(6) Ekadasi Rules

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's
appearance day, Hooghly district
24 February 2019, morning, part 6
Translated from Bengali

Today is the holy appearance day of Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. Our Param Gurudev Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj described what he gave to this world in a very beautiful way:

নিখিল-ভুবন-মায়া-ছিন্নবিচ্ছিন্নকর্ত্রী
বিবুধবহুল-মৃগ্যা-মুক্তি-মোহান্ত-দাত্রী ।
শিথিলিত-বিধি-রাগারাধ্য-রাধেশ-ধানী
বিলসতু হৃদি নিত্যং ভক্তিসিদ্ধান্ত-বাণী ॥

nikhila-bhuvana-maya-chhinnavichchhinna-kartri
vibudhabahula-mrgya-mukti-mohanta-datri
sithilita-vidhi-raga-radhya-radhesa-dhani
vilasatu hrdi nityam bhakti-siddhanta-vani

‘He slashed to shreds the illusion of the whole material universe, putting a stop to scholarly speculations and conceptions of liberation; he eased the strict rules and regulations, bestowing the conception of natural loving worship of the Divine Couple – may the devotional teachings of this Sri Bhaktisiddhanta play eternally in our hearts.’

(Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj)

Srila Prabhupad relaxed the rigidity of rules. How did people use to fast on ekadasi before? They fasted the day before ekadasi, on the ekadasi day itself, and the day after ekadasi. And people used to say that nobody except widows could fast on ekadasi. Why? Because women often became widows at an early age and could have some desires; they were fed by their families and were told to fast on ekadasi. This is abuse towards women. Everybody must follow ekadasi. Why must only widows fast? If widows must fast, then all the widowers must fast as well. [Devotees laugh.] Is that so or not? Where does it even say that only widows should fast on ekadasi? This is called dhama-chapa (ধামাচাপা) – avoiding or covering up the truth. People make up their own rules...

Everybody can fast on ekadasi. Widows, not widows, everybody from the age of eight to eighty-eight can fast. Srila Prabhupad made the rules not as strict – he said that we do not have to fast for three days, neither do we even have to do a dry fast (nirjala-ekadasi). Srila Prabhupad said that we must only skip breakfast (one meal) twice a month. We must fast until twelve o'clock.

You can cook some potato or green pawpaw. There are many things you can take, you must not only eat the sin that stays in certain items on the days of ekadasi. Sin stays in five things on this day: rice, wheat, barley, pulses, mustard/sesame oil. Many people use flour on ekadasi, but this is not ekadasi then. Do not take anything that is made from grains – puffed rice, flat rice, wholewheat flour, fine flour, and so on. Do not use sesame or mustard seeds or oil made from them – you can use peanut oil, sunflower seed oil or ghee. Do not use mustard oil because they always mix rice bran oil and other oils in it. You can make some potato subji – cook potato with black pepper. We use black pepper because it helps digestion, so that you will not have a problem with your stomach after the meal. You can roast some jeera and cook potato with some black pepper. Do not use any other spices; do not use chilli. You are going to take it plain, so you can have a problem with your stomach if you make it too hot. Do not take any dal also. We never eat masoori dal (lentils) anyway, and on ekadasi do not take any other dal. You can offer it to the Lord – if you have small children who will be hungry, you can give it to them. You can offer rice, dal, everything to the Lord, it is not a problem, but do not take it yourselves on ekadasi – you can give it to small children who cannot fast. These are the rules established by Srila Prabhupad.

In our Math, many people say that they do a dry fast (nirjala-ekadasi). Just the other day somebody told me, 'Oh, Maharaj, my health is not good, but I do nirjala-ekadasi.' I asked him, 'Who told you to do nirjala-ekadasi?' He said, 'Oh, I do not know, I have been doing it for a long time.' I told him, 'You are gradually going old, do you think you will always be able to fast like that?' If somebody if a gastric patient, they usually cannot skip meals because if they do not eat anything in the morning, they get acid and gas. For such people, we make a concession: they can take some potato or something in the morning.

Our Gurudev has a disciple abroad. He asked Gurudev, 'How can I fast on ekadasi? I work for a shipbuilding company and have to handle a ten-kilogram hammer. If I am hungry, I will have no strength and can drop the hammer.' Guru Maharaj told him, 'Why cannot you fast on ekadasi? You can eat five or ten kilograms of potato in the morning before you go to work! You will definitely not get hungry.' I am a diabetic myself, but I eat one or two kilograms of potato every ekadasi. There are only two ekadasis every month, so what is the problem? I have been fasting on ekadasi for about thirty-five years already, and I do not have any problem. I have a bad stomach now and cannot fast, so I eat more cooked potato, and even though I have sugar, it is all right.

So, this is what Srila Prabhupad instructed us. Always remember these things.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }