel better no, if some people’s bodies can manage to do without that they don’t have to do that so, if there’s an individual customization that is required within the practice of bhakti that can be done but there’s no need to go on a campaign for it there’s no need to go on a campaign against it campaign for it means everybody should be doing this no, that’s not required and campaign against is somebody who says you are so attached to your body because of him so, offer obeisance to that devotee and move on in our life we don’t have to if we have talked with our senior devotees if we have explained our situation to them and we are doing this with their guidance and if some devotees are judgmental, it doesn’t matter we can’t please everyone in fact, the easiest way to make ourselves miserable is to try to please everyone thank you