Upvas literally means: Up means Sub (subordinate), dependent, and Vas means to live or reside. Thus, Upvas means being the subordinate or being the servent and living close to someone who is very important. Same like Sub-inspector gives duty under the main inspector.
In this Sanskrit terms, the body is a sub-inspector and the mind is the main inspector. So, Upvas is a technique of Ayurveda that is practiced for self-healing. By practicing the Upvas, you can easily understand that sub-inspector and inspector are performing together. Some other terms are used for Upvas are; fasting, fast, Vrat or Vrata, Upavas, Upwas etc. There are some differences between Vrat and Upvas but in this blog, we will learn about Upvas.
So Fasting or Upvas is skipping some meals or taking meals in a large time duration such as 14 hours. While practicing Upvas (fasting), according to science, our body and mind work more amazingly and they have good concord or functioning.
But Upvas is not just skipping the meal or not eating anything, it is more than that. In Geeta, it is mentioned that not only skipping food but distracting the mind from taste, sense, and food is real karma.
विषया विनिवर्तन्ते निराहारस्य देहिनः ।
रसवर्जं रसोऽप्यस्य परं दृष्टवा निवर्तते॥ Chapter 2, Verse 59
Vishaya vinivartante niraharasya dehinah,
Rasavarjan raso pyasya param drstva nivartate. (02.59)
Meaning: Aspirants may restrain the senses from their objects of enjoyment, but the taste for the sense objects remains. However, even this taste ceases for those who realizes the Supreme power.
If we go accordingly to Ayurveda, Upvas is mentioned as:
दोषः कदाचित कुप्यन्ति, जिता लंघन पच्नेया ।
जिता संशोधनहेतुर, न तेषां पुनरुद्भव ।। चरक संहिता (श्लोक संख्या १६.२०)
Doshah kadachit kupyanti jita langhana pachanaih,
Jitah samsodhanairye tu na tesham punarudbhavah. (Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 16:20)
Meaning: The meaning of these lines is that we can balance all our dosha (Vata, Pitta, and Kapha) by simply doing detoxification of our body. If the digestion is going good and we are taking Upvas from time to time, we will be always healthy.
10 MAJOR BENEFITS OF UPVAS (FAST)
- Helps to be more mindful
- Helps to function well body and mind together
- Helps to reduce weight naturally
- Helps to remove toxins and do natural detoxification
- Glows the skin and remove dead skin cells
- Removes all blockages in body
- Heals the body naturally
- Removes Chronic diseases
- Purifies the blood
- Improves the daan section of life
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON UPVAS
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- I have seen people to do upavas for one month and more duration. What is the true strength that is being put to test to achieve this? Is it all mind or body or both? [asked by: Rishab Sanghvi]
Answer: Upvas is simply the detoxification of our body. Suppose you are using a machine, for sure you have to give some rest to it for better performance as we are doing in our sleep. But if the machine runs from petrol and we sometimes are putting diesel into it, then we have to stop it for somedays and better not to put anything. Same in our body, we eat wrong food sometimes and when we do Upvas, we regular reduce bad toxins and regenerate good energy and restore our body as before. The ultimate goal of Upvas is the regeneration of cells, energy, immunity, blood and other important needs in the body. Apart from that, when the stomach is empty and some required acids are flowing, at the time, the body and mind do their best level because of good connection and concord.
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- What is spiritual meaning of doing Upvas? [asked by: Giovanna Imprezzabile]
Answer: Upvas is an Ayurveda Term and simply means to skip some meals for some days or months but taking food as Medicine. Vrat or Vrat is something spiritual that is attached to any spiritual entity as a promised witness. Suppose you are skipping meal for being healthy and detoxification, that comes under Upvas. But if you had a Sankalpa (Promise) and skipping meals for the divine entity, that comes under Vrata.
HELPS TO BE MORE MINDFUL
Mindful simply means being in the present moment. The human mind is always curious about new things and wants to explore always new patterns of life. When you do fasting and your stomach becomes empty, it is something new for the mind and the mind always observes the body, stomach, digestive organs, etc., and be in the present moment.
Mindfulness is gained when the body is more healthy and the mind is doing something with the help of the body at the present. Without the help of the body, the mind can not get the state of mindfulness.
BODY AND MIND FUNCTIONS WELL TOGETHER
It is a secret truth that the mind and body function together very well when the stomach is somehow empty. Also, there are some Sutra (theory) mentioned that: if your body will be calm, the mind will speak and if your mind will be calm, your soul will be speaking. When the soul speaks you know about right and wrong in life.
Our energy is always busy in the digestion process which is managed by the subconscious mind but when we do Upvas, we allow some time for our energy to work according to the conscious mind and they function very well together.
HELPS TO REDUCE WEIGHT NATURALLY
In fasting, when you do not take any food for some hours, but still do daily karma such as going office or doing something at home, your digestion system starts burning the extra fat in your body and convert that part into energy and provide you energy for work. Burning calories from your body will reduce your weight and remove fat and this is so natural process.
When you go to Gym or Do some hard exercise in your daily routine, you lose weight but if you skip those exercises you get the weight back to the previous. But in Upvas, even if you are not doing so much exercise, just only walking, you will get amazing results.
HELPS TO REMOVE TOXINS AND DO NATURAL DETOXIFICATION
In our body, when we take food, some toxins enter in blood and reach other parts of the body. Doing Upvas helps us in detoxification and remove bad toxins from our body. The toxins come out by stool, urine, sweat, breath and gases.
Detoxification is a process that is only possible when you are not taking any bad food for some days and only taking good fruits such as fruits, dry fruits, protein, vitamins, etc., in Upvas, we not only skip meals but also take some super quality food.
GLOWS THE SKIN AND REMOVE DEAD SKIN CELLS
When we follow fasting, the oil and fat from the food stop going to the skin and only necessary vitamins and other minerals go and make our skin healthy and all the dead cells from the skin went through away by sweating.
REMOVES ALL BLOCKAGES IN BODY
We have some blockage in our body in veins, in blood, in the intestine, in muscles, in bones, in interior organs, and almost everywhere. When we take Upvas, our body has samtap (good temperature) and samagni (good fire), Tap and Agni remove the blockage in our body.
HEALS THE BODY NATURALLY
Our inner energy is always busy in the process of digestion because we are always eating more than we need. If we do Upvas (Fasting), we allow 14 hours every day to our healing powers and it is 420 hours per month. In this way, our body will remove all toxins and heal all our body organs and we will be healthy.
REMOVES CHRONIC DISEASES
Upvas can also help to reduce Chronic Disease. When the body organs are affected by Chronic pain or other issues, they do not function well and we keep continue working with them without any repair and maintenance, Upvas is the rest time or repair-maintenance time for chronics issues.
PURIFIES THE BLOOD
When the food digests, it is converted to rasa (one of the seven dhatus in Ayurveda) and the rasa travels into o blood and goes to all parts of the body. If that rasa is full of bad toxins such as carbon etc, the blood becomes impure and does not travel well. When we do Upvas and start healthy diets, we send healthy food crumbs and rasa to the whole body and our blood becomes very pure.
IMPROVES THE DAAN SECTION OF LIFE
Daan is called Donation and it is an important factor of Karma and destiny in life. When you do Upvas or fasting, you somehow skip some food, and that food still stores in shops and based on the sales, the shopkeeper decides the price of food. If the sales will be more, the price will automatically high because the demand will be high. But if you skip some food and more people start to do it, the price and demand will be low and that is how the food can be reached to poor people.
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