Upavāsa
Main article: Upavāsa Vidhi
Upavāsa · upa-vāsa, “dwelling near; fasting”
Grammar: masculine noun; upa (near) and vāsa (dwelling), from the root vas (to dwell): “dwelling near”, and so “fasting”.
Meaning: fasting, going without food for a day or a night or more, kept as a vrata or as prāyaścitta (an act that removes a fault).
In the scriptures: the ṛshis, teaching the rākshasa king Sukeśī in Pulastya Maharshi‘s account to Nārada, give upavāsa as the cure for wrong food. If impure food is eaten unknowingly, the fault is removed by fasting for one night or three nights; if spoiled food is eaten knowingly, there is no purification for it at all. One who eats in the house of a man who has given up his nitya and naimittika karmas (the daily and occasional rites), or eats food given by a gaṇaka (astrologer), a vyādha (hunter), a veśyā, a vaidya or a miser, fasts for three nights (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 15).
In the year-long Kālāshṭamī vrata to Śiva that Pulastya Maharshi tells Nārada, in several months one fasts on the ashṭamī and bathes the deity on the navamī; in Phālguna one fasts on the kṛshṇa ashṭamī and the very next day bathes the deity with pañcagavya (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 17).
When Bali, living in Sutala, asks how to cross saṃsāra, Prahlāda tells him: “The wise who remember Padmanābha at the three sandhyās gain the fruit of upavāsa. There is no doubt” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 67). Bali then asks on which tithis, by upavāsa and the rest, that Deva is pleased. Prahlāda answers: “The days on which a man, his citta given to Bhagavān Vishṇu, absorbed in him, keeps upavāsa and worships the Jagatpati, those are the best tithis” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 68).
The Vāmana Purāṇa uses the word in these places as well:
- In the year-long vrata to Keśava, one who has fasted bathes on the morning of the next day; one who keeps the vrata fasting and with senses controlled gains completeness in every matter (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 18).
- King Kuru asks of Vishṇu that upavāsa, dāna, snāna, japa, homa and yajña done in Kurukshetra give imperishable fruit (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 23).
- Aditi, praising Śrīman Nārāyaṇa for the welfare of Indra, keeps a nirjala upavāsa, a fast without even water (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 50).
Related terms: Vrata · Prāyaścitta · Trisandhyā · Ekādaśī · Kṛcchra
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 15, 17, 18, 23, 50, 67, 68