LETTER: Scriptural rules for following Ekadasi

April 24th 2021

Dear Rasaleela Devi,

Please Accept my blessings. I hope you and everyone under your care are all well.

I was just thinking about you and about our Lithuanian devotees and thought that there might be a mail thus, opened and saw your mail.

The spiritual law is that a disciple remains indebted to their Guru at all times. A disciple can never repay the spiritual debt to their Guru until they reach to the spiritual world.

I am happy that you are a leader of our Lithuanian devotees there and taking care of their spiritual advancement as per your spiritual capacity.

The scriptures state that the left hand is meant for material life and right hand is meant for spiritual life. But the left hand can assist the right hand while doing devotional activities. For example, Pujari worshiping inside the deity room and uses both hands to dress the deities. In this case he first applies his right hand and then, if more assistance is required, he uses the left hand as assisting the right hand. It means for any spiritual act at first the right hand is used and then the left hand used to obtain help for the right hand so go get the work done. The spiritual rule is that if there is something wrong with the right hand then the left hand is used for chanting Japa. But if the right hand is OK then the left hand cannot be used for chanting. This is the Vedic rule for chanting and all other spiritual services. The permanent rule for a devotee is chanting their required numbers of rounds daily but if there is some problem happens in the right hand then the left hand can be (should be) used to fulfil the obligatory law, the chanting of Japa.

Yes, you can sleep when you find time on the Ekadasi day but you have to observe the fasting on the fasting days. There is no compromise on the fasting dates for a devotee but there is a compromise in some required items such as sleeping, eating, and not being able to chant 25 rounds on the fasting days. If one is unable to fast completely then one is allowed to consume fruits, milk products, nuts, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sago tapioca, sugar, Himalayan salt and blackpepper etc. If one cannot remain steady (or feels weak) just by eating once or twice on that fasting day, then that person is allowed to eat as many times as their body requires to eat but should not eat any grains or beans on the fasting day. Similarly if a precarious situation occurs, such as yours (working at night), then sleeping during the day or when time permits is allowed as well. Please take care of your physical and spiritual health.

Your devotional mood is appreciated.

Please extend my blessings to Bhakta Tomas and all the devotees there. Jai Sri Radhe.

Your ever well-wisher,
Krsna Balaram Swami