How does fasting on Ekadashi increase our love for Krishna?

From Praveen Nayak Prabhu
Prabhuji – In NOD Chapter 7 in the section Observing fasting on Ekadashi it is said “The basic principle is not just to fast, but to increase one’s faith and love for Govinda, or Kṛṣṇa.”

Could you please explain – How would doing fast increase ones faith and love for Krishna ?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
Question from Praveen Nayak Prabhu It is said in that for Ekadashi the basic principle is not just to fast but to increase our love for Krishna. So how does fasting on Ekadashi lead to increase of our devotion for Krishna? Answer various ways. First of all Ekadashi is itself a day which is sacred which is special for Krishna.
Krishna has arranged that that day is a day of special mercy for his devotees. So on that day if we do something special which is connected with our bhakti then that itself will help us move closer to Krishna. So that is a there are times in the calendar which are more auspicious or relatively more auspicious.
So this Janmashtami is a day when the whole day becomes special. Similarly Ekadashi is also a fortnightly day that is special. So that’s why on that day if we minimize our bodily activities and maximize our devotional activities then that is an immense help in moving closer to Krishna.
Now going further if we look at the principle of Ekadashi as it is said we fast not to torment the body, we fast to transcend the body. That means that we fast so that we can minimize the needs of the body because preparing food, thinking about food, eating food, resting after eating food all this takes time, it takes time and mental energy and all that time and mental energy can be saved if we just make a resolve I will fast. Fasting of course can be at different levels and that can be done according to our individual capacity physical as well as psychological and if you are feeling very very tormented by fasting then we can not fast fully, we can take some level of food and at the other time we can focus on Krishna.
But the point is when we fast we feel a certain level of discomfort, a certain level of craving not necessarily craving in a negative sense but it is just a biological need we feel a sense of need or craving whichever way we want to look at it but if we can absorb ourselves in Krishna then we can transcend the bodily need so if we have decided to fast and then the body’s urge for food starts tormenting us then now we can not just live constantly tormented we want to do something to avoid the torment. Suppose we sit down on a chair and that chair somebody has put all thorns on it and what do we do we don’t just sit on that chair of thorns we immediately get up and try to go somewhere else so when we get some painful stimuli we try to move away from that painful stimuli, that’s a natural human reflex action so in the case of Ekadashi when we are fasting the normal reflex action whenever we feel hungry is that take food but on the days of Ekadashi when we fast instead of this normal reflex action of when we feel the pangs of hunger instead we try to absorb ourselves in Krishna so by calling out to Krishna by seeking shelter in Krishna by immersing our consciousness in Krishna we show Krishna so much is my longing for food but so much more is my longing for you O Krishna more than food and more than water if we are fasting so the point is that same power of desire which is normally directed towards food we try to redirect it towards Krishna and the more we can absorb ourselves in Krishna the more we can transcend the craving the need, the torment caused by the lack of food and thus we can realize the reality of the shelter that comes by absorption in Krishna we may have observed that on some days when there are vibrant spiritual programs and then we have to fast we just get so absorbed in Krishna that we are able to fast without all that much difficulty and how does that happen? that happens because we have got a higher base nirahara siddhena parandrishtvan vartate as Krishna says in 2.59 that he is talking of course about the sense object and the principle applies here also that when there is nirahara siddhena when there is no aahar then we feel abhisheya avnivartate nirahara siddhena rasavarja although we can use the rasa but still the desire is there parandrishtva vivartate we get the higher taste and then we become peaceful so that if we can get the experience of how absorption in Krishna can raise us above bodily consciousness then that is a very great faith booster and it is a very strong impetus for us to pursue bhakti more intensely and this way fasting if it is used to intensify seeking and getting the shelter of Krishna then that can spur us on in our spiritual life with greater conviction and of course our principle underlying is that we shouldn’t just fast from food and think of food we fast from food and we think of Krishna when we do that then we will experience how thinking of Krishna fulfills us at a much deeper level and that satisfaction at a deeper level helps us to transcend the urge for food so in that way now we may or may not be able to fast at the level of nirjala or just jala or whatever whatever level we are suitable for our body we can fast but the principle is it can be at some level of austerity more than more than what we do at a daily level and coming out of our comfort zone like that and seeking relief from the discomfort of minimizing the bodily needs by absorption in Krishna that by that we can gain experience of the reality of Krishna reality of Krishna’s shelter and so when we absorb ourselves in Krishna by chanting, by hearing, by studying by praying, by worshipping by serving in various ways then that contact with Krishna also purifies us and that also helps us to move closer to Krishna and to nourish our Krishna bhakti so at multiple levels I’ll just talk about three levels over here first is that because Ekadashi is a holy day special day we get mercy of Krishna on that day when we do some special activities involving minimization of our bodily needs and maximizing our devotional activities and when we subject ourselves to voluntary discomfort thus forcing ourselves out of the comfort zone and then absorb ourselves in Krishna and thus transcend the discomfort then we gain realization of the reality of Krishna’s shelter and the fulfillment therein and that is a great boost for our future advancement that definitely helps us to intensify our bhakti and increase our love for Krishna and thirdly because we are connecting with Krishna, because we are practicing bhakti intensely so that contact with Krishna itself is something which inspires us, which nourishes our bhakti, increases our love for Krishna so as devotees our focus is not on fasting from food our focus is on feasting on Krishna, feasting on various manifestations of Krishna as they are manifested in the holy name as the deities, as the scripture as the various kinds of absorbing Krishna conscious activities, thank you Hare Krishna