fasts and vrats
What is the difference between upvas, vrat, and upavas in Hindu tradition?
What each word means
Vrat comes from an old Sanskrit root meaning to choose or to resolve. So a vrat is a vow—a choice you make. It is not just about food. It is about keeping a promise to yourself or to God. When you do a vrat, you are saying: I will do this thing, and I will keep my word. Upvas comes from words meaning to dwell near or to sit close. In the tradition, it means to fast in order to draw near to God. The fasting itself is the way you come closer. Upvas is the colloquial, everyday word for fasting that you hear in homes and neighborhoods. It usually just means not eating, without the deeper idea built in. So the three words sit at different levels. Vrat is the vow and the resolve. Upvas is the spiritual idea of closeness through fasting. Upvas is the simple, common word for the act itself.
Vow and abstention are not the same
The old texts on dharma, the way of life, make a careful point: keeping a vow is not the same as just not eating. You can skip food for many reasons—illness, travel, grief, or habit. But a vrat is a choice made with intention. It is a sankalpa, a resolve. You decide to fast, you say why, and you see it through. The fasting is the outer form. The vow is the inner thing. This is why a vrat often comes with a reason: to honor a deity, to mark a day, to ask for something, or to keep a promise. Without that intention, it is just fasting. With it, it becomes a vrat.
How people use the words today
In everyday speech, people often use upvas and vrat almost the same way. Someone might say, 'I am doing upvas on Monday' or 'I am keeping a vrat on Monday,' and both mean fasting on that day. The fine difference between vow and simple fasting is still there in the tradition, but it lives more in how people approach the fast than in which word they choose. Regional languages also have their own words—vrat in Hindi, upavasa in Kannada, vrata in Telugu—and they blend the meanings together in practice. What matters most is the intention a person brings to it.