suddhabhakti: 07/05/21

Monday 5 July 2021

Yogini Ekadasi

Yudhisthira Maharaj said, "Oh Supreme Lord, I have heard the glories of the Nirjala Ekadasi, which occurs during the light fortnight of the month of Jyeshtha (May - June). Now I wish to hear from You about the suddha Ekadasi that occurs during the dark fortnight of the month of Ashadha (June - July). Kindly describe to me all about it in detail, Oh killer of the Madhu demon (Madhusudana)."

The Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna, then replied, "Oh king, I shall indeed tell you about the best of all fasting days, the Ekadasi that comes during the dark part of the month of Ashadha.

Famous as Yogini Ekadasi, it removes all kinds of sinful reactions and awards supreme liberation.

"Oh best of kings, this Ekadasi delivers people who are drowning in the vast ocean of material existence and transports them to the shore of the spiritual world. In all the three worlds, it is the chief of all sacred fasting days. I shall now reveal this truth to you by narrating a history recounted in the Puranas.

"The king of Alakapuri - Kuvera, the treasurer of the devas (demigods) - was a steadfast devotee of lord Shiva. He employed a servant named Hemamali as his personal gardener. Hemamali, a Yaksha like Kuvera, was very lustfully attracted to his gorgeous wife, Swarupavatii, who had large, enchanting eyes. "Hemamali's daily duty was to visit Manasarovara Lake and bring back flowers for his master, Kuvera, with which he would use them in the puja offerings to lord Shiva.

One day, after picking the flowers, Hemamali went to his wife instead of returning directly to his master and fulfilling his duty by bringing the flowers for the puja.

Absorbed in loving affairs of a bodily nature with his wife, he forgot to return to the abode of Kuvera. "Oh king, while Hemamali was enjoying with his wife, Kuvera had begun the worship of lord Shiva as normal in his palace and soon discovered that there were no flowers ready to be offered in the midday puja. The lack of such an important item (upachara) angered the great Koshad-yaksha (treasurer of the devas) even more, and he asked a Yaksha messenger, 'Why has dirty-hearted Hemamali not come with the daily offering of flowers? Go find out the exact reason and report back to me in person with your findings.'

The Yaksha returned and told Kuvera, 'Oh dear lord, Hemamali has become lost in freely enjoying coitus with his wife.'

"Kuvera became extremely angry when he heard this and at once summoned lowly Hemamali before him. Knowing that he had been remiss and dawdling in his duty and exposed as meditating on his wife's body, Hemamali approached his master in great fear.The gardener first paid his obeisances and then stood before his lord, whose eyes had become red with anger and whose lips trembled in rage. So enraged, Kuvera cried out to Hemamali, 'Oh you sinful rascal! Oh destroyer of religious principles! You are a walking offense to the devas! I therefore curse you to suffer from white leprosy and to become separated from your beloved wife! Only great suffering is deservedly yours! Oh lowborn fool, leave this place immediately and betake yourself to the lower planets to suffer!'

"And so Hemamali fell at once from grace in Alakapuri and became ill with the terrible affliction of white leprosy. He awoke in a dense and fearful forest, where there was nothing to eat or drink. Thus he passed his days in misery, unable to sleep at night due to pain. He suffered in both winter and summer season, but because he continued to worship lord Shiva himself with faith, his consciousness remained purely fixed and steady.Although implicated by great sin and its attendant reactions, he remembered his past life because of his piety.

"After wandering for some time here and there, over mountains and across plains, Hemamali eventually came upon the vast expanse of the Himalayan mountain ranges. There he had the wonderful good fortune to come in contact with the great saintly soul Markandeya Rishi, the best of ascetics, whose duration of life it is said, extends to seven of the days of Brahma.

"Markandeya Rishi was seated peacefully at his Ashrama, looking as effulgent as a second Brahma. Hemamali, feeling very sinful, stood at a distance from the magnificent sage and offered his humble obeisances and choice prayers.

Always interested in the welfare of others, Markandeya Rishi saw the leper and called him near, "Oh you, what sort of sinful deeds have you done to earn this dreadful affliction?'

"Hearing this, Hemamali painfully and ashamed replied, 'Dear sir, I am a Yaksha servant of lord Kuvera, and my name is Hemamali. It was my daily service to pick the flowers from the Manasarovara lake for my master's worship of lord Shiva, but one day I was negligent and was late in returning with the offering because I had become overwhelmed with lusty passion for enjoying bodily pleasures with my wife.

When my master discovered why I was late, he cursed me in great anger to be as I am before you. Thus I am now bereft of my home, my wife, and my service.

But fortunately I have come upon you, and now I hope to receive from you an auspicious benediction, for I know that devotees such as you are as merciful as the Supreme Lord (Bhakta Vatsala) and always carry the interest of others uppermost in their hearts.

That is their - your nature. Oh best of sages, please help me!'

"Softhearted Markandeya Rishi replied, 'Because you have told me the truth, I shall tell you about a fast day that will benefit you greatly.

If you fast on the Ekadasi that comes during the dark fortnight of the month of Ashadha, you will surely be freed of this terrible curse.'

