From Feet & Stomach to The Mind (Fasting @ Navratri)

                     

Cometh the Navaratri, Cometh the fasts!!!

Navratri is a Nine day celebration of Goddess Durga’s victory over Mahishasur. Symbolically, it represents the win of good over evil. Each of the nine days, goddesses in various forms are celebrated with joy and enthusiasm. The ‘Ashtami’, ‘Navami’, and the ‘Dashami’ viz. Eight, Nineth and the Tenth day has special significance.

‘Navami’ is celebrated in favour of Saraswati mata, the goddess of knowledge.

Warriors thank, decorate and worship their weapons. Musicians upkeep, play and pray their musical instruments. Farmers, carpenters, potters, shopkeepers decorate and worship their equipment and tools of trade. Students express their respect towards their teacher. ‘Dashami’ is celebrated as Dusshera.

There are various ways of celebrating this nine day festive. Till the end of 20^th Century, the devotion to Goddess was homely and was rarely expressed to the world. The beginning of 21^st Century invoked devotion of a different kind, where colours represented a particular day. What began as promotion of a ‘local’ calendar caught  the imagination of common people and ladies adapted celebrating Navratri days wearing clothes of a particular colour on specific day. This practice encouraged team work and corporate encouraged this practice at their institutional level and the practice of colours became synonym to Navratri.

Whilst wearing colours was a harmless practice, a few notorious practices caught the minds of young minds.

The first of such practices is walking ‘barefoot’ during the nine days as part of devotion. No trace can be found anywhere in the Vedas or Puranas where sacrificing footwear are mentioned. In the olden days, people walked barefoot for the reason that footwear was considered as luxury items and common man never had footwear. This resulted in the sole of the foot being strong and heat of the ground or stones never bothered them. In today’s world where child is born with fancy footwear, sacrificing footwear for these nine days can prove to be really a pain for the devotee. The sole of the foot is pretty tender, it is easily hurt on the hard surface of tar-roads or paver blocks. Also, the calves, hamstrings and lower back gets hurt due to this barefoot walking. The heat on such surfaces and the boils are added disadvantages. The young brigade needs to think again about this unwanted practice.

The next most dangerous practice practiced by the young guns is ‘fasting’ on foods. While interminnent fasting is a good practice, it has to be done with proper measure of calorie intake based on individual health requirements. However, a sudden nine-days fasting with intake of fruits only, can have adverse effect on the health of young people especially girls. Fasting as a practice was done to avoid overeating during festive season. Today, the people who fast are fragile with poor health habits. Many students do not have needed physical strength to sustain the ill-effects of fasting. Scientifically, when one fasts for 8 hours, the body starts burning stored fat first, the important aspect is the body must have ‘fat’ content to be consumed. If the fats are missing then the body starts burning on the accumulated carbohydrates. This is where the problem lies, when the carbohydrate gets consumed beyond a certain limit, the person feels nausea and black out. Many students, especially, girls needs to be aware of the body anatomy before planning to fast.

Fasting is a scientific process than an emotional decision!!!

The purpose of fasting must be understood to the core before undertaking the same. Just following someone blindly does not serve purpose at all. The traditions never suggested ‘fasting’ for people who cannot sustain the pressure of the same.

If any student is still interested to ‘fast’ to achieve something good, then following are the some suggestions:

1)    One can sacrifice their mobile phones for nine days. This will definitely give them a sense of calmness.

2)    One must ‘Fast’ on the internet usage for these days. They must use internet for selected time period during the day.

3)    Students must take up healthy habits of waking up early, doing physical activities, exercises early in the morning to remain fit for the time to come.

The educated young brigade must understand that many traditional practices have been twisted today to suit the modern needs. Very similarly, the ‘fasting’ techniques needs to be tweaked as well. Fast on mobile phones or internet services will help a great amount to bring back sanity and peace in houses than fasting without food or walking barefoot.

Its high time, from foot & stomach to the Mind, we Rise!!!

Vishu (Sir)