Fasting, a Means to Spiritual, Bodily and Social Health

In Eastern spirituality fasting has both a physical and a spiritual side. Physical fast involves refraining oneself from consuming certain types of food and reducing the amount of food allowed to be consumed. The spiritual fast implies the spiritualization of the human being by avoiding hollow thoughts, facts that are against moral laws, inappropriate words. Both physical and spiritual fast create the proper conditions that lead to spiritual and bodily health. The purpose of fasting is the spiritual ascension, the bodily health being only a side effect of the ascetic endeavors of the human being. A person can only be declared healthy if both his/her soul and his body are in good health. Of course, the medical aspects of fasting should not be forgotten either, the Christian having the duty of properly taking care of his body, by not neglecting or disregarding it. Having a dichotomous nature, the human being must be concerned with the soul, but also with the body, fasting being the means by which the soul manages to dominate the passionate impulses of the body. Fasting has an important religious-moral value, it is a welcome act to God, a means of removing passions and sins, an instrument of lust control, a separation from the materialism of the present world. Fasting is a way to acquire the moral order within society, being a means of Christian philanthropy, an instrument of helping people, a way through which society can progress.