Gita 6.16

Sadhak: "I've been doing intense fasting - sometimes 3 days at a stretch - because I read that great yogis did this. Why would Krishna say this isn't yoga?"

Guru: "Tell me what happens on day three of your fast. What is your mind doing?"

Sadhak: "Honestly? I'm constantly thinking about food. Counting hours until I can eat. Sometimes I feel proud that I'm enduring this. Sometimes I feel irritable and snap at people."

Guru: "So your fast has achieved the opposite of yoga - your mind is more obsessed with the body, not less. You've added pride and irritability to your mental state. This is austerity that increases bondage rather than freedom. The great yogis you read about - their bodies had been gradually prepared over years. Their fasts came naturally, not as forced discipline. You are forcing a practice onto an unprepared body-mind, and the body-mind rebels."

Sadhak: "But isn't controlling bodily desires the whole point? If I give my body what it wants, am I not just being a slave to it?"

Guru: "You've framed it as a war - controller versus controlled, master versus slave. This framing itself is the problem. The body is not your enemy. It is your partner, your instrument, your vehicle for this life's journey. When you partner with someone, do you starve them to prove dominance? Or do you give them what they need so they can perform their function well?"

Sadhak: "That makes sense, but how do I know what my body actually needs versus what it wants out of habit or craving?"

Guru: "Excellent question - this discernment is itself part of yoga. The body's genuine need communicates differently than craving. Genuine hunger is a physical sensation - stomach emptiness, low energy. Craving is mental - you picture specific foods, you eat when not hungry because of emotions, you continue eating past fullness. Begin observing: before eating, ask 'Is this physical hunger or something else?' After eating, notice: 'Did I stop at satisfaction or continue to excess?' This observation itself transforms your relationship with food."

Sadhak: "What about sleep? I've been trying to reduce sleep to 4 hours because I want more time for practice. Isn't that discipline?"

Guru: "How is your meditation during these short-sleep days?"

Sadhak: "I keep nodding off during meditation. My mind is foggy. I get headaches sometimes."

Guru: "So you've gained hours but lost quality. What good are four extra waking hours if your mind cannot focus during any of them? A well-rested mind that meditates deeply for one hour accomplishes more than an exhausted mind that sits for three hours. You are not your sleeping patterns - you can observe them, adjust them gradually. But forcing radical change creates resistance. The body forced into sleep deprivation will take revenge in ways you cannot foresee."

Sadhak: "Then what is the right amount? Krishna says 'not too much, not too little' - but what's the exact measure?"

Guru: "You want a universal prescription, but bodies differ. One person thrives on seven hours of sleep; another needs eight. One can eat two meals; another needs three. The measure is not in hours or grams but in results: Do you have steady energy through the day? Is your mind clear for practice? Are you free from both heaviness and agitation? When you find your balance, you know it because the body stops demanding attention. It becomes a quiet, willing partner rather than a constant distraction."

Sadhak: "This seems less 'spiritual' than I expected. Diet and sleep feel so mundane."

Guru: "This is precisely why many seekers fail. They want to skip the 'mundane' foundation and jump to the 'spiritual' heights. But the heights are built on this foundation. You cannot transcend what you haven't first mastered. A musician who won't tune their instrument because 'tuning isn't music' will never play beautifully. Your body is the instrument. Tune it well - not through extremism but through intelligent balance - and it becomes capable of holding the highest spiritual frequencies. Neglect this tuning, and you'll spend years wondering why meditation doesn't deepen despite all your efforts."