Remembering Ekadasi Vrata

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikrama, Mahadvadasi
Evening class, 25 March 2021, part 6
Translated from Bengali

Today is a shukla paksha (waxing moon) day, and it is a mahadvadasi. When you fast on ekadasi, it makes the Lord happy, so it is very good to observe this day. Ekadasi days are very dear to the Lord. "Madhava-tithi bhakti-janani yatane palana kari. I carefully observe the holy days related to Madhava. They are the mother of devotion." Today's mahadvadasi is called "tri-sparsa," or "tri-sprisa" dvadasi—it means that according to the lunar calculations, three days are touching one day. In general, there are eight mahadvadasis—Unmilani Dvadasi, Vanjuli Dvadasi, Trisprisha Dvadasi, Pakshavardhini Dvadasi, Jaya Dvadasi, Vijaya Dvadasi, Jayanti Dvadasi, and Papanashini Dvadasi. It is said in Brahma-vivarta Purana that observing mahadvadasis (fasting on such days) destroys sins.

Also, during the month of Adi-mas (an extra month of Purushottam) there is a very special ekadasi called Padmini Ekadasi, and there is a pastime related to this day described in Gopal Champu that was composed by Srila Jiva Goswami Prabhu. Srila Jiva Goswami was, on the one hand, a disciple of Srila Rupa Goswami and, on the other hand, his nephew; he served Srila Rupa Goswami at the temple of Sri Sri Radha Damodar. There is a story about writing the play Gopal Champu. One day, Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu got angry and told Srila Jiva Goswami to leave the temple; he told him, "Go away, you are still not free from material desires, so you have not earned the right to stay in Vrindavan! You offend the holy lotus feet of Vaishnavs." Later, Srila Sanatan Goswami brought him back. When Srila Jiva Goswami left the temple, he decided to fast (he lived without eating or drink anything) and write the play Gopal Champu as he had been ordered earlier by his Gurudev. Why was Srila Jiva Goswami told to leave the temple? Because Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami misunderstood something that Srila Rupa Goswami had written and said that it was wrong. Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu's sloka was correct, but he agreed with Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami that it was wrong. However, Srila Jiva Goswami Prabhu, who was a very young boy of perhaps fourteen years old at that time, later went to fetch some water from the Yamuna and, when he saw Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami, he told him, "I did not see you that day, but since I met you now, I want to say that you told that day my Gurudev was wrong, but you made a mistake. What my Gurudev wrote is correct." He explained why he thought so, and Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami admitted his mistake. When Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu got to know about this, he was angry, "Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami is my Guru, why did you have to go and tell him he was wrong?!"

That is why, you never know when you make an offence to a Vaishnav. Sometimes, you see somebody stealing and eating some prasadam—those who do it are wrong, but if you go and tell anyone about it, you will be making an even bigger offence. You can speak to the person and try to explain to them that what they are doing is wrong, but if you do not tell the person but instead tell others about it, then this fault (stealing) will come to you. It is necessary to follow this at the temple.

So, there is a pastime describing the glory of Sri Govinda in Srila Jiva Goswami Prabhu's play Gopal Champu. In the play, Madhukanta and Snigdhakanta, two Vraja-basis, were speaking about the day when Sri Nanda Maharaj was observing ekadasi-vrata with much determination the whole day. That day, Nanda Maharaj and Mother Yasoda offered many items to Lord Narayan—they performed a great worship, made a fire sacrifice, and offered sweet rice, condensed milk, incense, rice, vegetables, herbs, fries, cakes, etc.

Sometimes, there are only two people staying at the temple, and they think, "Today is ekadasi, I will not offer rice bhog to the Deities—if I offer grains, there is nobody to eat it, and it will be spoilt." No. You must offer rice to the Deities even on ekadasi. They think who will eat it if they offer it, but you can eat it the next day or feed it to cows or some small children. Mahaprabhu Himself once went to the house of Hiranya and Jagadish (in Chakdah, a little to the south of Nabadwip) on an ekadasi day and took there full prasadam. So, you must follow ekadasi, but there is no ekadasi for the Lord.

Anyway, it is written here in Gopal Champu that all the Vraja-basis had been fasting on that ekadasi day and listening to Hari-katha, Hari-sankirtan, lila-katha, etc.—they had been remembering the pastimes of the Lord. The next day, Nanda Maharaj went to bathe in the Yamuna along with all the Vraja gopas. Before entering the river, he started meditating. In the meantime, some spies of Varunadev came to the bank of the Yamuna and, when they saw Nanda Maharaj meditating, they quickly took him away from there.

Madhukanta asked, "Why did they take Nanda Baba?!"

Snigdhakanta replied, "O brother! Nanda Maharaj thought that the time had come to bathe, but Varunadev told his men that the time was wrong, so he ordered them to catch Nanda Maharaj."

Madhukanta asked, "What happened after that?!"

Snigdhakanta said, "Listen carefully."

Then, the news that Nanda Maharaj had drowned in the Yamuna spread immediately in all four directions. Having heard about it, everybody started crying, "What has happened to Nanda Maharaj?" Nanda Maharaj's four brothers Upananda, Abhinanda, Sunanda, and Nandan also came there and started searching for Nanda Maharaj in the Yamuna, "Where is our brother? Where did he go?" They searched and searched but could not find him. When Mother Yasoda heard about this, she became senseless. Regaining consciousness, she started praying to Krishna and the Lord, "He Ram!" Hearing her shout and cry, Krishna and Balaram, who were sleeping at that time, immediately woke up. Mother Yasoda told them, "Have You heard that Your father has drowned in the Yamuna? He went to bathe in the Yamuna and drowned!" Then, the two brothers ran to the bank of the Yamuna. Krishna told Balaram, "Take care of mom and all the gopis, and I will search for dad." Krishna jumped into the Yamuna...

It is very difficult to understand the inconceivable energy and pastimes of the Lord. When Krishna jumped into the Yamuna, He at once came to the gate of Varundev's palace. When Varundev understood that it is Lord Sri Krishna Himself had come, he paid a full obeisance to Lord Krishna and said, "My men are ignorant, not knowing anything they brought Your father to me. I am begging You for forgiveness." After that, Sri Krishna beheld the numerous treasures in Varundev's astonishing city and then, amidst all that, He saw Nanda Maharaj sitting and meditating. Sri Krishna pulled His father's uttariya and said, "Father, father! Come with Me quickly!" Nanda Maharaj opened his eyes and asked Krishna, "O son, where am I?" Krishna replied quickly, "Wherever you are, it is not necessary to ask anything, come with Me quickly!" (Krishna did not let Nanda Maharaj see Varundev's opulence.)

When Nanda Maharaj came back and all the Vraja gopas and Vraja gopis saw him, they became very happy. In this way, inconceivably powerful Sri Krishna manifested His pastime, and after that He immersed all His loving devotees in an ocean of joy.

Such is the glory of Padmini Ekadasi and Lord Govinda. This is what Srila Jiva Goswami Prabhu described in his Gopal-champu.

[His Divine Grace then chants 'Suddha-bhakata,' 'Jaya Radhe Jaya Krishna,' and 'Hari Haraye' concluding the class.]

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