Pariprashnena — Q&A Archive

Next day to the fasting in the morning.... do not break it in the evening or at night:)

One thing I dont have clear is when ekadasi starts. If today is monday and ekadasi is on tuesday, does ekadasi start at midnight or is it at brahma muhurta or when?

There is a specific time period you have to break your fast. This Ekadasi breaks between 06:38 - 10:16 AM.

http://shyamasundaradasa.com/jyotish/resources/downloads/vcal401.zip

Theres a piece of software you can use to create your own calendar.

There is no guarantee that the software written by Sd does not make a mistake, but the principle is that ekadasi starts before muhurta and ends after it. There is a small but signinficant dispute on the how to calculate the ekadasi break fasting. Just as there is a dispute on fixed and flexible muhurtas.

In in 1976 Prabhupada wrote a letter to devotee who asked if it was a mistake to just break fast in the morning of the dvadasi and should they wait for a properly calculated time. Prabhupada gave a fairly good reason (wise as usual see below for more details on reasons) that if you start changing the system that he has established (e.g. just simply waiting for the morning for breaking the fast) you will consider what he has said before to be a mistake, which is not acceptable. Therefore it is safer to just fast on ekadasi in exactly the way Prabhupada instructed us and not to waste devotees time arguing back and forth on the subject on when to break fast.

Prabhupada gave practical and reasonable instructions and showed himself how to follow it; some devotees are trying to be holier then the Pope and spent years researching other sampradayas, HBV etc and checking how to do it. It all smells smarta to say the least, and then the very same devotees publish their alternative translations of Bhagavad gita with completely different meanings of verses to what Prabhupada has said it puts it into a perspective. Clearly not very clever way to do it, if you ask me.

So instead of arguing for fixed or not muhurtas or on how to break fast within (sometimes) only 3 minute gap calculated by VCal - one should just follow Prabhupada -- the way he presented and instructed his disciples to follow: fast all day from the morning and break fast at the sunrise, and if you can not fast take some fruits etc., it is simple and sublime. We are not eating at night anyhow.

Below is the summary of Prabhupadas instruction or basis to it as per Vcal Q&A:

> > Usually, the fast should be broken only after sunrise of
> > the next day, but before one-third of the daylight hours of
> > the next day have passed. In other words, if on the day after
> > ekadasi the sun rises at 6:00 AM and sets at 6:00 PM, then
> > there will be exactly 12 hours of daylight. Thus the fast
> > should be broken within the four hour period beginning at
> > sunrise (one-third of 12 hours is 4 hours). The "paran
> > timings" will be 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM.

Prabhupada never instructed or instituted additional ekadasi breaking rules like the ones of VCal below:

> > ... there are other rules that sometimes reduce this time
> > period. One of those rules states that if a fast is observed
> > on a suddha ekadasi then it should be broken while the
> > dwadasi tithi is present. (And, similarly, if a fast is
> > observed on a dvadasi, such as a mahadvadasi, then it should
> > be broken while the trayodasi tithi is present.)

> > ...another rule in Hari Bhakti Vilas states that the
> > fast observed on a suddha ekadasi should not be broken until
> > at least 25% of the dvadasi tithi has passed.

And the reason for this simple instruction and ignoring additional rules is that sometimes the dvadasi tithi ends before sunrise on the next day, or 25% of the dvadasi tithi extends past one-third of the daylight hours on the next day. It would seem there would be no time left during which we should break the fast or the time is ridiculously short.

The whole system should be simple not complicated, Haribhaktivilasa is a complicated system based on Sri sampradayas texts and is not always applicable, even some of the gayatri mantras mentioned there nobody knows, why would we reject Prabhupada in favor of some minor rules that do not work anyway? Thus break ekadasi on the sunrise and follow Prabhupada!

I see, I remember back in last years Nirjala Ekadasi the breaking time was just four minutes. I found it really weird because theyre usually four hours in length.

Also, isnt Hari Bhakti Vilasa written by one of the Six Goswamis?

The specific times vary depending not only on the date but also on the location, based on a comparison of calendars for different locations.

I cant imagine how devotees in ancient times wouldve been able to break fasts within very specific, narrow time intervals unless they had some kind of timekeeping method that I havent heard of (which wouldnt surprise me). Still it was apparently important to Maharaj Ambarish.

Kyros: - I see, I remember back in last years Nirjala Ekadasi the breaking time was just four minutes. I found it really weird because theyre usually four hours in length.

Also, isnt Hari Bhakti Vilasa written by one of the Six Goswamis?

Yes the mistakes were made long before our time too; even by perfected beings and some demigods. In the Tenth canto even the servants of Varuna have captured Nanda Maharaja for the very same reason -- a bit of a mistake with timing of the end on their part... Yes HBV was brought over from Srirangam (original HBV as ref below) by Gopala Bhatta and then commented by Sanantana Goswami. Twelfth vilasa is mainly about following ekadasi. If you remember right Gopala Bhatta Goswami was a son of a head priest of Srirangam so he had access.

Here is the view of our acharyas on that -- "the regulative principles of devotional service compiled by Gopala Bhatta Gosvami do not strictly follow our Vaisnava principles".

"The details of the Hari-bhakti-viluc0u257 sa-grantha are given by u346 ru299 Kaviru257 ja Gosvu257 mu299 in the Madhya-lu299 lu257 (24.329-345). The descriptions given in those verses by Ku7771 u7779 u7751 adu257 sa Kaviru257 ja Gosvu257 mu299 are actually a description of those portions compiled by Gopu257 la Bhau7789 u7789 a Gosvu257 mu299 . According to u346 ru299 la Bhaktisiddhu257 nta Sarasvatu299 u7788 hu257 kura, the regulative principles of devotional service compiled by Gopu257 la Bhau7789 u7789 a Gosvu257 mu299 do not strictly follow our Vaiu7779 u7751 ava principles. Actually, Gopu257 la Bhau7789 u7789 a Gosvu257 mu299 collected only a summary of the elaborate descriptions of Vaiu7779 u7751 ava regulative principles from the Hari-bhakti-vilu257 sa. It is u346 ru299 la Bhaktisiddhu257 nta Sarasvatu299 Gosvu257 mu299 s opinion, however, that to follow the Hari-bhakti-vilu257 sa strictly is to actually follow the Vaiu7779 u7751 ava rituals in perfect order. He claims that the smu257 rta-samu257 ja, which is strictly followed by caste bru257 hmau7751 as, has influenced portions that Gopu257 la Bhau7789 u7789 a Gosvu257 mu299 collected from the original Hari-bhakti-vilu257 sa. It is therefore very difficult to find out Vaiu7779 u7751 ava directions from the book of Gopu257 la Bhau7789 u7789 a Gosvu257 mu299 . It is better to consult the commentary made by Sanu257 tana Gosvu257 mu299 himself for the Hari-bhakti-vilu257 sa under the name of Dig-daru347 inu299 -u7789 u299 ku257 ." CC Madhya 1/35 Purp

And because it is very difficult to find out Vaiu7779 u7751 ava directions from the book just follow the vaishnava principle of breaking fast in the morning at the sunrise as established by Prabhupada.

A lot of people follow the time breaking rules. My mom had me start doing it, but if this is the case, then this is one less unnecessary worry.