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unnati
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2007 9:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jai jai shri gokulesh

Vasantji, thanx for the beautiful story on Ekadashi... Really Njoyed reading it...
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Prashant
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PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 4:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jai Jai Shree Gokulesh,
Vasantji, I truly appreciate you taking so much efforts to write this story about Ekadashi and further explaining why one should not eat grain. At the same time I feel the pain by not accepting this story as it is.

I believe that stories told/written in shastra (scriptures) are not mere stories but parables. Meaning there lies some deeper meaning or message that is to be conveyed via stories. As a child I loved the story and as a grown up I like the message conveyed by the story.

Puranas maily consists of such parables (I am no scholar of any scripture or puranas but this is purely based on my judgement based on few reading and listening of some discourses). That means there lies some deeper meaning which is explained in a much understandable way via stories. So when Padma purana says about Papapursha and Ekadashi there has to be some deeper meaning in it. When it ask us not to eat grain I believe it must be having some other deeper meaning and not the physical form of grains.

As I said earlier that Upavaas means staying near to God. And I cannot relate upavaas to not eating grains by this story. One way of relating Ekadashi to not eating grains is by accepting the story and the other way is to go beyond the story. I am for the later part and still looking for something beyond the story (it may be through story). Also if one cannot eat grain than how come we can eat cucumber, potato, ladies finger(okra) but not tomato, carrot etc???

Again, this is just a curiosity on my part and I appreciate everyone taking efforts to help me understand.
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unnati
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 11:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jai jai shri gokulesh

Prashantji, In Sanskrit, the word for fast is Upvas. This literally means, "sitting near to..." Sitting near to whom? Near to God.

Our Upanishads say that to control the mind is the greatest task and the greatest accomplishment. It says that when the mind is under control, all else - the senses, the body - will follow. "The body is the chariot, the senses are the horses pulling the chariot, and the mind is the driver with the reigns in his hands." So, if the driver is calm, pious and peaceful, he will drive the horses and thereby the chariot toward peace, love and God. But, if the driver is tempestuous and intractable, then the horses jump and buck wildly, leading the chariot to thrash here and there, eventually collapsing upon itself.

Our scriptures say we have 10 sense organs, and the mind is the 11th. Ekadashi stands for the 11th, and moon is the symbol of the mind. Ekadashi is, therefore, a fast for the control of the mind.

Quote:
if one cannot eat grain than how come we can eat cucumber, potato, ladies finger(okra) but not tomato, carrot etc???


In the Mahabharata it is said:

astaitanya-vrataghnani apo mulam phalam payah
to havir bráhmana-kamya ca guror vacanam ausadham

-------------- Mahabharata, Udyoga stack


Meaning:
“Following the eight things do not destroy the Ekadasi: Water, roots, fruits, milk, ghee, the request/desire of a brahmana, the order of a spiritual master and medicine do not wane one's fast.

Please feel free to correct....
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Prashant
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Joined: 11 Apr 2007
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 6:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jai Jai Shree Gokulesh,
You are right, unnatiji, with the definition of upavaas. I truly believe in eating fruits and consuming milk as this is a saatvik aahar and no time is spent preparing the food. But my question always has been, how do we justify making different types of food when one is on fast. The sole purpose of staying near to god is not solved by engaging onself in the kitchen.

Another scientific reason associated with the upavaas is when you eat less (especially only milk and fruit) your stomach gets some rest (as it is easy to digest) and cleanses your stomach. But what we do on ekadashi is we eat fried food (potato chips, rajgira puri etc) which causes more problem to our body than our regular roti (bread) and shaak (vegetables).

Quote:
Following the eight things do not destroy the Ekadasi: Water, roots, fruits, milk, ghee, the request/desire of a brahmana, the order of a spiritual master and medicine do not wane one's fast.

I think cucumber is not a root while carrot, beet, muli etc is a root. But we eat cucumber and not carrot, beet and muli.

This is the reason I cannot justify myself on what we can eat and what not on ekadashi.

Comments/Feedback are welcome.....
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Sital
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 7:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jai Shree Krishna

Prasantji, I have also previously read that Upvas denotes residing near God. When one observes an Ekadasi fast they will take the religious concept into mind and mechanically when the food is prepared and eaten one will think of God. Think it also means once you have detoxified your body it removes some distance between God and soul as un-offered food is full of Maya and Kalyug . That day one can concentrate on Bhagvad naam rather than food. Hence, in Pusthimarg one key Siddhant is to only eat Samarpit Food. The reason for taking Samarpit food is that once we have offered it to our Thakorji it becomes full of Grace. Our Thakorji has partaken of that food which has then become divine, also at the time of Brahmasambandh we had promised to offer everything to Thakorji first.

