Krishna Seva

[jagdish]

Jai Shri Krishna,

Shri Mahaprabhuji is a strict follower of shastras and discipline. He showed us by keeping the fast/vrat himself and stayed up all night resting his hand on the "Garud" pillar, singing praises of the mahaprasad in Jagannath puri .

it is not always possible/practicle for everyone to do jagaran - however the main aim of ekadashi is to occupy all our senses constantantly in seva/satsang/smaran/kirtan, eating little helps maintain strength and energy levels, but not starving, as this makes one weak and thus unable to perform seva, etc, while eating too much makes one sleepy, tired, etc and thus not able to occupy in seva, etc.

When one is able to do this with ek-chit throughout the day, then automatically it also becomes possible to do jagaran... because if mind/chit is occupied with anand in Thakorji then one does not feel the need to sleep/eat, etc..
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Best Wishes
Jagdish

[Kesha]

Jai shri Vallabh, thanks for response jagdishji. Firstly plz excuse if i use seperate posts for conversation for some days as computer is not working n have to use net through cell n it does not have enough page size. and i cant wait long to talk. Hope everyone can understand....... Jagdishji i agree with u that if ones bhakti is firm and strong then with bhagwad krupa jeev can observe both fast as well as jagran. But how to deal with laukik circumstances. I dont know whether i should mention this or n

[Kesha]

......mention this or not, or whether anyone would believe but i think this can be sorted out only here. On every ekadashi night my parentss vaishnava friends comes n they do jagran. Turn by turn they read stories from 252-84 vaishnavas book sitting in circle n do jagran. But when the matter comes to me they say NO and the reason is so weird that that i will get weakness etc.. etc...after fasting whole day. I can understand that its their attachment towards me, but then what about my attachment towards

[Kesha]

......lalan. i tried to even to do jagran secretly thinking they wont know but i m caught twice. And if i repeated this again then..... However they are nice if ekadashis falls on saturdays, but this not the case all the times. i think everyone here can understand their way of thinking so can give ideas to convinence. This is really imp for me. i even went to jj but i dont know why when i come in front of aapshri i m so nervous n not able to tell anything. But here its very comfortable to talk....

[Kesha]

(plz refer my previous posts before reading this one).....unable to oppose as they are elders and more than that bramhasambadhis. plz dont avoid to give ans. This is very imp 4 me. If the matter would be limited upto getting merits n punays than i wont lay much stress. But now its the case of lalans pleasure and acharyacharans aagya..... Jai shri vallabh

[jagdish]

Jai Shri Krishna

Krutiji, as this is a personal issue it is a bit tricky to go into much details, however from limited understanding here are some thoughts ...

If we agree that Shri Mahaprabhuji's agya is that the vaishnavs will do the vrat for all ekadashis and the vishnu sambandhi jayantis, then the reasoning to convince a vaishnav can be as follows:

How can one vaishnav stop another vaishnav from following Shri Vallabh's agya ?

and if we would agree that a vaishnav is not bound by lokik age/time, etc.. only by bhagvad iccha... then further there is no reason to stop anyone from doing the vrat as prescribed in the shastras

-- to take a little extreme arguement: if a doctor prescribes medication with rules (e.g., take it 3 times a day at these fixed times, 9am 12pm 6pm etc) and if we dont follow the prescription, can we blame the doctor if the medications don't work ?

in the same way, Bhagwan has given instructions, which are re-emphasised for us jeevs in their teachings by all acharyas including Shri Vallabh, Shri Vitthal and others after them... so surely there must be something right in what they have "prescribed" and if we don't follow their prescription are we not going against their agyas? and would we not then have that much more antaray in receiving bhagvad krupa?

(of course there are exemptions, such as if someone is old, weak, ill, etc)
- then there are other exceptions, such as - not wanting to or not able to (do to antaray/personal doshes etc)

Also we have been given appropriate directions (best practices) by bhaktas such as Dhruvji and Prahladji and past saints and acharyas (e.g., a child should be given naam-nivedan/brahmsambandh early in life, preferably by the age of 5) that one should get on the track of bhakti as early in life as possible because then it will be easier for our asakti and dhradthta to develop and the longer we leave it the more antaray there is in seva, and when we grow older we will be more entangled with lokik/worldly duties (work, studies, etc)....

