Tag Archives: ayurveda fasting

Is it possible to live without food, water and even air?

How Energy Affects Different Layers of Existence

In the above video, Daaji, my meditation teacher, talks about different layers of existence. According to ancient yogic science, we have five layers of existence. And energy feeds all of these layers differently. We all know about hybrid cars. Hybrid cars can run on liquid fuel and electricity. Also, there can be multiple options of energy – coal, solar energy, wind energy etc.

Here is an interesting thing – any liquid fuel (petrol or diesel) produces energy through combustion. Combustion releases some power, but more amount of heat and worse – poisonous gases. This is similar to the way our bodies process the food.

Annamaya Kosha

The first layer is called annamaya kosha. This layer absorbs the energy from food and passes it to other layers. Most of us live on the basis of gross energy absorbed by annamaya kosha. And therefore, people dependent solely on food for survival, live out their lives stuck in this kosha. This kosha is like a diesel or petrol car. It takes in material fuel and gives out smoke. Compared to other kosha, this is the most basic and most primitive mode of survival. However, dependency on this kosha is only the first step towards a subtler life.

Pranamaya kosha

The second layer is called Pranamaya kosha. This is the subtle energy of the body governed by prana vayu or the air. This is also called Chi in Chinese spiritual tradition. In primitive stages of spiritual development, this kosha receives its energy from the lower kosha – annamaya kosha. However, in a more developed state, pranamaya kosha can sustain life without food and even water! This state is like an electric car, that is directly connected to the pure source of energy.

In the Daoist  tradition as mentioned earlier, bigu is the art of surviving only on air and yes, it is possible! This concept is called Breatherianism and many people are actively following, it across the world. In the Vedic tradition, it is mentioned as the stage of pranayama. This is a stage when a person can survive only on the air. So, in the stage of pranayama we are supposed to master the art of living on the air and establish our existence in our energy body.  

Thesis on Bigu

Here is another person has survived on air for 60 years – Prahlad Jani

Still another way to charge up your body without eating anything is sun gazing. And no wonder, all of the ancient civilizations worshipped the sun. Probably, it was more of a subtle scientific mode of feeding than anything religious. For more information on sun gazing, please watch the following video. Besides, there is a lot more information available on –

https://www.lightdocumentary.com/breatharian-meals.html

About

Manomaya Kosha

The third is the manomaya kosha. This is the mental layer that governs the functioning of the mind, the sensory organs and the dreams. This layer is the basis of the our interconnectedness. The miracles of telepathy, prophetic visions and super-natural sensory powers emerge from this layer.

This layer is more powerful than both annamaya and pranamaya kosha. Vedic literature mentions sages who stopped breathing as a part of their penance. It is believed that Guru Nanak stayed under water for 3 days and came out of the river – alive! I hope that some day we are able to experiment on this concept. If this is true, leave apart food, and water, you might not even need air to survive.

However, powers of manomaya kosha can turn against us if not managed properly! In an under-developed state, this layer can get affected by the negative vibrations. According to Ayurveda, there are two fields of diseases – mana (mind) and sharir (body). And the mana or the mind is the primary factor for getting sick. And therefore, it is important to preserve manomaya kosha against wrong or negative thoughts.

The disease might start in the body and reach to the mind (psoriasis leading to depression) or start with the mind and reach the mind(skin allergy triggered by stress). If you have a weak body but a strong mind, you will not fall sick. But if you have a weak mind, then even a strong body, good nutrition and loads of health supplements will not be able to help you.

According to my understanding, when the mind is affected, its negativity spirals down to reflect in the form of a metabolic loophole. This metabolic loophole invites and incubates various disease causing factors. And that is why a depressed, tensed, angry or anxious person has all the doors open for diseases. This helps me to understand why those happy and content little slum children don’t fall sick!

So basically, annamaya, pranamaya and manomaya kosha are subject to imbalance. But they can be healed by the higher absolute sources.

Vigyanamaya Kosha

The fourth kosha vigyanamaya kosha or the wisdom body is the seat of intellect or Buddhi. This is the kosha responsible for personal entity, and therefore ego. It is beyond mana or the emotional mind. It is beyond beliefs, thoughts, emotions, prejudices and all the mental fog created by them.  Vigyanamaya kosha is the layer of discretion, where imagination dissolves and we come face to face with reality.

