Fast from the World

talib-al-kalim

talib-al-kalim

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As now, Ramadan falls into the traditional fasting period of the Christians, I would like to discuss the meaning of fasting. Contributions from other, non-Abrahamic religions would be welcome, too. What is the meaning of fasting? In particular: What is the meaning of "fasting from the World"? What does it mean to you?

"Gospel of Thomas" 27:1
Jesus said, “Unless you fast from the world, you will not find the Kingdom.”
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Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromateis III,15 99:4
Those who have castrated themselves from all sin for the sake of Kingdom of heaven are fortunate: They are the ones who fast from the world.
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Muhyi al-Din ibn 'Arabi (12th/13th centure CE), Al-Furuhar al-Makkiyye 4:663
Jesus exhorted some of his companions as follows: “Fast from the world and break your fast with death. Be like him who treats his wound with medicine lest it oppress him. Remember death often – for death comes to the man of faith bringing good with no evil to follow; but to the evil man, it brings evil with no good to follow.”
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talib-al-kalim said:
As now, Ramadan falls into the traditional fasting period of the Christians, I would like to discuss the meaning of fasting. Contributions from other, non-Abrahamic religions would be welcome, too. What is the meaning of fasting? In particular: What is the meaning of "fasting from the World"? What does it mean to you?
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Nothing
 
talib-al-kalim said:
What is the meaning of "fasting from the World"? What does it mean to you?
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Good thread

I think all 'true' religions teach there must be a choice between God and mammon:

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Matthew 6:24

It is the essence of sacrifice:

Those who know the secret of sacrifice, and engaging in it, partake of its remnants that are like nectar, advance toward the Absolute Truth. O best of the Kurus, those who perform no sacrifice find no happiness either in this world or the next.
Bhagavad Gita 4:31

IMO?
 
Jesus said: "It is impossible for a man to mount two horses or to stretch two bows. And it is impossible for a servant to serve two masters; otherwise he will honour the one and despise the other"

"Whoever finds the world and becomes rich, let him renounce the world"

Gospel of Thomas 47/110
 
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We (Hindus) don't have a 'fasting from the world'. 'Fasting' is for those 'in the world'. What need have they to fast if they are 'not in the world' (who have renounced the world and have taken Sannyasa).

My only 'fast' (if you will call it that) is on the death anniversary of my father or mother. It allows one meal and tea and ample amount of potato wafers three times a day. I can't remain hungry. I have a high basal metabolic rate (I am not diabetic).:)
 
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Just letting it all wash over me ...thank you...no response except how timely, how beautiful...I was prepared for this moment of contemplation and am blessed by it...thank you all
 
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Fasting, and breaking the fast, I actually get to appreciate the goodness of this world.
Simultaneously, the world around me keeps on acting as before, busy, unthoughtful, and I am in it, feeling a bit more than usually that something is wrong.
Fasting has two faces or more, and the world has two faces or more...
 
Aupmanyav said:
Two faces:
1. It is a compulsion. Nothing to eat during the day in Muslim countries, like it or not.
2. It was made (sort of) mandatory by someone in Arabia in the 7th Century.
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Muhammad (p.b.u.h) fasted himself, and it seems that he drew benefit from that exercise, so that he at least recommended to fast in Ramadan. He also recommended to break the fast every evening, although he had also fasted two consecutive days. The distinction between mustahab (recommended) and fard (mandatory) is mostly a later scholarly interpretation.
I know that many people in Muslim countries do not fast in Ramadan but hide it, eating at home, whereas here, as a minority, we rather tend to hide that we fast.
 
Aupmanyav said:
We (Hindus) don't have a 'fasting from the world'. 'Fasting' is for those 'in the world'. What need have they to fast if they are 'not in the world' (who have renounced the world and have taken Sannyasa).

My only 'fast' (if you will call it that) is on the death anniversary of my father or mother. It allows one meal and tea and ample amount of potato wafers three times a day. I can't remain hungry. I have a high basal metabolic rate (I am not diabetic).:)
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I actually don't feel a close link between the exercise of physical fasting and "fasting from the world" (#7).

