SAUNDARANANDA 14.8: Fasting OK in Moderation

atyantam api saMhaaro
n' aahaarasya prashasyate
an-aahaaro hi nirvaati
nir-indhana iv' aanalaH

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14.8
Excessive fasting, also,

Is not recommended;

For one who does not eat is extinguished

Like a fire without fuel.

COMMENT:
Again, I think the Buddha is speaking from his real experience of taking fasting too far.

An intention implicit in this verse might be that a bit of fasting never did anybody any harm.

Being fixed in a view that fasting is necessarily wrong, however, might be harmful -- because to be fixed in any view is harmful, if not to others, then certainly to the growth of one's own consciousness. This is a reflection from my own experience.

To say that excessive fasting is not recommended is far from expressing a prejudice against fasting or from saying that fasting is prohibited. What is prohibited the Buddha is about to tell us, with remarkable sternness, in the next and subsequent verses.

EH Johnston:
Complete abstinence from food too is not recommended, for he who refrains from food is extinguished like a fire without fuel.

Linda Covill:
Total avoidance of food is not recommended, for a person who doesn't eat is extinguished like a fire without fuel.

VOCABULARY:
ati: beyond
anta: m. end , limit , boundary
atyantam: ind. excessively , exceedingly , in perpetuity , absolutely , completely ; to the end
api: also
saMhaaraH (nom): m. bringing together; contraction (of the organs of speech); drawing in (of an elephant's trunk); destruction, end

na: not
aahaarasya = gen. of aahaara: m. taking food, food
prashasyate = 3rd per. sg. of pra-√shaas: to teach , instruct , direct ; to give instructions to ,

an-aahaarah (nom. sg. masc.): one who does not take food
hi: for
nirvaati = 3rd pers. sg. of nir-√vaa: to blow (as wind) ; to cease to blow, to be blown out or extinguished ;

nir-indhana: destitute of fuel
iva: like
analaH (nom. sg.): m. fire