Post No. 12,088
Date uploaded in London – – 5 June , 2023
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Hindus fast on Ekadasi Days, that is the eleventh days of Hindu months. According to Hindu calendar, each month is divided into two halves. From new moon day, 14 days is a fort night and from full moon day another fortnight. So every month Hindus will have two Ekaadasis, that is two eleventh days. Orthodox Hindus observe strict fasting. It is not like Muslim’s Ramadan fasting. Muslims are allowed to eat as much as possible after sunset. Hindus are not eating for 24 hours during Ekadasi. Depending upon age, they do take fruits and milk or some light food, mostly without salt or chillies.
I have seen Gujarati builders, who do hard manual work, eating only bananas.
Sir Monier Williams says,
“No Christian man—be he Roman Catholic or Anglican—not even the most austere stickler for the most strict observance of every appointed period of humiliation and abstinence for a moment hope to compete with any religious native of India—Hindu or Mohemedan – who may have entered on a course of fasting, abstinence, and bodily maceration”.
I have already said Muslims do eat during the month of Ramadan after sunset. And statistics show their body weight increase after Ramadan Fasting period.
Mahatma Gandhi also said,
“My real difficulty is with my Christian Protestant friends, of whom I have so many, and whose friendship I value beyond measure. Let me confess to them that though from my very first contact with them, I have known their dislike for fasts, I have never been able to understand it”.
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Let me revert to my original point, the greatness of Ekadasi fasting. One comes across at least 24 such days in a year.
There are some stories behind this Ekaadasi Vrat.
Let me give some stories from Mahabharata:
First Story- Bhadrashila
Galava Muni has a son by name Bhadrashila; he was a devout votary of Lord Vishnu from early boyhood. He even gave up the study of Vedas and the usual rites in order to devote himself to the worship of Vishnu. From the same early age he observed the Ekaadasi fast twice every month.
His father once asked him why he subjects himself to such difficult fasts when many easier ones are laid down in holy books. He said to his father that the merit (Punya) accruing from the observance of the Ekaadasi fast was literally infinite- as infinite as the starlit sky or the boundless ocean. He was able to see his fast birth as well.
Bhadrashila continued,
“In my former life, I was a powerful king named Dharmakirti of the Lunar race. As a man I was a sinner and as a king a hated tyrant; and in both capacities, I heaped a mountain load of sin. One day I went on a hunting expedition, escorted by a company of soldiers. When I saw a lovely deer, I ordered my attendant to make a cordon round the animal so as not to let the game escape. But it so happened that the deer escaped at a point where I was myself standing on guard. I shot an arrow at the deer, and I missed the mark. I was following it in my horse all alone. when I was deep inside the forest the sun was setting. My horse became very tired and rolled down the hill and died. Hunger and thirst were gnawing at my bowels. Benighted, bewildered, bereft almost of sense and motion, I laid myself down at the foot of a tree. Nature refused to sustain my body. I saw two emissaries of Yama, carrying me to the abode of the dead. Yama was very angry with his servants for taking my soul to his region, for he said I was absolved of all sin. The reason was I breathed my last in state of fasting on an Ekaadasi day. Yama paid obeisance to me and my soul was sent to heaven of Vishnu. There I spent millions of years in the uninterrupted enjoyment of felicity such as a man cannot picture even in dreams.”
Bhadrashila’s story made such a profound impression on the mind of his father that the old man also became a convert to Vaishnavism.
There is another story in the Mahabharata.
To be continued …………………………………………
Tags- story, Ekadasi, Bhadrasila, Mahabharata,
Tamil and Vedas 