Even in orthodox Islam, it is not recommended to fast if it harms your health, so that your decision not to fast would be fully acceptable for Muslim as well.

However, fasting, withdrawal from the world and the return and action in the world seem to me a subject of Indian religions as well, where I know better the Buddhist and the Jain way than the Hindu schools.

How would you understand the passage of the Bhagavad-Gita RJM cited in #3?
 
In Hinduism, withdrawal from the world is suggested only around 75 years of age (Sannyasa Ashram), otherwise there are duties and work. One should not leave them. It is part of 'dharma'.

I first translate a Gita verse very literally (as it should be done. If one puts meaning in it, then it will be a personal view, perhaps a distortion).
Doing that, what BG 4:31 says is: "Never in this world there is any who does not work, where is the other like that (who does not work), O Kuru (Arjuna)?"
Sacrifice is not the correct translation of 'Yajna'. Any kind of work, effort is a 'Yajna'.
If we put some hours for a social service, it may be called a 'Shram dana yajna' (giving some time in labor as an offering).
Vinoba Bhave, a Gandhi desciple, started what is known as 'Bhumi dana yajna' (if you have a large estate, give some to those who do not have it).
 
Aupmanyav said:
In Hinduism, withdrawal from the world is suggested only around 75 years of age (Sannyasa Ashram), otherwise there are duties and work. One should not leave them. It is part of 'dharma'.

I first translate a Gita verse very literally (as it should be done. If one puts meaning in it, then it will be a personal view, perhaps a distortion).
Doing that, what BG 4:31 says is: "Never in this world there is any who does not work, where is the other like that (who does not work), O Kuru (Arjuna)?"
Sacrifice is not the correct translation of 'Yajna'. Any kind of work, effort is a 'Yajna'.
If we put some hours for a social service, it may be called a 'Shram dana yajna' (giving some time in labor as an offering).
Vinoba Bhave, a Gandhi desciple, started what is known as 'Bhumi dana yajna' (if you have a large estate, give some to those who do not have it).
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Ah -- thank you for that @Aupmanyav

What is your opinion of Prabhupada's translation of 9:26-28?

If one offers me with devotion a leaf, a fruit, a flower or water, I will accept it.

Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, whatever austerities you perform – do that as an offering to me.

In this way you will be freed from all reactions to good and evil deeds, and by this principle of renunciation you will be liberated and come to Me.
 
I rarely agree with Prabhupada's translation.
I am a strong atheist and he was a theist. I think these verses were later additions by Vaishnavas.
9.28 sannyāsa-yoga-yukta-ātmā
(A person who has renounced greed and hatred, will otherwise also be liberated, whether he worships Krishna or not, or is a Hindu or not).
Hinduism is very fair in such cases, for example, who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. The law is the same for all people irrespective of all other things (like wealth, race, caste, religion, etc.). Only one's deeds decide. It does not require the worship of this God or that, or even any worship at all.
Krishna has said that in another verse earlier also.

"jñeyaḥ sa nitya-sannyāsī, yo na dveṣṭi na kāṅkṣati;
nirdvandvo hi mahā-bāho, sukhaṁ bandhāt pramucyate." BG 5.3

(Consider one as ever renounced, who neither hates nor desires, free from all dualities, O Mighty-armed (Arjuna), such a person easily gets liberated from bondage.)
 
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Aupmanyav said:
Hinduism is very fair in such cases, for example, who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.
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I'm surprised that you talk about heaven and hell in the context of Hinduism. I must admit that I have very little knowledge of Hinduism, but, drawing from Buddhism, I thought that the concept was that every creature is reborn until he/she succeeds to enter Nirvana.
 
talib-al-kalim said:
.. but, drawing from Buddhism, I thought that the concept was that every creature is reborn until he/she succeeds to enter Nirvana.
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Yeah. In main-line Hinduism, one stays in heaven in proportion to his good deeds and similarly in hell for the evil deeds. The good and bad deeds are not compounded. So, even the most virtuous may go to hell for some time if they had done something evil.
Of course, being an atheist Hindu, I do not believe in any of these things.
 
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