Hemamali fell to the ground in complete gratitude and offered him his humble obeisances again and again.

But Markandeya Rishi stood there and lifted poor Hemamali to his feet, filling him with inexpressible happiness.

"Thus, as the sage had instructed him, Hemamali dutifully observed the Ekadasi fast, and by its influence he again became a handsome Yaksha.

Then he returned home, where he lived very happily with his wife."

Lord Sri Krishna concluded, "So, you can readily see, Oh Yudhishthira that fasting on Yogini Ekadasi is very powerful and auspicious.

Whatever merit one obtains by feeding eighty-eight thousand brahmins is also obtained simply by observing a strict fast on Yogini Ekadasi.

For one who fasts on this sacred Ekadasi, she (Ekadasi Devi), destroys heaps of past sinful reactions and makes him most pious.

Oh King, thus I have explained to you the purity of Yogini Ekadasi."

Thus ends the narration of the glories of Ashadha-krishna Ekadasii, or Yogini Ekadasi, from the Brahma-vaivarta Purana.

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Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

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Hare Krishna 🙏

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Srila Prabhupadas Childhood Rathyatra

Abhay was enamored with the Ratha-yātrā festivals of Lord Jagannātha, held yearly in Calcutta. The biggest Calcutta Ratha-yātrā was the Mulliks’, with three separate carts bearing the deities of Jagannātha, Baladeva, and Subhadrā. Beginning from the Rādhā-Govinda temple, the carts would proceed down Harrison Road for a short distance and then return. The Mulliks would distribute large quantities of Lord Jagannātha’s prasādam to the public on this day.

Ratha-yātrā was held in cities all over India, but the original, gigantic Ratha-yātrā, attended each year by millions of pilgrims, took place three hundred miles south of Calcutta at Jagannātha Purī. For centuries at Purī, three wooden carts forty-five feet high had been towed by the crowds along the two-mile parade route, in commemoration of one of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s eternal pastimes. Abhay had heard how Lord Caitanya Himself, four hundred years before, had danced and led ecstatic chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa at the Purī Ratha-yātrā festival. Abhay would sometimes look at the railway timetable or ask about the fare to Vṛndāvana and Purī, thinking about how he would collect the money and go there.

Abhay wanted to have his own cart and to perform his own Ratha-yātrā, and naturally he turned to his father for help. Gour Mohan agreed, but there were difficulties. When he took his son to several carpenter shops, he found that he could not afford to have a cart made. On their way home, Abhay began crying, and an old Bengali woman approached and asked him what the matter was. Gour Mohan explained that the boy wanted a Ratha-yātrā cart but they couldn’t afford to have one made. “Oh, I have a cart,” the woman said, and she invited Gour Mohan and Abhay to her place and showed them the cart. It looked old, but it was still operable, and it was just the right size, about three feet high. Gour Mohan purchased it and helped to restore and decorate it. Father and son together constructed sixteen supporting columns and placed a canopy on top, resembling as closely as possible the ones on the big carts at Purī. They also attached the traditional wooden horse and driver to the front of the cart. Abhay insisted that it must look authentic. Gour Mohan bought paints, and Abhay personally painted the cart, copying the Purī originals. His enthusiasm was great, and he became an insistent organizer of various aspects of the festival. But when he tried making fireworks for the occasion from a book that gave illustrated descriptions of the process, Rajani intervened.

Abhay engaged his playmates in helping him, especially his sister Bhavatarini, and he became their natural leader. Responding to his entreaties, amused mothers in the neighborhood agreed to cook special preparations so that he could distribute the prasādam at his Ratha-yātrā festival.

Like the festival at Purī, Abhay’s Ratha-yātrā ran for eight consecutive days. His family members gathered, and the neighborhood children joined in a procession, pulling the cart, playing drums and karatālas, and chanting. Wearing a dhotī and no shirt in the heat of summer, Abhay led the children in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and in singing the appropriate Bengali bhajana, Ki kara rāi kamalinī.

What are You doing, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī?
Please come out and see.
They are stealing Your dearmost treasure –
Kṛṣṇa, the black gem.
If the young girl only knew!
The young boy Kṛṣṇa,
Treasure of Her heart,
Is now forsaking Her.

Abhay copied whatever he had seen at adult religious functions, including dressing the deities, offering the deities food, offering ārati with a ghee lamp and incense, and making prostrated obeisances. From Harrison Road the procession entered the circular road inside the courtyard of the Rādhā-Govinda temple and stood awhile before the Deities. Seeing the fun, Gour Mohan’s friends approached him: “Why haven’t you invited us? You are holding a big ceremony, and you don’t invite us? What is this?”

“They are just children playing,” his father replied.

“Oh, children playing?” the men joked. “You are depriving us by saying that this is only for children?”

While Abhay was ecstatically absorbed in the Ratha-yātrā processions, Gour Mohan spent money for eight consecutive days, and Rajani cooked various dishes to offer, along with flowers, to Lord Jagannātha. Although everything Abhay did was imitation, his inspiration and steady drive for holding the festival were genuine. His spontaneous spirit sustained the eight-day children’s festival, and each successive year brought a new festival, which Abhay would observe in the same way.