Fasting to get rid of disease instead of taking medicines
Denver July 3 1975
Devotee (4): Śrīla Prabhupāda, if a devotee gets sick, should he go and take medicine?
Prabhupāda: Better not to take.
Devotee (4): Just depend on Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is very good. What is this?
Kuruśreṣṭha: Rosehips. (Horse hips(?) Forceps(?))
Yadubara: You said the other day, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that we should take care of disease if it comes. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita was also saying fire and so on.
Prabhupāda: That is material consciousness.
Brahmānanda: Fasting is one way of eliminating the disease without taking medicine.
Prabhupāda: Yes. There is a Indian proverb that “Disease and unwanted guest, if you don’t give food, they will go away.” If some guest has come whom you do not want, don’t give him food. Then he will go away. (laughter) Similarly, disease, if you fast, it will go away. [break] …another story: prahareṇa dhanañjaya. One gentleman had eight or nine daughters and son-in-law. So when they came, he was giving them good food and shelter, everything. So then they saw, “We are very comfortably living at father-in-law’s expense.” So they did not want to go. The father-in-law saw, “It is very dangerous that all the son-in-laws are not going.” Then he began to… First day he did not supply salt. So one son-in-law say, “Oh, they are now disrespecful, they have not given salt.” So one went away. And next day, something else, something else, something else, shortened, shortened. So those who were intelligent, they went away. The last one, he was not going. Then his brother-in-laws thought that “Give him good beating.” Then he went away. Prahareṇa dhanañjaya. Others, those who were intelligent, they, when they thought that “Now there is disrespectful dealing, they are not giving everything,” so they gradually… The last one, he was a rascal. He was beaten severely; then he went away.
Yadubara: So if we’re beaten by this material nature, then we’ll go away.
Prabhupāda: No, no. Yes. No, material nature’s business is beating and kicking. That’s his only business. But we are so fool, we are taking, “Oh, very nice kicking.” That is the disease. We accept the kicking as very nice. That is foolishness. We are suffering always by three kinds of…, ādhyātmika, ādhibhautika, ādhidaivika disturbances. There is disturbance in the body, in the mind, disturbance by other living entities, so many, disturbed by climate, disturbed by famine. Always disturbance. Still, we are thinking, “It is very nice place.” This is foolishness. Still, we are trying to improve it. That is foolishness. He does not think that “What is the meaning of improvement? The disturbing is always continuing.” That does not come to his brain. They are making improvement. [break] …improvement, they can say, “This is improvement.” But how long this improvement will go? If there is no rainfall, what this improvement will help? So that is not in your hand. That is ādhidaivika. It depends on the demigods. If they want, they can stop completely, no rainfall. Then what this improvement will do?
Some Conclusions—There are two points made in the above conversation. The first is that to rid ourselves of disease, then we should just fast until it goes away. One devotee
above refers to Canakya pandit who says we should get rid of fire, debt and disease as quickly as possible, otherwise it will consume us. Prabhupada says-that is material consciousness / advice. So it appears the better instruction he gives to us is that if we suffer some sickness, then it is better to just fast for a while, not eating anything until the body can heal itself.
The second and more important point is that we should try to understand how Maya is constantly kicking and beating us in many different way, yet we still cling to the idea that we can “improve” our situation, so we work practically day and night to achieve this goal. Yet we never get peace of mind or body. The older I get the more I am starting to clearly understand what Prabhupada is talking about.
BG 13.8 purport…One should try to understand the distress of accepting birth, death, old age and disease. There are descriptions in various Vedic literatures of birth. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the world of the unborn, the child’s stay in the womb of the mother, its suffering, etc., are all very graphically described. It should be thoroughly understood that birth is distressful. Because we forget how much distress we have suffered within the womb of the mother, we do not make any solution to the repetition of birth and death. Similarly at the time of death, there are all kinds of sufferings, and they are also mentioned in the authoritative scriptures. These should be discussed. And as far as disease and old age are concerned, everyone gets practical experience. No one wants to be diseased, and no one wants to become old, but there is no avoiding these. Unless we have a pessimistic view of this material life, considering the distresses of birth, death, old age and disease, there is no impetus for our making advancement in spiritual life.
Hare Krsna
damaghosa das
