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For a yogī, to gain more mental and physical energy, one must reduce ordinary nourishment and eat food that contains a lot of energy—not uncooked, but cooked. So, one spoon, two spoons, three spoons, four spoons. For as many spoons you reduce from your intake, that many spoons will be reduced from the body. There are two benefits. One year's bill for all this food stock will be reduced, and six months' worth will account for one year. So you save for six months. In four years, you will save food for two years, and in four years your life will increase to six years. In eight years, your life will be increased to twelve years. That is why the yogis lived long lives. Food is our killer. In German they say, "Self-mortification with a knife and fire." This is because we are slaves to our tastes. After giving a nice lecture, if good food is served outside, you say, "Today I will eat two spoons more," not just two spoons of this. I can understand very well what Mahāprabhujī said: eating less and forgiving is not an easy job. I don't know, but they say that Mahāprabhujī's diet was very little. So, that's it. Therefore, fasting is advised in our techniques. But not extreme fasting—not fasting for three weeks and then beginning to eat. This is done mostly by people who want to reduce kilos. In three weeks, they have everything loose, and they buy new dresses and new trousers, and new this and that, and are very happy, and use more makeup, and then they begin to eat. And after five days, they are surprised to find everything gets tighter. It is like a dried bean, chana, that you put in water; by morning, your surprise is doubled. So intensive fasting is not advised. Fast only for a maximum of eight hours, twelve hours, and in some cases twenty-four hours, but use liquids. Drink a glass of milk with sugar. Immediately, your weakness and longing will go away—longing for eating, I mean. Then you will be able to meditate. Otherwise, after a while, when your instructor tells you to imagine this and that, you will say, "Yes," and you will say to your neighbors, "Imagine also." This is tamas guṇa. Sleep comes mostly from eating. If you are very tired, your body needs two and a half hours to regenerate and relax completely. But if you have eaten more—more breads and grains and rice and such—then it needs eight hours. And after eight hours, you are tired from sleeping. Eight hours later, one is tired of sleeping, so one needs to sleep again.