If we eat un-offered food we easily get dragged into Maya and Kalyug as it could be made with a mind full of materialistic desires or anger. It could have also been handled un-hygienically. Whereas when one prepares Samagri according to the right rules one is constantly imbibing in bhagvad naam and takes extra care, for the reason that it is for the King of Kings. This seva is part of navdha bhakti so no time is wasted on cooking as all which is done for Thakorji’s happiness is bhakti.

On one festive day Mahaprabuji mentioned: “Why fast on such a beautiful day? As a celebration one should prepare wonderful samagries, offer it to god then take his Adhramat.” Thus, I believe if one offers all of their food at all times to Thakorji then one does not need to fast as it is full of Thakorji‘s Grace which aids souls on a spiritual level and as a result closeness to Shree Krishna.

Vaishnavs please do correct me if you feel that I have posted something which is out of the contrary or elaborate on this topic

JSK
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unnati
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jai jai shri gokulesh

Quote:
I think cucumber is not a root while carrot, beet, muli etc is a root. But we eat cucumber and not carrot, beet and muli.


As Sitalji very truely said, in Pusthimarg one key Siddhant is to only eat Samarpit Food.

Prashantji, in Pustimarg there are few things which we don't offer to Shri Thakoreji. Such things include carrot, beet, muli etc n the reason for this u can find in the following link as this has been explained beautifully by Shri Vitthal Raiji (Shrimad Gokul).

http://www.pushtikul.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1549&FORUM_ID=1&CAT_ID=7&Topic_Title=Kanda%2DLehsun%3F%3F%3F&Forum_Title=%3Cb%3EDisscuss+it+all%2E+%3C%2Fb%3E

The few stuffs which can be consumed during ekadashi are milk, foods made from milk as yogurt, butter milk, butter, ghee, Dudhi, parval, cucumber, potato, suran, ratalu (kand), sweet potato, arbi, green chilli, Coriander, ginger, dried ginger (sonth), lemon, fruit, cumin (jeera), dried fruits and nut, sago, (tapica, sabudana), rock salt, (sendha namak), sugar, rock sugar (misri), black pepper, clove, cardomom(elaichi), rajgaro, coconut, peanut, arrowroot and sama.

Out of all this i'm not sure about Sago as few say we can have n vice-versa....

Also it is said that that samagri's made as Doodhghar can be prepared using Dudhi's/Parval's/Cucumber juice so that doen't breaks ur fast since it is called as doodhghar n of all it is been offered previously to Shri Thakoreji....

Furthur i guess some ardent vaishnav can help to know more...

Please feel free to correct.
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Prashant
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 2:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
I believe if one offers all of their food at all times to Thakorji then one does not need to fast as it is full of Thakorji‘s Grace which aids souls on a spiritual level and as a result closeness to Shree Krishna.


Sitalji, you stole words from my mouth Smile. In order to further support this, I would like to site an example. In western country there is a concept of Mothers day and Fathers day. These are important days in western country because this is the day when children show their love and gratitude towards their parents. This is the day when they remember their parents in true sense. But these days are not as important in eastern country like India (May be now it might be due to commercial reasons). And it makes complete sense because Indians are closely tied to their family members all the time and for them every day is a mother's day or father's day. So the specially designated day does not hold that importance. But for people in western country this is the only time to show their love towards their parents so it makes sense to hold importance.

So Sitalji when you talk about people who are completely samarpit than you are right, every day is upavaas for them. But for people who do cannot do upavaas (staying near to god) everyday this day of Ekadashi should hold importance.

Let me further extend the above example. Lets say I meet my mother only on mothers day and my mother is so excited about it and she wants to spend all day with me. I go and see her on that day but instead of spending time with her if I get engaged in other activities than would she love that? The purpose is not solved here. Such an activity of mine is just like doing the formality. May be its bit better than not completely seeing her but the purpose is not solved.

I guess similar is the case with us on Ekadashi. Since we do not stay near god for 10 days this eleventh day holds importance. God wants us to stay with him. We do the formality of fasting (by eating more than usual day, atleast it used to be with me when I used to fast Smile) but we hardly do any activity to stay near him.

I guess every one understands what I mean to say and no need to further pin point any of the activities that we follow on Ekadashi.

This is what I see been happening in general and not pin pointing to any particular person or group. Please make sure that I am not getting personal. I hope every one take this discussion in the right spirit and no one's sentiments are hurt.


Comments / Feedback are welcome...
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jagdish
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2015 11:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jai Shri Krishna/Jai Jai Shri Gokulesh

Khoob Badhais for the present Adhik (Purushottam) maas.
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