AmalI have learned a great deal from Nila Nalam. Out of it I worked out a one-week fasting method for myself. It is very easy to practise.
A one-week fast
A one-week fast should begin on a Saturday. In the morning, rub on oil and bathe. Take food of half the usual quantity, and in the evening soak dried grapes, grind them and drink the juice. Soak about 50 grams of dried grapes for 8 hours. Then grind them well and drink the juice before 7 in the evening. It will soften the stool in the gut. The next morning, when you cleanse the stomach with salt water, it will come clean easily. On the Sunday, cleanse the stomach and then take complete rest.
A honey fast on Monday, a water fast on Tuesday, a dry fast on Wednesday, a water fast on Thursday, a honey fast on Friday, and on Saturday morning rub in oil and bathe. Take a half meal as well. This is not the cycle method. It is a single exercise. It is useful for anyone who wants to fast quickly. If you want to do it as a cycle, follow the monthly cycle instead. This quick exercise may be done once every six months.
| Day | That day's method | Note |
|---|---|---|
Saturday | A half meal | An oil bath in the morning. Before 7 in the evening, the juice of 50 g of dried grapes (soaked 8 hours and ground). |
Sunday | Stomach cleansing | Clean the stomach with salt water in the morning, and rest completely for the whole day. |
Monday | Honey fast | 40 g of honey, at intervals of one to two hours. |
Tuesday | Water fast | Water only. |
Wednesday | Dry fast | No food and no water. The centre of the exercise. |
Thursday | Water fast | Water only. |
Friday | Honey fast | 40 g of honey. |
Saturday | A half meal | An oil bath in the morning. The fast is complete. |
Because in this method the food is reduced step by step — half a meal, then a quarter, then honey on Monday, then water only, then the dry fast — you will not feel much exhaustion. On the fast days you can still be brisk.
Stories of success
What proves that a method worked is the experience of those who followed it. This chapter belongs to them.
My story
In 2008, when my mother was in her sixties, a medical test showed that her blood sugar was high. She has been taking tablets for diabetes since then. Because of that I thought I should be tested too, and when I was, in 2010, in my thirties, my sugar was found to be high as well. From then on I too have been taking tablets, for more than fifteen years now. From childhood I ate a great deal of rice, at all three meals. But now I eat very little rice.
Each time I go to the doctor, at least once in six months, I have my blood sugar tested. Besides that I measure my own blood sugar every morning as soon as I wake. This lets me plan that day's food. If the morning reading is high, then one dosai that morning instead of two; a smaller quantity at lunch; and I finish the night with fruit. In this way the food for my day is planned. Hard as it was, it has now become ordinary habit for me. Because of it my weight stays level. Two or three kilos up and down, and that is all.
When I went to the doctor last week my A1C was 7. Six months before that it was 7.5. A year before that it was 8.2. At that time the doctor said the dose of my tablet would have to be increased — that from then on I should take two in the morning and two in the evening. I take one now. I said we could look at the reading next time and decide then. The next time I went it was 7.5. Seeing that, he said he would increase the tablet if it was higher the next time. When I went last week, although the reading had fallen to seven, he said he must increase the tablet, that this was too high for my age. I said we would look at it next time, and came away. I have set out to bring it down to 6.5, and I have planned the food discipline for that on the basis of this Nila Nalam cycle, meaning to bring it lower still. I am certain I shall succeed in it. The reason I can speak to the doctor so boldly and come away is my food plans. I am benefiting greatly from the way of eating in this Nila Nalam.
My wife too is benefiting from the way of eating in this Nila Nalam. In two or three months she has brought her body weight down considerably and is improving her health.
This page is yours
Write down the change you found by following this plan. It will appear in the next edition.
- Where you started from — weight, numbers, physical state, state of mind.
- How many cycles you did.
- Which method helped you most; which one was hard.
- How you are now.
- One word you would say to someone about to begin this.
The lessons learned will differ from one person to another. But there is one thing all the stories have in common — nobody succeeds at the first attempt. Those who gave up and began again are the ones still standing at the end.
Mother Teresa said: "There are no great acts; there are only small acts done with great love." Every small thing you do for your body is just such an act.