Ekadasi Katha

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03-Sep-98 14:40 +0200

COM: Dhyanakunda (dd) KKD (NE-BBT, Almvik - S)

Ekadasi Katha

 

I will try to answer those of your questions I feel I can.

 

>When we have a feast after a fast, like the Janmastami-feast,

>Nrsimhacaturdasi-feast or Gaurapurnima-feast, it's said that that feast

>should be an "ekadasi-feast". However, considering that the Papa-purusa

>only enters grains and beans on ekadasi days, there seems to be no

>logical reason for this. Or is there?

 

HDG Krsna-ksetra Prabhu once answered this question in Deity Worship conf.

He explained that, to the Indian mind, "feast" MEANS grains. There is no

question of a non-grain feast. Rice and bread are essential ingredients of

any full meal, what to speak of a feast. Therefore, "ekadasi feast" is an

oxymoron, something that was invented by ISKCON in the West.

 

>If the reason is that the feast should be light (considering that usually

>these feasts are taken between 18:00 and midnight) then it also doesn't

>make that much sense, because potatoes and cheese (especially when

>combined) are much more difficult to digest than rice and corn for

>example. And considering how many sweets are taken during these feasts,

>and the quantity of these feasts in general, is this really a rational

>reason?

 

You are completely right. The original standard (and the one SP taught -

there are some letters to this effect) is: you fast the whole day, take a

*light meal* at night to break the fast ("Ekadasi meal" is synonymous to

"light meal"), and you have the real feast, with grains etc., the day

after. It has nothing to do with the papa-purusa.

 

The feast the day after Gaura Purnima is called Jagannatha Misra feast.

The feast the day after Janmastami, in our case, happens to be Srila

Prabhupada's Vyasa-puja feast. You have certainly noticed there is a

belief the more we eat on that feast, the more advancement we make... :-)

It is not really because it is the Vyasa-puja feast, it is because it is

the real Janmastami feast.

 

Krsna-ksetra Prabhu explained that we Westerners made the "ekadasi

break-fast" into the feast because it was impractical for us, and required

too much patience, to wait until the next day.

 

Read the Lilamrta, the first Janmastami SP made in New York in 1966: at

midnight, the disciples expected a real meal, when he entered with a tray

of apple slices! The real feast was on the next day.

 

The "ekadasi feast" injunction has nothing to do with the papa-purusa.

BTW, did SP teach anywhere about the papa-purusa entering grains on

Ekadasi? If not, I would be inclined to assume that Padma Purana taught

people in this way to make the prohibition more effective, while the real

point was simply to make them eat less. Grains and beans are among the

most nutritious foodstuffs. Milk they anyway drink mixed with water, half

by half.

 

But we the Westerners have missed the point and invented all kinds of

Ekadasi foodstuffs which are actually defying the goal of Ekadasi. I have

heard potatoes are not indigenous to India - this is why they are not

used in Jagannatha offerings at Puri.

 

>The last question is about the "prasadam-prayer". If you accidentely

>start singing "sarira avidya-jal" on ekadasi it's likely that some

>devotees start screaming: "No! No! It's ekadasi!" The reason is that in

>this prayer the word "grains" is there. This word is anna. But then I

>wonder about the Gurvastaka:

>Catur-vidha-sri-bhagavat-prasada-svadvANNA-trptan... And besides that,

>many times anna is translated as "food", "foodgrains", etc.

>Monnier-Williams translates anna as that which is "eaten". Thus I wonder

>where the tradition not to sing this song exactly comes from, and whether

>it's necessary to skip this prayer on this day.

 

I have heard it first from Kurma Prabhu.

 

I speculate it is the same as with the word "meat" in English. Originally,

it meant "any food," but later it came to mean that food which was

regarded as most essential, namely, flesh. I guess the word anna also

initially meant 'any food' (like in 'annamaya stage', which is basically

milk), but then it came to mean the essential food, i.e., grains. The role

of rice in the tropical cultures is much greater than in ours. So,

theoretically, you could persist in chanting the song on Ekadasis, but it

would make a really strange impression.

 

Your servant,

Dhyana-kunda dasi

 

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