Life of the Promised Messiah — Page 101
An Appendix Spiritual Discipline One day there was mention of expenses. One of our honourable friends said: “I manage in such and such amount. ” Various people made various remarks on how they manage their expenses. His Holiness as said: “Allah the Exalted knows well that I possess such tol- erance as far as food is concerned that I can very eas- ily eat twice a day on one paisa alone. ” His Holiness as said: “Once, I was intrigued at heart to see the extent to which a human being can bear hunger. To test this, I ate nothing for six months—I would have a morsel or two every now and then. After six months, I estimated that I could extend this state of affairs to even six years. During this time, I continuously received my meals from home twice a day but I desired to keep this state of mine a secret. The inconvenience that I would have to bear in order to maintain this secrecy was perhaps worse than the pain others feel in hunger; I would dis- tribute those two meals to two or three people in need. In this state, I would offer my five daily prayers in the