grains on festivals

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna.

Please accept my humble obeisances all glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

I noticed, that there is ekadasi feast on festivals like yesterdays

Janmastami. Ekadasi is strictly followed in a way, that even maha-prasadam

is not distributed, but kept for the next day. I'm looking for some good

explanation for it.

In my area it started some 7 years ago, before we always took grains on

Janmastami feast. I cannot recall exactly if we took maha-prasadam

immediately after that or not, but i'd say that there was some transition

period.

 

Till now i heard some explanations, but I have some doubts about them all.

Like this:

1. "Grains are too heavy, so we don't use them for feast because of health

issues, therefore we don't eat grains on this day." ==This seems logical,

but then why not take maha-prasada anyway, in small quantities.

2. "On Janmastami we follow rules for ekadasi, and ekadasi has to be broken

at certain time, when tithi ends, therefore we take ekadasi food, because

like this you don't break ekadasi, and break is at proper time next day."

==but fasting is anyway broken, even if you eat just an apple. And what is

proper time next day, if there is fasting untill noon, like today at Srila

Prabhupada appearance day?

3. "On appearance day Krsna is baby, newborn, and you cannot offer grains to

a newborn child, therefore we don't eat grains on this day." ==but, we offer

grains to the deity anyway. Also, babies cannot eat anything when newborn,

just mothers milk.

4. "Prabhupada said that ekadasi feast is recomended on festivals." ==is

this refering to just big feast, or maha-prasadam too? Maybe somebody has

more explanation on this quote from Srila Prabhupada.

5. "Someone told me, that it is explained in Hari-bhakti-vilasa, therefore

no grains" ==but someone else said that it is not just for grains, but also

eggplant, tomato and potatos, and probably some other foodstufs too. Maybe

somebody has exact section from HBV about it?

6. maybe you heard some other explanations and you can add them to this

list.

 

 

Another thing is breaking fast at midnight. Is there some good reason for

it, or is it just agreement, for practical purposes. We know, that in the

west we have "daylight savings time", which shifts time for one hour. So our

midnight is actuall not midnight at all, it is quite relative... And in my

country it is like that just some years, it was not like that before. So, if

midnight is just agreement, then we could brake fast also at 1 hour after

midnight (which would be proper without daylight savings), or at 22h (or any

other time) in the evening. But If there is some solid reason for midnight

fast breaking, then we should probably include daylight savings, like we do

for breaking ekadasi fasts. And same would then be the case for breaking

fasts at noon, shifting it one hour later. Any opinion on this?

 

thank you.

 

ys Giri-nayaka das