bhavini

I've got to do a ekadashi vrat in a few weeks time and I need to know how to perform it. It's the first time and I've heard many different opinions of what you are allowed to eat. Can somebody tell me what is the correct way.

Well in order to live a pious life, it is necessary to abstain from those four sinful activities. It is necessary that if one wants Krishna then their activities must be pure and along with that we must chant the maha mantra as a way of progressing spitually and as a way of preventing us from becoming tempted. If what I've said is incorrect, please can someone correct me.

thanks for your replies, I understand what I have to do now

Even in this kali yuga, is it possible to get salvation just by chanting? Is it absolutely necessary that one has to follow the 4 regulations properly in order to attain God in this yuga as well. Basicly I just want to know what sort of a person does God accept. What is counted as a sin in this yuga and what isn't.

Pardon my ignorance but I keep reading this word "ritvik" yet I have no idea what it means. Can someone please enlighten me?

There are many scriptures that tells us not to eat garlic:- palandu lasunam sigrum alambum grjanam palam bhunkte yo vai naro brahman vratam candrayanam caret (Padma Purana, Brahma Khanda 19.10, spoken by Suta Gosvami) O sages, one who eats garlic, onions, sigrum (a kind of plant), turnips, bottle gourd and meat, that person should observe a candrayana fast. vrntakam jalisakam kusumbha smantakam tatha palandu lasunam suklam niryasan caiva varjayet grjanam kinsukan caiva kukundanca tathaiva ca udumbaram alavun ca jagdhva patati vai dvijah (Hari Bhakti Vilasa 8.158,159, from Kurma Purana) One should not eat eggplant, banana leaves, sunflower leaves and asmantaka leaves, onions, garlic. One should not eat sour gruel (a thin watery pouriage) or the juice of the tree. One should also give up turnips and beetroots, carrots, kinsuka, forest figs, and white pumpkin. If the twice born persons eat these things, they all become fallen. Manu-samhita: 5.5. Garlic, leeks and onions, mushrooms and (all plants), springing from impure (substances), are unfit to be eaten by twice-born men. 5.19. A twice-born man who knowingly eats mushrooms, a village-pig, garlic, a village-cock, onions, or leeks, will become an outcast. By the way, can anyone explain to me what twice-born means.

We should trust God's word even if we don't completely understand why he tells us to abstain from certain things. As devotees we shouldn't wait for "scientific proof" cos God's words are enough. This should be a slap in the face for those scientists/doctors who claimed that garlic was beneficial for our health.

cool, that's all I wanted to know. So it's wrong to get married purely for social custom. I don't want to be a sanyasini, I just want to be able to practice Krishna Consciousness perfectly and to be able to follow the 4 regulations. And I'm not a fanatic. If I meet a nice guy who's a devotee, who knows?

I'm not in love with anyone. I don't even think of married life at all but it's people around me that go that there's no other alternative to life apart from marriage. The female siblings are on my case and like you said 99.9999% of people don't even know what marriage is for. I don't know any guy who follows even ONE of the 4 regulations. Trust me I don't think of marriage, it's just something that's arisen cos many people in my generation are getting married otherwise I'm happy the way I am. I think many of you find it hard to believe that maybe one can feel like this. This isn't something I just read up and felt I've got to aspire to it. I've always been like this which explains why I've never had or even wanted an intimate relationship with a guy. Think what you want of what I've just said but as an individual, marriage doesn't interest me.

"But I think its best to get married then to let your senses all go crazy, by getting married you can learn to control your senses and live krsna consciously with your loved ones." What are you trying to say? Are you saying I'm scared of commitment to one person. I'm just afraid that if I do get married, that person may stop me from keeping to the 4 regulations so maybe it might be better for me to stay single. Some of you are really lucky to be able to marry devotees who you can share krishna conciousness with. But where I live I think that's an impossibility (trust me I know), so I've kinda accepted it. And besides I really don't feel like getting married anyway.

"Maybe it is not quite appropriate to ask such an intimate question to anyone in a forum, except one is in a special situation and is looking from advice" Sorry I didn't mean to ask such an intimate question. It was more about knowing whether I'm a weirdo for feeling the way I do.

Do any of you feel like not getting married at all due to the fact that spiritual development has made you desireless?

There is a difference between you and Krishna because he is the whole which you are part and parcel of. We are just mere drops of the Ocean called Krishna. If you read the Bhagwad Gita it specifically states this.

I think you mean Amba, not Ambika.

Isn't it weird how many of us have actually thought about or attempted suicide. Really surprising, thought maybe not since Lord Krishna said in the Gita that one of the 4 types of people that approach Him are those who are distressed.