In Vedic culture, ekadasi has something to do with the 11th
lunar day. It usually occurs twice a month. The exact astronomical description eludes me,
but it is said to be a very auspicious day for engaging in spiritual matters.
Those who observe ekadasi avoid all grains and instead eat only fruits,
vegetables and milk, and even this, in moderation.
I admit Ekadasi may be a little tough. Quitting meat and
alcohol seem easier. Naturally, in an Asian country, avoiding grains is hard. Sometimes
I forget it is ekadasi, and I would later realize that it is, too late. I would
feel bad, not so much because I have failed to follow the practice but because
I know I have displeased my Teacher.
Later, by faithfully hearing from him, I realized more what
my Teacher is actually telling me about ekadasi. He revealed to me that ekadasi
is not just about staying away from grains. If it were just that, it would be
way easier. But it’s not just a fast, it’s actually a chance to not just be
pleasing but to be more pleasing. Ekadasi is an opportunity to be more focused
in the practice of the life-path my Teacher recommended for me to be able to
safely cross this ocean of material existence. This is a good day to practice more restraint in our anger, in our lust, in our talking about nonsense. In the same vein, he said that
one has not necessarily practiced ekadasi just by fasting from grains. A lot of
people may not be eating grains at this time but that doesn’t make them pleasing.
Fasting from grains has a deeper purport. People following
Vedic culture abstain from grains during ekadasi for a number of reasons.
First, in order to perform more spiritual activities, rather than just eating,
sleeping, mating, etc., people prepare food that can be cooked faster. Cooking
grains take too much time so they drop it out of the menu. Another thing is that
this is also the best time to wean our senses, especially the tongue, away from
its fixations. Above all, ekadasi is sacrifice, even for a day, of giving up our
own material pleasures for the pleasure of God. Being more pleasing depends upon the value of the sacrifice.
Isn’t this too a fair description of love? A hungry mother
gives up her food to feed her child. Love burns away all self-interest. Ekadasi
then is better described as a practice of love. You turn away from the urge of the
senses abandoning your self-interest to please someone else. It is God’s desire
that we be able to return to Him. When we work to detach ourselves from the clutches
of this world we become pleasing to God. For in this way we have a chance to
return to Him. Thus our sacrifice in ekadasi, when done in love, is pleasurable
to God. This pleasure in turn is dependent upon the level of our love.
If you think not eating grains is a hard enough sacrifice, look into the Vedic scripture Bhagavad Gita, where the Supreme Lord Sri
Krishna gave Arjuna a tough lesson in loving sacrifice. Arjuna was to choose
between pursuing his own idea of happiness in this world—salvation, morality,
and sense gratification--by not fighting his own kinsmen, or to lovingly obey the
desire of Sri Krishna and fight in the battle of Kuruksetra as a dutiful warrior.
How easy it is to slay your kinsmen whom you love? Hell awaits such offenders.
What good is winning a kingdom when all you love and care about are dead? These
were Arjuna’s arguments, these were his excuses at first. Sri Krishna told Arjuna that his decision not to fight won’t really
matter as the battle will happen with or without him. Everyone in this
battlefield has already been killed by Krishna anyway, in the form of time, so
Arjuna will just be acting out the will of the Lord. And there’s no cause for
lamentation either, for no one really dies--all the warriors, kings and princes
in this battle are eternal spirit-souls, and only their carrier-bodies will
perish.
Eventually, convinced by the absolute truth and out of his great love for Krishna, Arjuna picked
up his bow and arrows and fought, not like a menial soldier, not for his own
pleasure or glory, but for the pleasure of the Supreme Lord. In this
way, Arjuna’s will has become one with Sri Krishna’s, and this oneness in love
between the Lord and His friend and devotee is the actual meaning of yoga.
Today, I practice Ekadasi by being more conscientious with
my chanting the Holy Names on my beads or japa, and chanting congregationally with
friends or kirtan; I also give added effort in trying to engage people around
me to say the Names of God more and get them to taste yoga or loving union with
the Lord. These are pleasing activities, these connects me in some way with the Lord. But like I said, just being pleasing
is not the goal when one can actually be more pleasing, or even most pleasing. Sri Krishna said that when one considers
himself to be His servant, this person is not actually His servant, but those
who are servants of His servants are His true servants. So to be more pleasing to God we must be able to serve His servants.
Today, I meditate upon this truth and in my heart try to
search for a snitch of desire to realize this. By myself I can never change my
heart which only wants to serve itself. Only
by the mercy of my teacher who is a pure loving servant of the servant of the
Lord will I be able to find in my heart the desire to serve selflessly. Only by
his mercy will I be able to one day ask those who are hundred times the
servant of the servant of the Lord, how I may serve them in love. And only by
the mercy of such loving servants will I be able to actually consider
performing this service to be my life and soul. Without my Teacher's mercy too will I be in anyway able to know these confidential truths. By pleasing the servant of the
servant of the servant with our loving service would really please the Lord,
and only when the Lord is pleased upon us will we be able to experience real
happiness.
With this wonderful things in store for today there is no reason to be glum, instead a great Yehey! for Ekadasi. Haribol!
April 11, 2014.
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