CONTENTS:
- How Ekadasi began;
- Srila Prabhupada's Appreciation; and
- Guru Maharaja’s instructions.
1. HOW EKADASI BEGAN
Now this Ekadasi is also known as Harivasar, Hari means Supreme Personality of Godhead and vasar means day. The day of Hari. This day is so dear to Hari that it is considered to be His day. Therefore observing Ekadasi immensely pleases the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. There is another narration of the appearance of Ekadasi that is there was a demon called Mura. Mura demon was so powerful that he defeated all the demi-gods Indra, Candra, Varuna,. all these different demi-gods were defeated by Mura demon, he drove them out of the heavenly planet. He assumed the control of the universe. Actually demi-gods take care of different universal affairs like rising of the sun, rising of the moon, controlling the wind, controlling the air, controlling rain so these are the universal affairs controlled by the demi-gods. Now Mura drove them out which is their place of residence and he took over the heavenly planet and being completely distort the demi-gods approached Lord Siva and asked him what they should do, this particular demon has driven them out so they asked Him to help them. Lord Siva expressed his inability and said, “Look, I can’t do anything but you can go to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Jaganatha Lord of the Universe go to Him and tell Him to do something about it.” So when the demigods went to Narayana, Jaganatha, to pray to Him to please do something about this and when Narayana heard that He became very very angry. He said, “Who dares to interfere in my arrangement?” The demigods controlling the different elements in nature is actually Krishna’s arrangement so to disregard that arrangement is to disregard Krishna. So Krishna was very upset and He said, “Okay you all pick up your weapons and where is the Mura demon?” So they went to his abode and attacked him and Mura was extremely powerful and he was also supported by millions of other asuras demons and when the demigods attacked them Mura becoming very angry he counter attacked and the demi-gods ran away. These demons attacked the only person that was standing there was Hari, Narayana. Narayana at that time just released His weapons and millions of arrows were coming out of his bow killed all those demons and at that time Mura decided to confront Him so that is the Vedic way of fighting. The leaders don’t fight at the beginning they send the less powerful ones to fight and then greater and greater strength comes and so finally Mura was the only one left. So Mura started to fight and to His great surprise the Lord saw that His weapons were not being effective. So then they started to fight with bear hands wrestling and they fought for a long long time. Still Mura could not be defeated and finally becoming exhausted the Lord retreated to Badarikasrama and he went to a cave called Himavati to take rest. Hima means snow a huge cave with only one entrance covered in snow and ice. The Lord fell asleep there and at that time Mura entered there after chasing the Lord but the Lord was sleeping so Mura thought he could take advantage and kill my enemy Hari. So when Mura was about to attack the sleeping Lord then a beautiful young woman appeared from the body of the Lord. She stopped Mura and they fought. Mura’s weapons were totally ineffective to this young girl and all of his weapons were exhausted and Mura just came to attack this woman with bear hands. Another law of Vedic way of fighting if the enemy doesn’t have a weapon then they drop their weapon and fight with bear hands. Naturally this young girl was going to fight hand to hand with Mura, with her razor-sharp weapon she cut the head off Mura and killed him. So when the Lord woke up He saw Mura’s head body there and this beautiful woman so He asked, “Who are you?” She narrated the whole story to the Lord and the Lord said, “Even I could not defeat this demon and you have defeated him so ask for any boon.” She said, “Give me the boon that from now on that whoever on this vow of austerity, observes fasting, abstaining from frivolous talks, bathing and worshipping the Lord and staying up the whole night, singing the glory of the Lord, he will become free from all sinful reactions.” The Lord granted that boon and He also told her “Since you have appeared on this day of Ekadasi therefore you will be identified as Ekadasi your name will be Ekadasi.” This is how Ekadasi began and this is the first Ekadasi called Utpanna Ekadasi Utpanna meaning generated or produced because she appeared on this day in this month of November it is known as Utpanna Ekadasi.
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA’S APPRECIATION
"If Srila Prabhupada did not come to preach and if he had not made ISKCON then where would we all be?"
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
Although we are completely insignificant and Krsna is the supreme personality of godhead, still. He wants us to do something for him. Therefore let us try our best.
(The content of this E-magazine was based on a lecture given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami in Switzerland on 20 June 2013)
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Dasi)