I guess the important part is that you are not starving yourself and not forcing yourself ... and follows the basic rules such as drinking enough liquids/ (fruit juice, milk, jal etc), and having the recommended fruit/nuts/dry-fruits to keep a healthy mind/body on the day of the vrat... everyone has prasad and then sits for the satsang-jagran

fasting helps purify us bodily by de-toxifying our systems of the daily food that collects in our system and helps us to keep our our minds alert....and our bodies healthy.
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Best Wishes
Jagdish

[Kesha]

Jsk.... First of all i wld like to appologise to everyone as this is satsang tibri and i have kept such issue... but that was the only way... Jagdishji u r truely a helper.... Yr reasons r very strong, n i think i its time for me to use some smartness to present these everyday in small-small amounts as per circumstances in such a way that it does not look as i m opposing n also they wld happily agree... (i know u didnt took it in terms of opposition) A thing is comming in my mind which i heard in a satsan

[Kesha]

.....some loose translation. Just as when a mother gives birth to a child, then there is no doubt that she will feed the infant with her milk. Similarly when shri vallabh graces a soul with bhakti, there is no sanshay that aapshri will take care of vridhi of bhakti of the soul. But at the same time this does mean that jeev should not do prayatnas. So i will keep trying softly n humbly as everything is possible by bhagwat krupa. So who knows whats goin to happen next

[Kesha]

.....jagdishji, u said to have some fruits, juices etc...etc... AS PER RULES. But is it fine if one do all the ekadashis nirjala even if one can do it without any problem like starving or inconvinence... is this rule to have fal-ahar?...?...

[jagdish]

Jai Shri Krishna

Krutiji your approach is good... and there is no need for apologies-after all that is what satsang is all about.

it is not a "rule" that one should do falahar (ideally one should observe ekadashis according to the rules given in the shastras), however in this day and age it is not recommended to do all ekadashis nirjala because it will harm the body in the long term and that in turn will hinder our seva.

(except the nirjala ekadashi - and even this was prescribed to Bhimsen because he was not able to do all ekadashis - and this applies to many of us too as we are not able to observe the ekadashi with all the rules in this day/age)


- unless one has disciplined oneself over time (yog, etc) or by controlling the intake of food, etc... days before ekadashi approaches so the body becomes accustomed to less food (this also means our body will naturally become weak)

-- we need to ensure that the body does not get dehydrated and become weak - as we need to do seva and work normally on the following day so we need to do falahar prasad, etc... this will also give us the necessary energy/strength to do satsang as long as necessary and still maintain our alertness the following morning/day

-- jeev has to do prayas, our acharyas advocate the marg of karm so we, the jeev has to do necessary karm (but it has to be nish-kaam karm, not sa-kaam)

-- regarding vruddhi in bhakti - Shri Vallabh gives instructions, advice and agya in Bhakti Vardhini on how one should make the necessary effort to cultivate bhakti (once the seed of bhakti has been established, it needs to be nourished - e.g., "sevayam va kathayam va")...

ultimately it is all bhagvad iccha...
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Best Wishes
Jagdish

[Kesha]

jsk.... thanks jagdishji now many thoughts r cleared.... As u said, karma niskam (niswarth) hova joye. But apde to karm ( seva n katha ) bhakti increase karva mate karye che! then how can this be called niskam? Dont u think its sakam?

[jagdish]

Jai Shri Krishna

Krutiji, you are right... if we do it only for prabhu's prasanta then it is nishkam...and without any ulterior purpose.... however if we do it even for increasing bhakti it is sakam... that is why when we undertake any vrat we declare that it is for bhagvat preeti-arthe and at the completition of the vrat (eg. on dwadashi when we do parna) do samarpit of any fal of that vrat /upvas etc at the lotus feet of the lord

one of the main purpose for us to do the vrat/upvas is so we purify ourselves and when we are sufficiently purified (all doshes are removed, etc) we become entitled to receive the krupa of being able to do nishkam/prem-lakshana bhakti
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Best Wishes
Jagdish

[Kesha]

Jsv.... wow.... learning a lot... So i think u mean that doing bhakti / karma for fulfilling even AKAUKIK WISHES is also sakam bhakti, right? i want to ask, in bhaktivardhini shri vallabh has given aagya to increase bhakti through seva n katha ( think so, i guess ). Than i think even this is called sakam bhakti? But then we r supposed to do niskam bhakti.... plz everyone dont think i m doubting abharyacharans aagya, i just want to get more clear. And also plz tell whats parna?

[jagdish]

Jai Shri Krishna Krutiji

actually Shri Vallabh gives that agya so that our asakti becomes dhradh... he knows that not everyone's asakti will be dhradh... and when asakti becomes dhradh, sneh/love towards thakorji increases to the level of nirgun/nishkam - like that of the shri gopijans.

-- Sevayam va Kathayam va yasy-asakti dhridha bhavet

(Katha/bhagvad varta - ideally this is doing the path of shrimad bhagwatam and recalling/remembering bhagvad leelas)

.. and for those who have done seva and katha throughout their entire life, their bhakti-asakti becomes dhridh/firm and they never loose that bhakti beej (yava jeevam tasya nasho...)

parna is when we break the fast/vrat on the following day
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Best Wishes
Jagdish

[Kesha]

Jsk..... Thanks jagdishji, its pleasure doing regular satsang..... As u said, doing karma for bhakti is sakam, similarly if one expect thakurji to fulfil ALAUKIK WISHES then can we say one is on the right track? Bcoz as per my ltd knowledge if do bhakti for any kaamna its not called nirgun bhakti.... Does the same thing apply for alaukik too? Is there any definite procedure of doing parna?