Ekadasi observances and position of Jupiter

[Chaven]

Good day

 

I regularly observe ekadasi fasts based on the vaisnava calender. Iam fairly sensitive to subtle energy and have noticed over the years that grain foods also release subtle energy in your body after consumption. I believe its used to grow your subtle body. As the planets mars and jupiter interact with these energies as they rise and set each day,ive realised that as you get older sometimes this energy gets carried across into the next day especially if you take grain foods after noon. The current position of jupiter between Capricorn and Saggitarius may be unfavorable near ekadasis as jupiter is setting before noon. The last time it was here was in 1996. My concern is that if you ate grains the day before, the subtle energy will be carried into the ekadasi day based on the current astronomical configuration. So even if you fasted the whole ekadasi, your observance will be broken. It would in this case be safer to also eat non grain the day before the ekadasi if you older or much earlier depending on ones fire of digestion.

 

Any similar observations by others out there?

 

Thanks

:ponder:Chaven

[suchandra]

 

Good day

 

I regularly observe ekadasi fasts based on the vaisnava calender. Iam fairly sensitive to subtle energy and have noticed over the years that grain foods also release subtle energy in your body after consumption. I believe its used to grow your subtle body. As the planets mars and jupiter interact with these energies as they rise and set each day,ive realised that as you get older sometimes this energy gets carried across into the next day especially if you take grain foods after noon. The current position of jupiter between Capricorn and Saggitarius may be unfavorable near ekadasis as jupiter is setting before noon. The last time it was here was in 1996. My concern is that if you ate grains the day before, the subtle energy will be carried into the ekadasi day based on the current astronomical configuration. So even if you fasted the whole ekadasi, your observance will be broken. It would in this case be safer to also eat non grain the day before the ekadasi if you older or much earlier depending on ones fire of digestion.

 

Any similar observations by others out there?

 

Thanks

:ponder:Chaven

 

Looks that Jupiter is presently between Capricon and Aquarius. Since Ekadasi was mentioned by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu who asked His mother to observe it, this option you mention would also be explained.

So far I heard only rules similar to this:

 

"Ekadasi was very important to Caitanya Mahaprabhu. One day in his childhood he approached his mother and asked, "Mother, please do one thing for me?" She said, "Yes, Nimai, whatever you like." He said, "Please don't eat grains on Ekadasi." At that time in Bengal only widows were thought to have to follow Ekadasi and women who were married and had families and husbands, they didn't. Ekadasi was looked at as a punishment. If you're a bad person, then you have to fast on Ekadasi. They thought widows were unfortunate people, with bad karma, inauspicious. So if your life was inauspicious, only then did you need to follow Ekadasi. But Mahaprabhu said something quite different. So immediately, from that day on, Sacidevi began to observe Ekadasi.

 

Later on, in Jagannatha Puri, the devotees of Mahaprabhu had a dilemma about observing Ekadasi. Because in Jagannath Puri there is so much prasad, 54 offerings daily and taking Jagannath prasad is very auspicious. So, if Ekadasi means fasting, how can we not honor the prasad of Lord Jagannatha? This question was put to Caitanya Mahaprabhu and he gave his opinion; "We shall observe Ekadasi and we shall honor Jagannath prasad. When Jagannath prasad comes, we will pay our dandavats to it. In this way, prasad will be honored and we will continue to observe the upavasa at the same time."

 

So Mahaprabhu emphasized this point a great deal. Even raganuga bhaktas should observe Ekadasi. It is favorable, it is anukula for raganuga bhajan.

 

We should not think that raganuga means we don't need to follow all of the regulations.

 

Q. What is the principle behind Ekadasi?

 

Upavasa means to fast. Vasa may mean to reside and upa means nearby. So upavasa means "to reside nearby". So the main principle of Ekadasi is to reside near the Lord. It is not about fasting but about coming closer to the Lord. This is the actual heart of the idea. In fact, every day we should come closer to the Lord but two days have been singled out to emphasize the point. So we can call it Hari's day and everyone will be told to do certain observances. But the purpose is to reside closer to the Lord, to come near to him. And when we do it we find it is nice, and then we may end up doing it every day. That is the real idea.

 

In the Christian faith they make Sunday the Lord's Day. Every day actually is the Lord's day, but they select one day so that at least on that one day everyone will observe. So this is the principle, to come near to the Lord.