As far as I understand, this is the seat of pure energy. So, if you are stable in this kosha, you are beyond a car, you are electricity itself!

All the supernatural healing powers descend from this kosha.

Rice experiment 

Water has memory II – Prof. Bernd Kroeplin Water research Germany

WATER, Thank you, I hate you, Your stupid, and Ignore

Anandamaya Kosha

Writing anything about this kosha will be dishonest as only an experienced person should elaborate on this topic. I hope to know more about it. As of now, I have this information that this is the seat of complete bliss.

I am writing all this not because I have any spiritual experiences. However, I am floating these thoughts so that someone who really knows might get back to me :). May we all grow together through sharing!

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Ekadashi Fasting: Amazing Effects in Dental Problems

Recently, one of my relatives who has extremely bad teeth, tried Ekadashi fasting. He had a terrible toothache for past few days and there was no dentist to treat his condition because of corona lock-down. Every night, his tooth would pain terribly.

So, he decided to give a break to eating and went for Ekadashi zero food, zero water fasting this month on 18th (18th May 2020).

Very surprising, the toothache stopped. And he did not take any pain killer or any other medicines. He also did not make any other kind of dietary or lifestyle change. We can attribute it to not eating anything the whole day. And so there was no food stuck in his cavities that might cause pain. However, the tooth did not ache even the next day when he started eating food, and for few days after that. It started aching again on 23rd May 2020.

And this got me to think about our dental problems in a different way. probably, our digestive system is the source of all our disorders, even the dental ones.

Digestive system is the source of all the body fluids, including the saliva. And saliva is the fluid that creates the oral environment. Now, we know that all body fluids share some basic features. For example, if the digested juice is acidic in nature , everything right from blood to urine will turn more acidic. No wonder, what goes inside, makes the body.

And wrong food can turn all the body fluids slightly more acidic than normal. And we can imagine what can happen if our saliva is slightly more acidic than normal on a regular basis.

Normally, the food stuck in teeth gets softened and slips out after some time, along with saliva. Tongue also helps to clean the teeth. However, what if the environment around teeth is not healthy?

Acidic environment in the oral cavity can weaken the gums, cause mouth ulcers, help the germs to thrive and thus trigger rapid tooth decay. And probably that’s why we see that some people rapidly develop tooth problems, whereas many others do well even without a strict dental hygiene.

A few decades back, a lot of Indian had bright white teeth,without use of any tooth brush or tooth paste. However, they used to fast regularly, used neem twig as brush(and this twig provided both natural bristles and a bitter tooth cleaning solution). Besides, the overall quantity of sugar in the food was very low.

Sugar in our food does not affect our teeth that much by getting stuck on them. I personally believe that what sugar does to the overall body fluids is more important. It creates a rapid sugar surge that takes some effort on body’s part to control. Very frequent sugar surges tire out the pancreas and promote rapid decay across the body, including the teeth. Probably, that’s why dental problems are far more severe in case of diabetics!

If all of the above logic is correct teeth health is directly related to gut health. Probably, it is impossible to have healthy teeth , if your gut is not healthy. And therefore a dentist should also prescribe a healthy diet and lifestyle to keep the digestion healthy, because that’s the root of all dental problems.

Most of the women experience rapid tooth decay during pregnancy. Probably, it is because they eat all kinds of things, that too in a huge amount. This abnormal diet puts an extra pressure on the digestive system. And it gets derailed. The toxins thus produced due to under-digested food alter the composition of saliva and thus accelerate tooth decay.

So, now I believe that dry fasting for 24 hours can actually bring back not only your digestion, but also all body fluids to a completely balanced state. It definitely helps to remove excess sugar from all the body fluids, but also deep cleanse the body tissues and rejuvenate them! And if we do not spoil its effects by random eating afterwards, monthly Ekadashi dry fasting can extrapolate and multiply the health benefits exponentially.

The above explanation looks logical. However, I have no experimental proof for the above hypotheses. Anyways, I look forward to conduct some experiments on this concept in future. If you already have similar experiences or are doing some kind of related research I will be more than happy to know about it, please share!

