Common Misconceptions about Spirituality

“Fasting wholeheartedly yields noticeable spiritual benefits.”

An article on fasting as a spiritual practice highlights the attitude to adopt while fasting for maximum spiritual benefit. “A lot of times during the fasts I find that I don't feel like I'm gaining anything - it's more of a nuisance than a useful spiritual discipline,” complains a person that has been fasting for spiritual benefit. “If a person just totally wholeheartedly gets into fasting that's when you really can get spiritual benefit and blessing from it,” advises the article.

Every living being has a physical body, mind, intellect, and subtle ego body surrounding its soul. One experiences happiness or unhappiness depending on the constitution of the various bodies. Regular spiritual practice purifies the various bodies of the practitioner. One derives benefits from a spiritual practice in proportion to the purification that it yields. The table below gives the maximum purification of various bodies by fasting.

	The bodies
	Physical		Energy		Mind		Intellect		Subtle Ego
	P.B.%*	Yrs	P.B.%	Yrs	P.B.%	Yrs	P.B.%	Yrs	P.B.%	Yrs
Fasting	20	10	7	10	5	10	2	10	1	10

*P.B. means Purification of that Body

It is clear from the above table that fasting purifies after many years, only to a small extent, and mainly the physical body and the vital energy body. If one really desires rapid spiritual progress, he should choose a spiritual practice that can purify the various bodies rapidly and to a great extent. Purification of all the bodies can occur much faster and to a much greater extent by following the path of the Guru's grace, which includes repeating God's Name as per one’s religion and attending spiritual meetings. The maximum purification of various bodies by following the path of Guru's grace is given in the table below.

	The bodies
	Physical		Energy		Mind		Intellect		Subtle Ego
	P.B.%*	Yrs	P.B.%	Yrs	P.B.%	Yrs	P.B.%	Yrs	P.B.%	Yrs
As per the path of Guru's Grace	20	2	30	2	100	3	100	4	100	5

*If one is not currently doing any spiritual practice, or to complement one's current spiritual practice, one can begin with the simple, but powerful spiritual practice of chanting or constantly remembering God's Name according to one's religion. Chanting also acts as a useful complement to any spiritual path one may be already following. It is a practice recommended for the current times by Holy texts and Saints of all religions.

To begin with, one can repeat God's Name according to their religion (refer to Issue 3 Clarification of Doubts section for a list of God's Names as per various religions), or the Name that they feel most comfortable chanting.
Interested readers can determine the exact chant for them from the experiment given inIssue 124, Message to Seekers section.