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Category: Social Rituals

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 Pilgrimage Deepens Self Awareness Energy (SAL)

        We have discussed how our ancient masters have inculcated mind and body purification practices through enjoyable rituals. Here purification means removing mental blocks that short circuit our own SAl Energy.  These rituals are ingrained in the life style in the form of festivals and pilgrimages. Pilgrimage is a healing ritual which bring about purification of body and mind.  Pilgrimages are seen in all spiritual and religious traditions. We will just high light here the  yearly "Sabarimala" ritual that motivates a lot of people,  especially in South India.

        The five abstinences mentioned before are beautifully coordinated in one ritual observed in the winter months of India for 41 days of Ayyappa vritham (vratham) ritual to go on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala , a temple in the mountain ranges of Kerala.   Please click here  to read about the interesting  behind the "Sabarimala"  Pilgrimage rituals in detail.

     We mention about pilgrimages because of the importance of Abstinence which helps to transcend to Awareness state, the source of healing. Form ancient times these pilgrimages were done to keep the body and mind healthy and also progress in spiritual life.

      In the next page we will discuss the power of Abstinence, which should be clearly understood, otherwise it will remain as a meaningless torture to the body and mind.

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       No salt diet - Mind watching

          This is a very powerful exercise one can do to really be aware of the restless thoughts of the mind.  In other words it is a powerful exercise for mind watching. Some of the members of Sakthi Foundation has done this exercise for few days to 41 days avoiding salt in foods. Avoiding salt does not harm the body because natural salts is present in all foods.

         This exercise is not done to torture the body. It is a powerful means of self evaluation of the control you have over your mind. During this exercise one observes how the mind gets tempted over to eat salty food and break the exercise. It is difficult to begin but later becomes a fun watching the justifications that mind gives the intellect to stop the practice. If you are aware you will witness the thoughts of mind, intellect, temptations, desires, justifications, anger, greed, restlessness etc.

         The mind that fed on strong likes and dislikes of the taste now feels miserable and weak when it cannot get to what it needs. This is one excellent means to strengthen the intellect, because the intellect wants to keep the discipline of not eating salt added food for 41 days, while the mind does not allow that. Therefore it is a challenge of the mind and intellect.  You will be able to self evaluate whether your mind or intellect is powerful.

        This is the intention of some of the spiritual rituals done like fasting, abstinence from eating salt, sugar, favorite foods etc. Through abstinence of mind's favorite food one gains control of mind's strong likes and dislikes. Through this approach slowly we can control the mind not to think of negative thoughts. Generally we have no control over mind to think of positive thoughts. We are taken a roller coast ride by the mind. We are just the slave of the mind. We think what the mind wants to think. We act what the mind wants us to act. To gain freedom from the prison of the mind is real freedom. This is the message of Vedanta or any spiritual tradition. We will discuss this later in spiritual section. 

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   Observing Rituals of Space Fasting

Space for the mind.
        While doing fasting keep observing the mind and how thoughts arise and what sort of the thoughts play havoc in the mind. This observing attitude is a good exercise to bring back the wandering mind.

       While doing Pranayama the focus of the mind is on the breath and so the wandering of the mind is significantly reduced. Similar focus happens in fasting because the mind tends to focus on food. When the mind is focused on a particular object, it is very easy to observe the mind. This is the secret of fasting which helps to heal the mind apart from imparting cleansing benefits to the body.

      Similarly like food fasting one can do abstinence from other aspects that we have mentioned earlier. Please be again clear that abstinence is not a punishment or torture to the mind or body. Through abstinence we are exercising control over the mind.

Observing rituals  is only for observing the mind

       Though observing rituals are helps to watch our own weakness of the mind, it does benefit the body also. It gives the opportunity to repair the body tissues and keep the vital substances of the body (hormones, enzymes etc) in proper balance.

      We have discussed about space food fasting which is abstinence of food for a small period of time. In Vedic traditions in the name of festivals which falls in different times of the calendar year, these rituals are observed.  It has helped people to stay physically and mentally healthy. If some one misses to observe one of these mind and body cleansing in one season , they will catch up that in the festival of other season.

     The greatness of Vedic tradition is that it is very flexible. People who cannot abstain from food also can obtain similar benefits by the choice of the rituals. Please Click here  to read an interesting mind body cleansing that is observed for centuries  especially in kerala, the southern state of India.

      One of the powerful ritual fasting is to observe by abstinence of salt. 

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        How to do Space Fasting?

      We recommend fasting (total abstinence of solid food or water at least for one day once a month or once in 11 days. In Vedic tradition, this is always coupled with the moon cycle, because moon has an influence on the mind. Ekadeshi day is the 11th day of every half of the moon cycle.  This means the 11th day after no moon day and the 11th day after full moon day is a Ekadeshi day. Fasting on that helps a lot in mind control.

     Like the Vedic tradition, every other spiritual and religious traditions do follow Fasting. In Islam tradition a month of Ramadan fasting is done every year. This is very beneficial if the aspect of Mind watching is also taken into account.

General Note

        However one should do fasting with caution. Patients who are very weak physically should not do space fasting. But they can do juice fasting. Once they get sufficient strength they can do space fasting. Please refer Earth Clean page for details regarding juice fasting.

Steps:
            Start with Juice fasting" (Click here  for details) once a week for  a couple of months in which you drink whole day different varieties of juices. To begin space fasting, skip morning juice (8 to 12) and do juice fasting rest of the day. After a couple of weeks, skip morning and noon juices. Again after a few weeks, do space fasting till the evening. Finally when you can do a complete space fasting, fast till the end of the day. In the night drink one fruit juice and go to bed. This step by step fasting approach is not stressful and give benefits to the body.

Space for the mind.
           Mind is awhirl pool of thoughts and we are always caught in that. Negative thoughts of greed, anger, jealousy, fear, lust and hatred bring adverse effects to the body and hinder the healing force. As we had discussed before these negative emotions manifest as diseases.  To get out of stress,  the mind should be relaxed and purified from the negative thoughts. It is easy to remove these negative thoughts when we try to be aware of it. To create an awareness of thoughts, fasting is very beneficial.