 

Our Ekadasi observance should revolve around that. In other words, if fasting is only making me go to sleep, if fasting is only making me proud, what is the value of that? Will I be brought nearer to the Lord by that?

 

Q. Are there ever any exceptions?

 

On one occasion a disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur had to travel for preaching on Ekadasi. It was important for the mission that he preach, and for traveling you have to eat grains - especially if you're Bengali, you have to have some rice. So they ate rice and went preaching on Ekadasi. This is mentioned in Hari Bhakti Vilasa, if sad-guru says break Ekadasi, then you can break it.

 

In the preaching mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu we should position ourselves as assistants to a real preacher. We should follow very carefully. But if sad guru says "take grains on Ekadasi" then for the higher purpose of preaching we can do that, as Sarasvati Thakur showed. We have to become acquainted with the principle of Ekadasi, as we must with all the devotional practices. Otherwise it is just niyamagraha. We follow the rules but don't know the meaning. That will be counterproductive and a cause of going down.

 

We should have this kind of sensibility and understand the principle. We should be saragrahi Vaisnavas and not baragrahi Vaisnavas who simply carry around a burden of so much form that the substance is obscured. This is a gostyanandi line we are coming in, and it is all about adjusting the details for delivering the principle. We have to have some dynamic thinking if we are to preach. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur was prepared to serve even meat if this meant Westerners would come to Mayapur to hear about Caitanya Mahaprabhu. His own disciples were shocked. He told them, "You have to have Vaikuntha vritti." This means like Vaikuntha in the mind, where anything can be adjusted from the Vaikuntha perspective, and all things are possible. He was no ordinary devotee preacher. We should aspire to come under the auspices of such a person.

 

And we cannot imitate such a preacher of course. But we should know who it is we are connected with, and what an extraordinary devotee Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur was, and how great were his followers. We must keep this line of the Gaudiya Sarasvata sampradaya alive with real preaching through understanding the essence of the devotional principles.

 

Q. What is the significance of the moon and Ekadasi?

 

In the Bhagavad-gita Krsna says, "I am the light of the sun and the moon." There is another way of thinking about this, looking at it from another direction. "In this world I am the light. The light of the sun and moon cannot reveal me, but at the same time in whatever light there is, I am there." If we think of the sun and moon in this way, it will shed light on the nature of Krsna's position and take us to him. Krsna says, "I become the moon and by that I nourish the vegetables."

 

The moon is said to have some position in influencing the juices. The tides of the ocean, for example, are determined by the phases of the moon. And our human body is constituted primarily of water. So at the time of Ekadasi, the water in the body rises up by the influence of the moon and puts pressure on the senses and increases our tendency to enjoy. From this perspective it seems to be inauspicious because we are pushed toward sense gratification which is not drawing us nearer to the Lord but away. So by fasting, the pressure on the senses goes down and we will not be pushed away from the Lord by the influence of that phase of the moon. So from the point of view of the sadhaka, it may seem that Ekadasi is inauspicious.

 

But Prabhupada said, "Ekadasi is most auspicious," did he not? "It is not fasting, it is feasting." So for the siddha, who dwells in the aprakrta conception of the Absolute, Krsna is not God, Krsna appears to be like one of us. Mother Yasoda is not thinking, "Krsna is the Supreme Godhead." The cowherds and the gopis are not thinking like this. They are thinking along these lines, "My son, my friend, my lover." They are thinking that Krsna is human like them. So on Ekadasi they think, "Pressure is there on Krsna's senses to enjoy more. So we can offer him more on this day, more prasad we can offer. We can satisfy his senses more. Although we are already giving him everything, by the grace of this phase of the moon, we can serve even more." So these devotees see Ekadasi as increasing their service.

 

In this way Ekadasi is most auspicious. It is feasting for the Lord and not fasting at all. So we should try to come to this aprakrta conception of Krsna. This is our ideal. First we teach Krsna is the Supreme God, but we hope in the future people will forget that. At one stage we are preaching Krsna is the Supreme, but only to get people to the stage where they will think he is their friend only, their lover. This is our ideal. So ours is a very funny religion - turning the Veda upside down. But this is Vrindavan, this is Goloka. And this is how we should try to understand Ekadasi."

 

source: Swami B.V. Tripurari, Vrindavan