Bhagavad-gita 6.24
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · South Africa · 2007
Chapters
Reading Bhagavad-gita verse 6.24
Kama Material Desires Yaktva Giving Up Sarvan Sarv O Ashesataha Asesha Completely manasa by the mind certainly Indriagram the full set of senses. Lineyamya regulating Samantataha Samantata from all sides. From all sides.
Translation. One should engage oneself in the practice of yoga with determination and faith and not be deviated from the path.
One should abandon without exception all material desires born of mental speculation and thus control all the senses on all sides by the mind. Prabhupada.
The yoga practitioners should be determined and should patiently prosecute the practice without deviation.
One should be sure of success at the end and pursue with this course with great perseverance, not becoming discouraged if there is any delay in the attainment of success. Success is sure for the rigid practitioner.
Regarding bhakti-yoga, Rūpa Gosvāmī says: utsāhān niścayād dhairyāt tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt sanga-tyāgāt sato vṛtteḥ ṣaḍbhir bhaktiḥ prasidhyati. na Prasidyati.
One can executeходе the process of bhakti-yoga successfully with full-hearted enthusiasm, perseverance and determination, by following the prescribed duties in the association
of devotees and by engaging completely in activities of goodness. As for determination, one should follow the example of the sparrow who lost her eggs in the waves of the ocean.
A sparrow laid her eggs on the shore of the ocean, but the big ocean carried away the eggs on its waves. The sparrow became very upset and asked the ocean to return her eggs.
The ocean did not even consider her appeal, so the sparrow decided to dry up the ocean. She began to pick up the water in her small beak, and everyone laughed at her for her impossible determination.
The news of her activity spread, and at last Garuda, the gigantic bird carrier of Lord Vishnu, heard of it. He became compassionate towards the small sister girl. And so he came to see the sparrow.
Garuda was very pleased by the determination of the small sparrow and he promised to help. Thus Garuda at once asked the ocean to return her eggs, lest he himself take up the work of the sparrow.
The ocean was frightened at this and returned the eggs. Thus the sparrow became happy by the grace of Garuda.
Similarly, the practice of yoga, especially bhakti-yoga in Krishna consciousness, may appear to be a very difficult job.
Sanskrit recitation and invocation prayers
But if anyone follows the principles with great determination, the Lord will surely help, for God helps those who help themselves.
Sanish Chayana Yoktad Yo Yogonirvi na Cheta sa, sankalpa prabavanka mams, jak dva sarvana sessa taha, manasay dindriya graman viamya samanta taha.
One should engage oneself in the practice of yoga with determination and faith and not be deviated from the path.
One should abandon without exception all material desires born of mental speculation and thus control all the senses on all sides by the mind.
Namam Vishnu Padayakishnavistara Gutari Shri Mati Baktividanthaswami Nitinani Namaste Saswati Dorahamachari, Devi Shay Sha Sunavati, Paschatashi, Panchakau Pataru Shafivasinduchapatitanampavane Byovashnave Krishna
Hare, Are Dama Hare Dama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare, Are Dama Hare Dama Rama Rama Hare Hare, Krishna Hare, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna Hare Hare, Dama Hare Rama Dama Dama Hare.
And very heavy to be here with all few the same. I'll speak a few words on this particular total which is very important for all of us.
This is a very inspired verse because in this particular verse, Lord Shri Krishna establishes general principle of success. In fact, this principle is applicable to any area of our activity.
No matter what we do, if we want to achieve success, we have to be determined.
For those who are not determined, for those whose intelligence is many brains, for those who want to pursue this goal and that goal and ultimately be lazy and not pursue any other goal, any real goal, hmm, nothing could happen.
So Sri Krishna here formulates this general principle of achieving success in regard to spiritual practice. See the whole sixth chapter of Bhagavad Gita is not really meant to be followed literally.
The sixth chapter of Bhagavad Gita is mainly to discourage us from engaging in Ashtanga Yoga. Krishna is not teaching Ashtanga Yoga in this chapter.
He is more or less saying, look what it means to be engaged in astanga yoga, see how difficult it is, and if you think you can try it, try it, but if you follow my advice,
then he concludes this chapter with the beautiful girls Yoginam Atisabhisham Madgatena Taratmanam Sradavan Bajeta Yomam Yom Sanayukatamaumataha. The best of yogis is anyway one who always thinks about.
Ultimately he brings Arjuna to the point of Bhakti Yoga.
So the whole chapter is not for us to follow, and one may uh say uh conveniently that this particular verse is also not for us. Because so many verses in this chapter Krishna will say just to discourage us to follow this path. He will say you just go to forest.
You know, and who will go to forest? Nobody wants to go to forest. Moreover, there is no forest anymore. Everyone wants to go to the concrete jungle of Dubai and get some money. And uh so many other difficulties are there.
You have to fight with your own mind constantly, you have to fight with your own laziness, you have to sit in one place and look uh at the tip of your nose, you know, and who will want to look at the tip of your nose?
We're ready to look at TV set, that's not a problem. But to look at the tip of your nose. It's much more difficult. And Krishna explains this in details. Basically, to prepare Arjuna for his answer to this.
My dear Krishna, I cannot do this.
Challenge of mind control in yoga
It's easier to catch the wind than to stop the mind. Because basically, the whole point of yoga, as in Yoga Sutra, Patanjali Muni says, Yoga Vritti Niroda.
The whole point of yoga is to stop the modification of the mind, to stop the activities of the mind, to make it completely still, to make it totally completely still. But who can do it? Nobody can do it.
Especially in the modern day and an age when there are so many causes of agitation. You know there is so much agitation is going on and they are all agitated and uh it's it is difficult.
So when uh Arjuna said this to Krishna, Krishna said in approval. He said, Yes it's difficult, I know. And this is Arjuna. Arjuna was much more capable of controlling his mind than us, weak people of Pali Yuga.
He was really determined and he could control the mind. He says, No, I cannot do this. But still, despite the fact that the whole chapter should not be taken literally as for us to follow.
Certain things which Krishna says this are very important for us to understand because they are common principles. Common principles of any spiritual practice.
And one of these principles is here formulated is that you have to be determined no matter what, because ultimately this is the way for us to express our sincerity.
It's not that the little sparrow can dry up the ocean. No way. Little sparrow can do it for a very long time, you know, she has a little pea beak, and she can, you know, take a little water and take it somewhere else.
And everyone will just laugh at her. In the same way, within our heart we have an ocean of material desires. Did you notice this? This ocean will never be dried up. You know, we fulfill one desire, another desire comes out.
It's unlimited. It's really has no limit. Asheshataha. Here uh Krishna speaks this Asheshataha. Asheshataha means unlimited. And one can also apply this particular word to the to the word kāma which means material desires.
Saṅkalpa-prabhavān kāmāṁs, it is said here that saṅkalpa is the activity of our mind. And saṅkalpa basically means that we have some liking. We like something. We see something and we kind of like it.
And Krishna explains here, and in the sixth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, that from this liking, kāma, kāma kāma comes within our heart. And kāma means lust. Kāma means practically unbearable desire to obtain it.
You know, I like something. Little bit, I like it. And then immediately when I concentrate my mind on uh this object of my liking, I develop very strong, very powerful desire to obtain this. And this is called kāma.
Don't understand English, okay. So well. So what's a library? Hindi translation. You will do Hindi translation. You can speak in Hindi too much. Hindi Jandaho Parandu. But I already spoke half of the lecture. So translate.
It will be on the water kind. So I should speak one sentence at a time. Shall I start from the beginning or what shall I do? The middle is Loki Mars. I agree with you. Yes, yes.
So you can go with the same IM for I can go with the same force. Once you uh there's a break, that flow we go. So I don't go ahead with whatever you have to do right now. Okay. Okay. No no I can translate.
If somebody needs a translation, they can sit in the corner and try to do it simultaneously.
Facing impediments in spiritual practice
Somebody needs it. Let me explain a little bit more about this because this is an important point. Śrīla Prabhupāda says that anyone who is practice who practice yoga, who practice any sadhana, will meet some impediments.
There will be some difficulties. There will be some problems. We can expect this. We are doomed to meet with some problems on the path. And he explains here in a few words what is the source of these problems.
The source of these problems is material desires within our heart. Come. Lust. The desire to control and the desire to more or less establish oneself as God in a limited area. Every one of us has this problem.
Kāma and kāma is coming from lust, kāma is coming, kāma lust is coming from this from Sankalpa. Sankalpa means some kind of liking which I have. And liking which we have is coming from our karma.
In our previous life we performed some actions and these actions created certain tendencies within our heart. These tendencies are called Vasanas. Vasanas means desires or likings. Certain tendencies.
We like this, we don't like that. Very common example. You all Indian and somehow or other you all like chili.
And if you try to feed the same food to Russians, the Russians will never be able to understand what's good about it. You know, they cannot take chili. You know, somehow or other. Their liking is different.
But this liking uh these tendencies uh which are guiding us in this life. They are creating kāma, very strong desires within. And these strong desires are pushing us left and forth, left and right. They're pushing us.
And we are basically slaves of these desires. All our life we are trying to fulfill our desires and there is no end to these desires. And when we start spiritual practice, the same desires will stand on our path.
We want to go to God. But we also want to get our you know material life together. So many different desires will be there and they will be tearing us apart. We know I want to go to God.
We know that if I'm closer to God it's better. But at the same time I will feel very strong pushing which will take me away from God. I want to come to God, I want to follow principles, I want to do some sadhana.
But at the same time there will be so many other forces which will take me back from God. We all want to go to God, but we also want to watch TV, isn't it? And it's not compatible because TV only agitates your mind.
TV only contaminates your mind by different desires. What is TV? TV is a special invention to create more desires within our heart. That's the sole purpose of TV.
You know, this is why, you know, TV is a must in every flat because otherwise you cannot sell all this garbage which is there. You know, TV is the best means to sell all this garbage.
And it creates all the desires in a very intelligent way. There are very special ways designed by the modern civilization how to make more and more desires.
And people uh in the modern day and age they cannot even imagine how to live without desires. I recently was speaking in one audience, there was some hundred and fifty new people who are somewhat interested in yoga.
And I told them that ultimately you have to uh reduce your desires and I spoke about TV, how TV creates the desires, and they said this is good. Otherwise how I can live without desires? Desires make my life spicy.
My life becomes meaningful if I have desire. One desire after another desire.
But then if you only fulfill your desires at the end, you may even you may not be able to fulfil all these desires because the desires are like option. There is no end to them.
And nobody was able to fulfil all the desires and become happy. In fact, the more you fulfil your desires, the more miserable you become. I have a friend of mine who is a psychologist and he consults different people.
And he says that most of the people who approach him are rich people. And he says rich people have much more problems than poor people.
Because rich people they have money and they can fulfill all the desires and they're still not happy. Poor people at least have some hope. I get more money and then I will become happy. Rich people don't have this hope.
They have money, they have not become happy. So because they think that I I'll get more money and more money and more money and then I will fulfill my desires and I'll become happy. But this is not the way to become happy.
And these desires are unlimited and uh when the people try to follow some spiritual practice it means they have to control the desires. They have to reduce the desires. But how you can do this?
It's in the same way like little sparrow is trying to dry up the ocean. It's not possible. Not possible. You try to do it, you know. You try to really conquer one desire. But there's ten more waiting for you.
Desires of kāma in Rāmāyaṇa are illustrated by Rāvaṇa. Rāvaṇa is basicallyetus basically the manifestation of lust, karma. And you know Rāvaṇa had ten heads. You know and you cut one head. And another head.
It's already there. You know, you cut one head, two more heads are there, three more heads are there. The same thing with with desires within a heart. You try to conquer one desire, ten more are there.
You try to conquer this ten more hundred is there. You try to conquer this hundred, one thousand is there. It just doesn't work. It's very, very difficult.
But uh Krishna gives us the hint here how to really achieve success on the path of spiritual practice, on the path of sadhana. The only way to achieve success is to become determined.
Determination is the key because as in this little fable uh is explained, when you're determined, you basically show to Krishna that you are sincere. It's not that you yourself will conquer over anything.
Balancing helplessness and determination
We're helpless. The principle of bhakti yoga, the first step of bhakti yoga is surrender. And surrender, when you're surrendering. You can only surrender if you feel that you are helpless.
If you feel that you are strong, will you surrender? No. You are strong.
Why should you surrender? If you feel, if you have this ahangkar, very strong false ego, that I can do it, I will make it, then you know you will not make it. You will not surrender.
So the first point of bhakti-yoga is to surrender and surrender means to feel helpless. But at the same time, it seems like contradiction.
With the surrendering spirit, with the spirit of helplessness and dependence on God, you have to develop determination because determination uh is an indication from your side that you want to achieve the goal.
And if you show this determination uh uh with the spirit of dependence
on God, then God will help you. This little story in Purāṇas is explaining that when this sparrow was trying to dry up the ocean, you know, she was taking little drops of the ocean and looking. If the ocean became less or not, you know became less, become less.
So she was doing this and everyone, all the sparrows they were laughing at her. Look at her. Look how foolish she is. Look how foolish she is.
But then Nārada Muni heard about this. Nārada Muni, we know he is an original spiritual master. He is the spiritual master of bhakti. He's teaching us bhakti. So he came and he started looking and he saw this little sparrow
and he saw that everyone is laughing at everyone. And he also started laughing. Sometimes spiritual master, he has to put a test and he said, Are you fool? Why are you doing this? What's your hope? How you can do this?
And the sparrow said, Get out of here. Don't stand in my way. I will do it because anyway, what else should I do?
I lost my little eggs. She had this goal very strongly established within her heart. She knew I need it. She knew that there is no life without achieving this goal. And therefore she said, I have to do it.
And then when Nārada Muni saw her determination, he became compassionate and he said, Okay, now I see you're sincere. Because our sincerity is measured by our ability to see the goal.
Sometimes people ask, what is sincerity? How shall I understand if I'm sincere or not? Sincerity means I see the goal and I pursue the goal. So when uh when this little sparrow was trying this, Narada Muni went to Garuda.
And Narada Muni said, you know, a little relative of yours is taking this impossible task. Can you help her? And Garuda said, of course I will help her.
And he came to the bank of the ocean, to the shore of the ocean, and he said, My dear ocean, you want me to dry you up? I can do it in no time. I'll just splash my wings and you will dry up. You want me to do it? No, no.
Receiving divine help through resolve
So and the point Śrīla Prabhupāda is making very clearly here this beautiful saying that God helps those who help themselves. Ultimately, we have to understand it's not us by our endeavor achieve success. It's God.
He gives us the success. He is the doer. He gives us the results. From the very beginning Kṛṣṇa establishes this point that you are not the cause of the results of your action.
He says you should act, but you should not depend on—you should not think that you are the cause of the result. I'm the cause of the result. But still you have to do it.
Still you have to really sincerely try to achieve the goal. Clearly see the goal. And if you do it, then you will achieve it. No matter how difficult or impossible it may seem.
This is a very important principle that we should see the goal and pursue the goal no matter what. We have a notion of desires. We have so many weaknesses. We are so feeble, we're so really weak.
And this world is so horrible and so many temptations are there. Still we have to be determined and then Krishna will help. Krishna will give his help at the end.
And we have to be sure that ultimately success depends on him and it means that you know what can we do? We can only try. And Krishna is there to make sure that we achieve success.
Sometimes people don't understand this principle. Sometimes people are uh trying to speculate and trying to pursue in so many other directions and things like this.
But actually the only point of spiritual practice is to be determined and if you do it you will achieve success—it's guaranteed. I recently I heard this little nice story about Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupada was giving lecture and then he stopped the lecture. As I will do in in a couple of minutes. And he said, please ask the questions. But I want relevant questions.
And one lady was there and she was really eager, some middle-aged lady. And she said, Swamiji, can you tell me who I was in my past life?
And Swamiji said, Prabhupada said, Yes, I can tell you, but this is not a relevant question. And he just brushed away. And somebody asked some question, but this lady was really determined.
She said, Swamiji, can you tell me who I was in my past life? And [he/she] said, This is not important. And then for a third time she asks, Swamiji, can you tell me who I was in my past life?
And Prabhupāda says, Yes I can tell you, you were nonsense. Because when people Why should you Why should you look back? Why should you ask these completely irrelevant questions who I was in my past life?
I know I was nonsense. You don't have to, you know, it's a universal answer to all these questions. You were nonsense. We were doing all kinds of nonsense.
And we were doing all kinds of different pursuits, trying to achieve this and trying to achieve that. But spiritual life means you don't look back. Spiritual life means you look forward.
To see the goal means to look forward. And to be determined means to see the goal all the time, to understand that this is the goal. This is the solution for all my problems.
If I don't make this solution for all my problems, then what is the use? And if I have this attitude, this attitude alone is enough for us to make sure that we will achieve success.
So this is the point of this beautiful verse and principle which Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches us, that God helps those who help themselves. We can help ourselves by being determined.
And this determination will involve the mercy and uh saving grace of the Lord.
So, this is a little lesson for today, and you can meditate about this lesson for the rest of your life because this is the most important lesson.
Sometimes we become impatient to say why success is not coming. I'm changing. I'm changing two weeks already. Why Krishna is not coming to me. You may chant for two hundred years.
At one point Krishna will come, but only he knows when he will come.
Examples of determination from Moscow
But he will come for sure if you manifest this amazing and very important quality of determination or um perseverance. So this is my little talk today so
we'll be late so thank you very much I don't know if there is any time for questions or not I can actually why I was inspired to speak on this verse because on the way I was speaking about our problems in Moscow last time when I was here I was showing my slides show how difficult it is.
And it is difficult, it's it's modern-day ocean. So overcome the problems in Moscow it it's it's it's probably the biggest ocean which is there.
So many obstacles and Russian government is so difficult and Christian church is there and they don't want anyone else there. So many problems are there. But we are determined and Krishna helps us now.
The government finally gave us five acres of land for free to build to build Hare Krishna temple there. First temple in Tashkent. This is this is how it works. This principle works in every sphere of our life.
So So it is the proof that this works. To increase our determination we have to associate with those who have determination.
And also to increase our determination we have to see the goal very clearly and seeing the goal is coming from the books.
Prabhupada's books are very powerful because they they establish very firmly this goal within the heart. You know when you read Prabhupada's books, it become crystal clear for you that this is the goal.
And everything else is just waste of time. I recently met with one devotee and he told me his story. He was a 14 years old boy. He's a big man. He works in the government now in South Africa.
He's some assistant to the president, you know, really rich, very successful gentleman. He was a 14 years old boy and he was a fanatical Christian. He was really, really, really into it.
He he was preaching Bible, he was going to different, you know, hostels and he was really really preaching Bible. Uh he was Hindu, he's from India originally, but he became Christian. And very fanatical Christian.
As sometimes Indians when they become converted into Christianity, they become really fanatical sometimes. So he was like this, he was fourteen years old.
And once he was walking along the street and he saw the Harinam And people were chanting. This Vrindas. And he thought, oh this is my chance to save them. He said now I will save them.
He had Bible with him and he wanted to come and tell them that this is the right path. So he came, he approached and there was one devotee and uh he gave him Bible and he said this is Jesus says he says, Yes, I know.
Uh but here is the book for you. Can you please read this book? And he promised to him, yes I will read this book and he gave him the signs of self-realisation.
This boy who was really determined to convert everyone into Christianity? He read this book in one go, non-stop, few hours, you know, he couldn't put it aside. And he he told to himself this book answered all
my questions which I which I couldn't find answers. This one book he said next day he went to Hare Krishna temple and became Hare Krishna devotee. Just from reading this one book.
Because this one book made everything clear, you know, it makes complete sense to him. And it established very clearly what is the goal of life, who is he, what is his relationship with Krishna, what he should do in life.
And uh this is what it is. So if you want to have your determination you have to associate with those who have determination and you have to read about our books.
They are the greatest source of determination for millions of people around the world. And if you will do this regularly, reading Prabhupada's books, you will have all your doubts clear. Okay Okay.
Oh I have to continue for about fifty minutes. Okay. So now it depends on you, you ask questions. Otherwise I can ask I think Sparrow asked for Krishna for help.
Mercy of the pure devotee
No, Sparrow didn't ask Krishna for help. Sparrow in this particular case Sparrow was just determined and the
determination see how it works in this story, Prabhupada told a part of this story because there is an important role of Nārada Muni in this story. a part of this story because there is an important role of Narada Muni in this story.
Sparrow was determined to do it. Narada Muni came. And Narada Muni is a manifestation of a pure devotee. And you know we can get mercy of Krishna through the mercy of the devotee.
So when when Nārada Muni saw this little sparrow, he was so moved.
He was really moved, he was touched by their determination, and he said, Okay, you give my you take my blessings. And when the blessings was there everything else was was just a matter of karudity. So this is how it is.
It's not uh we may not even directly ask for the help of Krishna.
But if we try to do something, especially if we try to please a devotee of Krishna, then he will give his blessings. And when he gives his blessings, Krishna will feel obliged to help. He is actually obliged.
This is also a very important principle. When a devotee devotee is a is uh uh he is a wholesaler. He gets bhakti from Krishna with the wholesale price and he retails it to all of us.
So this is actually in this particular case, uh, this is the role of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Prabhupāda got a wholesale contract with Krishna. He signed the contract.
You give me this bhakti in the bulk quantity and I will I will sell it to everyone else with the retail price. So this is this is how it works.
If we try to do something for Prabhupada sincerely, if we try to please a pure devotee, then in exchange of this feeble attempt to please him, he will give us his mercy.
And when he gives the mercy, Krishna will give mercy. For us, what can we do? We can only try. We can only try to do something little. You know, we are useless, helpless. They're really unqualified to do anything.
We are unqualified. But qualification is given by the mercy of pure devotee in response to our little desire to help.
Like Prabhupada, once he was giving lecture in the beginning in New York in Bowery when they had this little uh little storefront. And he was giving a lecture, there were few people listening to him. And one drunkard came.
And he was really drunk. It was it was a low-class area. There were a lot of drunkards and drug addicts and so many other people, low-class people. But this drunkard came there.
And then he went, he went through the storefront and there was a little thing there and he put in front of this little sink one roll of the toilet paper and said this is my offering to Swamiji, and Prabhupāda said this is the beginning of his spiritual life.
He gave this little roll of toilet paper, which is a useless thing because devotees don't use toilet paper. Anyway, but he wanted to do something.
And because he wanted to do something sincerely, Śrīla Prabhupāda was blessings. And blessings of the pure devotee is a very powerful thing. So the same thing with us.
We are maybe unqualified, but whatever little we can give, we should give. And you know when we give little to Krishna he has a big magnifying glass. We give him very little.
He and looks through the magnifying glass. And he's very happy. And because this is the nature of Krishna, he's a pure devotee.
Significance and benefits of Ekadashi
Okay can that explain uh what is the importance of regards and why it is the importance of what? Ekādaśī, fasting. Oh, importance of ekādaśī. What is the reason for Yeah, they have to tomorrow is ekādaśī.
Ekādaśī is called upavāsa. And uh I just spoke with an Ayurvedic doctor in our Ayurvedic Center, in a nice center. Very nice Ayurvedic doctor.
He said that he quoted Sanskrit verse which says that uh that fasting is the best medicine. There is no better medicine than fasting. So you can talk about the benefit of ekādaśī on the different levels.
Like in the Vedas there is this system of understanding Vedas on three different levels. If we speak about the benefits or the importance of ekādaśī, there are three different levels of this understanding.
One is called adhibhautika level, which is physical level.
So on the adhibhautika level, ekādaśī is important because it's the purification of the body, it's the purification of the mind, uh and because it is uh a day when digestion is very slow.
Or you can say uh the moon at that point becomes dim. It's eleventh phase of the moon and uh it's noticed by the sears of the past, that on this day the moon is very weak. Somehow or other, by some reasons.
The 11th phase of the moon, the light of the moon becomes dim. And this dim moon means very slow digestion. Slow digestion means if you eat something heavy, it will produce poison and poison
will poison your physical system, poison your mind. So this is one level of understanding of ekādaśī on the adhibhautika level, on the physical level. Then there is adhidaivika level.
Adhidaivika level is the subtle energy level. Adhidaivika means daiva means devas who more or less control this universe through different energies. And uh on this level uh the importance of ekādaśī is that
uh uh that again there is this subtle energies in working and the subtle energies if you fast on this particular day then the subtle energy will help to purify your system and your mind in a very efficient way.
And um um basically that you know that th there is also some kind of there are so many explanations of ekādaśī or the benefits of ekādaśī on this level, uh on a daivika level uh when the moon is there and everything.
And then there is adhyātmika level or spiritual level of understanding, and spiritual level is very simple. Ekadashi is called Hari Vasaram. Harivasaram means the day of Lord Hari.
It is explained that if you want to please some particular deity or if you want to increase the power of this particular deity upon you, you should fast on the day of this deity.
Because when you eat, your energy is more or less consumed into this gross work, and the most subtle energy which is being given to you on this particular day cannot be utilized properly.
Like, for example, this is an astrological principle.
If you want to please a particular graha you should fast on the day of this particular planet and in this way you maximize the subtle or good influence of this uh graha or this planet upon your body because your energy is not consumed in this process.
So on the adhyātmika level, on the sub on a on the spiritual level uh ekādaśī is the day of Lord Hari of Krishna. And if you fast on this day, it basically means that you please Krishna.
According to this similar principle, this is the day where Krishna is particularly should be present and therefore a ekādaśī of fasting in Sanskrit is called Upavāsa. Upavāsa basically means that you sit closer to God.
Because was means to sit or to be, to exist, and upa means to exist closer.
So basically ekādaśī means that we try to minimize our material activity out of which taking food is the most prominent so to speak because this is really daily uh kind of ritual which gives us a lot of enjoyment and uh uh we consume a lot of energy.
So basically the principle of ekādaśī is that we minimise our material activity uh to a reasonable level, uh by minimising our food intake, by our sleep, by all kinds of material activities, you know, sleeping, eating, mating, defending, we we we really make it as less as possible and use all our energy to think about Lord Hari and in this way because this
is a special day where his presence is very prominent, it gives us it gives us boost in our bhakti. So, uh, as Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, Mādhavatī bhakti-jananī.
If you follow Madhava Tithi, or if you follow certain lunar days which are devoted to Lord Mādhava, then bhakti jananī, the result of this is that bhakti will, uh, be born in your heart. It's the mother of our bhakti.
So uh on different levels uh you will get benefit. On a physical level you you get special benefit if you fast on this day. On a more subtle energetic level you will get a special benefit if you fast on this day.
Your mind will become more clear, your system will be very nicely purified. And on a spiritual level you will get back. So this is all universal benefit of asking the mentality.
Uh actually the thing is according to astrology uh waxing and veining uh they have the same meaning so to speak. If it's Navami, uh, Navami has the same kind of energetic essence.
In waxing and waning Moon, the only difference is that in, uh, in the waning moon it's weaker and in waxing moon it's stronger.
So basically Ekādaśī is both on waxing and waning Moon because the meaning is the same but the effect uh when the moon is increasing is
is the same, but the effect, uh, when the moon is increasing is bigger than, uh, the same effect of the Ekādaśī
So now Śukla Pakṣa and you will have very strong effect of fasting on the Ekādaśī. On Kṛṣṇa Pakṣa you will have weaker effect on certain levels. But I don't think it refers to bhakti. Bhakti.
Oh no, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda