Nirjala-ekadasi - Fasting for the Lord

"In devotional service there are certain activities which are called determined, such as fasting on certain days, like the eleventh day of the moon, Ekadasi, and on the appearance day of the Lord, etc. All these rules and regulations are offered by the great acaryas for those who are actually interested in getting admission into the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the transcendental world. The mahatmas, great souls, strictly observe all these rules and regulations, and therefore they are sure to achieve the desired result."
[Bhagavad-gita As It Is: 9.14]

[Once a year, devotees of Krishna perform a fast from all food and water (called Nirjala-ekadasi) and devote the whole day for Krishna. The following is an excerpt from a lecture given on 5-23-69 in Wheeling West Virginia]

So one should execute Krsna consciousness, dharmatah, in right path, and vrataih. Bhajante mam drdha-vratah. Just like today, ekadasi-vrata. Vrataih. This ekadasi-vrata is required. Just see. Here it is that “You have performed all the vratas.”

The purpose of ekadasi-vrata is that today we should not eat much usual food, grains. The actual prescription is fasting. Nirjala-ekadasi. Nirjala means there are many devotees who does not take even water. Water, drinking water, according to sastra, it is taking food... It is drinking of food or no food. We can take both ways. So sometimes drinking of water is excused as upavasa also. But there are many devotees who even..., drink even a drop of water. Whole day and night they fast and observe ekadasi-vrata. And the night is called harivasara. Harivasara means the whole night they would chant:

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna
Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

... This is called vrata. Drdha-vrata. Drdha-vrata.

Drdha means very firm, steady. Krsna is so kind that He has given us so many concession. But we should be... Because there are some concession, better we should not take advantage of the concession, but we should be very steady and strong in our conviction and perform devotional service strictly. That is nice. Vrataih. Dharmato vrataih. Paravare brahmani dharmato vrataih snatasya. Snatasya means taking bath. Just like if you... Of course, in your country there is no such thing. But in India they take bath in the Ganges. Completely dip. Just like you sometimes take bath in the ocean. So snatasya. Snatasya. Snatasya means completely taking bath in dharmato vrataih. Fresh, refreshed.

So, me nyunam alam vicaksva:

“So you can find out what is the defect in me. Why I am morose?”

Then Narada is replying now.

bhavatanudita-prayam
yaso bhagavato ’malam
yenaivasau na tusyeta
manye tad darsanam khilam

He immediately replies that bhavata anudita-prayam yaso bhagavatah amalam. “You have compiled, or you have,” I mean to say, “given so many literatures, but in each and every literature... Just like there are Puranas, eighteen Puranas, and Mahabharata, and Vedas, and Brahma-sutra. You have given so many literatures. But,” bhavatanudita-prayam yaso bhagavato ’malam, “there is no incessant glorification of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”

Just like Mahabharata.That’s a great epic. But there are politics. So many politics, sociology, fight, this, that, but in the middle there is a little glories of God, Bhagavad-gita. So the book is not full of the glories of the... Krsna is there, but that is a partial representation. Now Narada Muni says that “Not as sidelight. Completely you have to write one book simply glorifying the Supreme Lord. Then you’ll be satisfied.” Not sidelight. Completely. Bhavatanudita-prayam. Here it is said, paravaresa... Anudita-prayam, anukta-prayam. A sidelight. People take... Just like, “All right, yes, we accept God. But we cannot devote our whole time for God. We shall go weekly once or fortnightly once, or one hour in a day, partial. Our business is another.

We want to enjoy sense gratification, and we shall go to church or temple just to ask God to supply our ingredients of sense gratification: ‘Oh God, give me this. Give me this. I am poor man. I am this. I am this. I am suffering. I have got some disease.’ ” But still Bhagavad-gita says that they are sukrtina. Because they go to temple or church asking God something, because they are accepting that “There is God who can satisfy our needs,” therefore they are sukrtina. But those who are duskrtina, miscreants, they don’t believe in God. Then where is the chance of asking God, “Please give me this, give me that”? Because they don’t believe in God.

Therefore they are duskrtina, atheist. In comparison to such person, those who go to the temple or church, ask something from God, they are better. Because they are accepting. They have at least come to God. Now, gradually, they will be purified, and at a time they will say, svamin krtartho ’smi varam na yace, “No. No more. I have no demand.” What demand? If one gets Krsna, then what is the question of demand? He gets everything. Everything. There is no question of demand. So that stage is perfect. So, (reads commentary) Anudita-prayam anukta-prayam vimalam bhagavad-yaso vina yenaiva dharmadi jnanenasau bhagavan na tusyati(?) Sridhara Svami gives note that if you become a rigid religious person, that does not mean (chuckling) God will be satisfied with you. That is preliminary stage.

Dharmartha-kama-moksa. If one religious man... But that is not the qualification. Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu, when He was talking with Ramananda Raya, He, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, inquired what is the aim of life and what is the procedure of achieving that aim. He prescribed this varnasrama-dharma. Because that is the beginning of actual human life, accepting four varnas and four asramas. Caitanya Mahaprabhu immediately rejected, eho bahya age kaha ara.

These are not very important things. Just see. The whole Vedic civilization is resting on the varnasrama-dharma.

varnasramacaravata
purusena parah puman
visnur aradhyate pantha
nanyat tat-tosa-karanam

That is the statement, that one who is rigidly performing the rules and regulation of these four varnas and asramas... Varnasramacaravata purusena parah puman visnur aradhyate. Simply by following the rules and regulation, varnasrama system, one can worship Visnu. Visnur aradhya... Nanyat tat-tosa-karanam. There is no alternative to satisfy Him. That... This is an authorized statement. But Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, eho bahya age kaha ara, “This is external. This is not very important thing. If you know something more, that you can say.” Eho bahya age kaha ara. Age kaha ara.

So to become a religious person, to become economically very well-to-do, or to become a salvationist, desiring to merge into the existence, to become one with God, these things are not, I mean to say, very satisfactory to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Bhaktas tu tosa-bhagavan gaja-yuta paya.(?)

If you want to satisfy the Supreme Lord, then you have to accept this path of devotional service. There is no second path. There is no second path. In the Bhagavad-gita also it is said that bhaktya mam abhijanati yavan yas casmi tattvatah [Bg. 18.55]. If one wants to know the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead in truth, not fictitiously, then bhaktya. Bhaktya mam abhijanati.