do you know 'havisya' english equivalents ?

[Guest guest]

SrI SrI Guru Gaurangau Jayatah

 

Camp: Mayapura dhama

DaNDavats Dear Kurma ji. Jaya Krishna BalarAma!

Please accept my respectful obeisances. All Glories to Sreela PrabhupAda..

 

Thank you for your help.

 

I've got a list from HBV about "havisya" which was an ancient prep that

sadhus used to eat during vratas. chaturmasya, kartika, katyayani etc.

 

we all heard it was an unspiced kitcheri, but according to HBV the detailed

ingredients were a lot!

 

do you know any of the english equivalents of the following?

 

since havisya is glorified as the food of choice for Vrata's here's a

definition, paste it in if you feel it applies.

 

I've got a detailed definition of havisya from HBV, (quoted from dearest to

Visnu book).

 

"About this it is said in the Narada Purana (2.23.32-34):`People! On the

beginning of the day of Hari, stay at home and eat only once. The food

should be without ksara and consist of havisya. Sleeping on the ground and

giving up the company of your loved ones, remember God, the master, the most

ancient, highest person! Also on Dvadasi you should only eat once:

 

And also:`To have sex with your mother is good. To eat the flesh of cows is

good. To kill or to drink wine is also good, but not to eat on Ekadasi:

 

KSARA

 

Cereals, except mung-beans and sesame-seeds; beans; wheat and kodrava

(Perpelum Scrobiculatum); chickpeas and devagrains (Andropogon Saccharatus):

this group is known as ksara.

 

HAVISYA

 

Husked white winter rice, mung-beans and sesame (not in kartika), kalaya

beans, pigweed (Enastrus Paniculatus), vastuka (Chenopodium Album),

sastika, jute (Corchorus Capsularis), radish, root bulbs

except taro (Colocasia Antiquorum), Sind- or sea-salt, gavya yoghurt, ghee,

unskimmed milk - breadfruit (jackfruit), mango, yellow myrobalan

(Terminalia Chebula), pepper, cumin, ginger, tamarind, banana, carambola

(Averrhoa Acida), Indian gooseberry (amla-Emblica Officinalis), sugar

without molasses, all cooked without oil: this the seers call havisya.

DDT: Sastika is a kind of quickly growing rice, or then a kind of leafy

vegetable.

 

*note* the GM panjika mentioned that in kartika, sesame seeds and mustard

oil was prohibited to be used.

 

OTHER PROHIBITIONS

14 In the Skanda Purana: 'Brass utensils, meat, masura-beans, honey,

speaking lies, eating more than once and physical labour should be avoided

on Dasami:

DDT: In some readings'physical labour' is replaced with overeating. That

alternative is also acceptable."

 

> and taken only once daily before sunset, many

> varieties of edibles are forbidden,

 

I'd mention the prohibited ones so nothing is vague.

 

>as is shaving and clipping nails; and

> the practitioner must sleep on the ground without bedding or pillow and

> only minimally.

> Çré Siddhänta Sarasvaté undertook the vow in all strictness. Although

> Cäturmäsya may be observed with only partial adoption of restrictions, Çré

> Siddhänta Sarasvaté punctiliously followed all the detailed rules, which

> curtail any trace of sense gratification. He took only rice with a little

> ghee, with no salt or spices,

 

all the detailed rules evidentally means Havisya also, so you may paste

above detail there. but did the GM make it in detail? or did they just

abridge it depending on what food ingredients were easily available, that

stands to logical reasoning that they did,

 

nowdays, havisya is thought to be only mung bean kitchari with no salt or

spices. But the detailed explanation makes it more interesting.

 

another thing I noticed when I tried it out, If the detailed prep is made it

is naturally quite tasteful by itself even if spices are not used at all.

 

>and ate it directly from the ground by

> sitting and leaning forward without using the hands. Naturally he became

> very thin.

>

> Although for many years Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté had fully

> performed the severe austerities enjoined for Cäturmäsya, after founding

> Çré Caitanya Maöha he did so for only four or five years more. After that

> he followed only minor rules of Cäturmäsya, such as not shaving or taking

> certain foodstuffs.

 

what where the relaxations allowed in the matha? that should be mentioned.

otherwise the whole vrata can be taken by the readers as totally

compromisable or totally minimisable.

 

Our SP met SBSST in 1922, so this detailed event *might account* for SP's

acceptance of the maximumly minimised version in Iskcon.

 

thus I feel that the detail of what was minimally allowed those days should

be added in.

 

> Some disciples living in his Maöhas, mostly those less

> active in outside preaching, continued to perform Cäturmäsya strictly. But

> Çréla Sarasvaté Öhäkura continued to execute Ürja-vrata every year,

> residing in one place throughout Kärtika and practicing the directions

> given in Hari-bhakti-viläsa.

 

I think it is stated in HBV that by practicing Urja vrata, and esp. bhisma

pancaka 5 days vrata (in full intensity?-or not?) that one gets the full

benefit of having performed the entire caturmasya vrata.

 

> Once during Cäturmäsya some produce sent from the Çré Caitanya Maöha's

> cultivated field arrived at Çré Puruñottama Maöha in Puré. Among the

> provisions were vegetables proscribed during that period, but Çréla

> Sarasvaté Öhäkura ordered

 

I'd add 'as a special exception'

 

> that they nonetheless be cooked, offered, and

> honored, their being from the holy dhäma of Mäyäpur overriding Cäturmäsya

> restrictions.

 

interesting note, but that was the special exception, not that this incident

doesn't throw out all the veggie restrictions forever thenceforth..

 

 

eager to hear your reply as soon as you can.

 

TridaNDi BhikSu, Bhakti Visrambha MAdhava

[Guest guest]

> another thing I noticed when I tried it out, If the detailed prep is made

it

> is naturally quite tasteful by itself even if spices are not used at all.

>

 

Sort of off the topic but I am on a no salt diet now and have kicheri couple

of times a day (along with other things at other times) but have really come

to look forward to the kicherie the most. Spiced with fresh ginger, cayenne,

turmeric, dash of Braggs aminos. Veggies vary. I almost crave it :-)

 

On the topic of caturmasya. In looking for the essence of the practice back

a while ago, I had come to the following observation:

 

Back in the day, the renunciates used to travel without benefit of elaborate

arrangements. However, during the rainy season, they would have to pick a

place and hang out. I have been told that caturmasya coincided with this

period. So I came to the conclusion that the reason all those restrictions

in diet where imposed during that time, was so the renunciates wouldn't

become attached to a particular place or comfortable set of circumstances.

 

Following that thru, then the calendar period of when caturmasya would need

to be performed would have to be adjusted according to local natural cycles.

For example, in northern temperate zones, that would mean during the winter,

whereas now caturmasya starts in the summer and goes into the fall.

 

Just a thought.