May all of us achieve the ultimate aim of human life through shared wisdom!

My Experience with Ashtami Vrata in Traditional Hindu Intermittent Fasting

Namaste!

I have been practicing traditional intermittent fasting as was practiced by my ancestors, to understand its effects and I have come to observe incredible results.

It is a saying that Hindu people have thirteen festivals in three days (teen din me terah tehvar). Most of these festivals are associated with some of the other deities. However, one noticeable thing is that all these festivals form a deep mesh of intermittent fasting, based on the position and state (waning/waxing) of the moon. And it is now scientifically proven that the lunar phases have an impact not only on the tides, but also human circulatory system, menstrual cycle, nervous system, and hormones.

I started a study of ritucharya as a systematic preventive regimen against seasonal disorders in 2015. However, now I realize that it is not only a preventive system. It is much more rigorous than that. There is a huge possibility that this system can actually stay the entire aging process.

And ritucharya is more outside the ancient Ayurvedic text. It is mentioned in an indicative fashion in the classical text. However, the real practice of ritucharya is deeply ingrained in Hindu religious practices. I now believe is that a person living in a Vedic manner, should ideally not age at all.

Today, it is Ashtami (the eighth day of lunar waning) and I have been observing dry fasting (zero food and water) on each Ashtami, which is twice a month. Today, it was hotter than the rest of the days and therefore, I thought that I would rather continue with fruit and vegetable-based fast rather than a complete dry fast.

I ate fruits in the morning as I was really hungry then. In the afternoon, I was not hungry at all, but still, I had a good amount of cooked vegetables and watermelon. By 3.00 pm in the afternoon, I felt so abnormally drowsy that I was not able to keep my eyes open. This is a rare incidence for me as I also practice sleep fasting or ratri Jagran multiple times a month (zero sleep for 24 hours).

I drank approx 200 ml of coffee in the afternoon to prevent sleeping during the day. milk-based Coffee is anytime a better option than sleeping during the daytime. Normally, even 50 ml of milk-based mild coffee will keep me up for the entire night. But even after drinking this coffee, I fell asleep.

Sleep is a way of the body to counter excessive heat. Even animals like snakes and other reptiles sleep in order to cool off their bodies. This naturally happens as our metabolism is drastically reduced during sleep and therefore this helps to reduce the heat production ion the body as well.

In normal dry fasting, I would not have anything including water throughout the day. During Ashtami, I would drink water and eat one meal after the sunset. In Ekadashi, it is 24-hour fasting. And the incredible thing is that during all these fasts, I never feel weak, or tired, or sleepy. In fact, I feel lighter, cooler, and more energetic.

However, today I missed the fast. There is a reason to conclude that our body does not only have a bio-clock, it might also have a bio-calender. I believe that my body was expecting no food or water today and had other things planned for the day.

But since I had food, in addition to the increased day heat, the body had no option but to shut off the system and go to sleep.

Normally, I would sleep for 5-6 hours a day without any problems at all. But today even after sleeping for one hour extra during the day,  I felt so tired and heavy in my head after waking up.

In Bihar, (a state in India), there is a highly revered festival of chatt (which includes48 hours dry fasting). It is a very tough vrata and the follower is strictly advised to never drop the annual fasting routine. Even if one has to drop the fasting ritual, there is a special procedure for it. Otherwise, the follower may invite the wrath of the presiding deity -the sun. It reinforces my belief in the annual calendar memory of the body.

I assume that body metabolism has as its own inertia of momentum and when this natural rhythm is obstructed in some manner, there is an equal and opposite )and probably not very pleasant) reaction – the wrath of the diety!

It is interesting to note that all human body parts have a presiding deity, for example, the eye is the abode of the sun god, the nose of the abode of vayu (air god), and so on. Similarly, each day of the lunar month has a presiding deity according to Vedic astrology. And today, I can definitely feel the wrath of the presiding deity of Ashtami – shiva 🙂

I will try to document all my personal experiences of Hindu Traditional Fasting and I sincerely hope that it might help to throw new light on the lost science of ritucharya!

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti!