The Lord of the Universe (jagatpatim) is inside me.
Experience unfolds from God.
Inside out.
Thinking, imagination, logic, perception, and seeing all unfold inside out from the One.
In the beginning, middle, and end, it is the One alone that is continuous existence.

I am that in my unborn mode of existence, here I have temporal and spatial dimensions. There I am the One, I will what I want and want what I will there. That overflows as all being— Ideas solidifying into sensible imagery at the fringe of the outpouring.

Philosophy reveals an order of existence radically different from that of spatial-temporal embodiment. Asceticism results from a natural movement of the leisurely agricultural existence toward a longing to return to the timeless and spaceless One!

Only in a place where there is material wealth and pleasure do ascetic movements spring up. The Buddha is said to have been given all the various material pleasures and wealth before feeling dissatisfaction with them.

His middle way that he found is extremely ascetic compared to our society’s standard. He had practiced even more extreme asceticism with Jain ascetics and their bodily mortifications and so his middle way wasn’t as extreme, but still thoroughly ascetic.

His middle way entailed eating only one meal a day before noon, begging for the food, abstaining from sex, dancing, and listening to music, sleeping for a couple hours a night on the ground or wherever one found themselves in the forest, not actively seeking out woman’s company,

and spending most of his time alone in the forest meditating. As he came out of the forest to share with the world he then began spending most of his days with his monks and laymen with maybe 30 minutes to himself a day.

“The Deathless has been found,” the Buddha declared.

Asceticism comes from the Greek word askesis referring to training the body to be strong. Asceticism as a spiritual practice is about delaying immediate comfort and pleasure for a deeper spiritual existence.

When you exercise you delay sense pleasure and gratification for something greater and more meaningful. The parents sacrifice material comforts and pleasures to provide for their children. These are forms of ascetic practice.

Asceticism as a spiritual practice aims at getting closer to the Ultimate Reality and seeks to tap into now or to prepare for later a mode of existence radically different from embodiment.

It can also be seen as the natural sentiment of ancient realization of truth both coming with and postulating spiritual asceticism.

In the Bhagavata, spiritual asceticism is encouraged but not required for moksha. In the Kali Yuga it is said that spiritual asceticism is harder and all one need to do now is have faith in God and His Name: Narayana, Krishna, Vishnu, Govinda, Hari, Rama.