{"id":36678,"date":"2023-04-05T00:30:55","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T04:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/?p=36678"},"modified":"2023-04-04T14:51:47","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T18:51:47","slug":"ekadasi-is-a-fasting-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/ekadasi-is-a-fasting-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Ekadasi is a\u00a0fasting\u00a0day."},"content":{"rendered":"

Question:\u00a0<\/strong> Can you explain why we fast from grains on ekadasi?\u00a0No one has ever been able to explain it to me logically. I mean, for most devotees the fact that srila prabhupada and Lord caitanya recommend it is enough for them. But that\u2019s a faith-based reason, I\u2019m looking for a logic-based <\/em>explanation.<\/span><\/p>\n

It does make sense to have a special day every two weeks for extra hearing and chanting, but most devotees don\u2019t hear and chant more on ekadasi. They are just really into the whole \u2018no grains\u2019 thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also know the whole \u201cpapa purusha\u201d thing \u00a0[grains becoming \u201csinful\u201d on ekadasi] but I\u2019m suspicious about that. It may have been introduced around a campfire sometime in history. Srila prabhupada certainly doesn\u2019t mention papa purusha in any of his books.<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems a bit bizarre to me how much people are into it when none of them can explain it. So can you logically explain why we should fast from grains on ekadasi?<\/span><\/p>\n

My Reply:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

#Ekadasi is a\u00a0fasting\u00a0<\/em>day. It\u2019s\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>a day for \u201cno grains,\u201d its a day for \u201cno eating.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

#Fasting is very extreme, however, and few people can actually do it \u2013 so there is a gradient of\u00a0reducing consumption<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 parts of which can still be considered, liberally, \u201cfasting.\u201d For example, you can drink water and still consider it a\u00a0fast.\u00a0<\/em>You can also eat fruits. Like this, the spectrum gradually expands from absolute fast towards normal daily diet. The line gets drawn at the real staples of a daily meal: grains and legumes. Beyond that line it\u2019s just too far of a stretch to call it a\u00a0fast\u00a0<\/em>anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the purpose of not eating?<\/span><\/p>\n

One thing is, its just healthy. If you have a regular schedule where you reduce your intake by \u201cfasting\u201d you will be much healthier.<\/span><\/p>\n

More importantly, fasting clears your mind and gives you some mental and emotional self-discipline. Self-discipline of this sort is particularly important for meditation, so regular fasting is a very important part of yoga. It helps us develop the mental discipline to say \u201cno\u201d to our habitual desires and impulses, which is essential when trying to deliberately focus the mind in meditation (in the case of\u00a0bhakti-yoga<\/em> the meditation is upon Hari-nama, r\u016bpa, gu\u1e47a and l\u012bl\u0101).<\/span><\/p>\n

PS \u2013 As for why the 11th day [ekadasi is the 11th phase of the waxing and waning moon] and not the 4th or the 9th or any other \u2013 I\u2019m not quite sure at all. Astrologically the 11th is typically described as a day that\u2019s not very good for doing most important things. Maybe that makes it an opportune day for fasting? Symbolically 11 is a number associated with \u015aiva. But there\u2019s another point that comes out when one studies the technical details about astrology: it seems its actually the 12th that\u2019s the really blessed day (12 being a number associated with Vi\u1e63\u1e47u), and the 11th seems like a preparation for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

PPS \u2013 here is an earlier blog post<\/a> I made with more details substantiating the points I made here, with reference to Hari Bhakti Vilas.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question:\u00a0 Can you explain why we fast from grains on ekadasi?\u00a0No one has ever been able to explain it to me logically. I mean, for most devotees the fact that srila prabhupada and Lord caitanya recommend … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-area2","category-english"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 12:56:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}