Healing a Chronic Boil By Fasting

Mukand Lal (name fictitious), a man about 50, came to Atheeth Ashram one afternoon in 1991. He lived in Delhi and ran a training institute for young men where he taught them stenography, typing, and accounting.

Mukandlal had a boil on the right side of his chest for more than two decades. He had tried many different treatments but none had worked. The boil was dormant most of the year but it tended to flare up every summer. Then it pained terribly and oozed pus and blood. At times it burst and made real mess.

Noticing that the head of the Ashram, Swami Sahajanand, offered treatment for various ailments by right food and fasting, Mukand told Swamji about his boil.
Since he spoke English with heavy Punjabi accent I was asked to interpret.

We learned that Mukand was a heavy eater from childhood partly because of his love for food and also because he was taught that it was desirable to eat a full stomach. The food he ate was cooked in ghee. Milk, buttermilk, and butter were part of his daily diet. In the mid-60’s he learned to eat meat. It soon became regular habit. Once, or sometimes twice a week, he ate mutton, chicken or fish with friends. Although he liked meat, his body was not easily digesting it and converting part of it into toxins. The boil in his chest was to expel the poisons. None of his physicians had seen the connection between the food he ate and the boil but to Swami Sahajanand it was obvious. He was asked if he would fast for three days. He agreed. The effect was immediate. His boil loosened up and drained in the evening of the second day. Third day his pain almost disappeared. He stayed in the Ashram for a week and ate very light South Indian style food.

Mukand agreed with Swamiji’s diagnosis and promised faithfully to observed his instructions; i.e. eat only light vegetarian food and fast when the boil reappeared. A year later he wrote to inform Swamiji that the boil did not come.

Partap Aggarwal
March 13, 2010