Sat tila Ekadasi and reading the Brhad Bhagavatamrta published by BBT

[Paramananda das]

Please accept my humble obaisences
All glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga

All glories to Srila Prabhupada

Yesterday evening I was still chanting really late to complete my 64 rounds and then I checked my emails and messages because I sometimes gets orders to my Narasimha book .Then I get a message from my disciple Isvara Puri das I initated 4 years ago in Puerto Rico along with Madhusudana das , and Laxmi Kanta and his wife Radha .I also did two weddings as I told these devotee they should not just live with a girlfriend and not be married. Anyhow I have not talked with Isvara Puri (Elisamuel Madina ) das since june of 2013, and he wrote me dear Gurudeva Please accept my humble obaisences
All glories to Srila Prabhupada I am in ISKCON LA , I was ecstatic .Then I come to find out he is with Jaya Caitanya Prabhu who distribute tons of Srila Prabhupadas books, do not say ever again Krsna does not fullfill my desires because ,Krsna send him straight to LA and be under the shelter of Sri Sri Rukmini Dvarakadish and Srila Prabhupada and the devotees there I am dancing in my heart for joy.I told him you must go and pay obaisences to Srila Prabhupada in his rooms that is very important and ask for his mercy .He just came out of the museum at ISKCON LA and told me he was so happy to have seen it .

 

I have been reading the Brhad Bhagavatamrta with commentaries of Gopiprana Prabhu made by the BBT such an important book because it takes us from where the Srimad Bhagavatam stops so it is really a continuation of Srimad Bhagavatam ,and Pariksit Maharaja talking with his mother Uttara, the conversation was later repeated by Vaisampayana Muni to Janamajaya Maharaja while he did a yagjna for getting rid of all snakes in the world . Srila Narayana Maharaja wrote some amazing commentaries to later parts of the Brhad Bhagavatamrta though I have not read his commentaries to the first parts of Brhad Bhagavatamrta I guess there is really 3 cantoes . Some verses for example a vers abotu Mathura devi ,I felt something else could be described about Mathura Devi the presiding Deity of Mathura, but I will make personal notes later to the book for my own education and meditation .It starts of with the amazing glorification of a vaisnava that had lots of devotion for Salagrama sila and was charitable and he told Srila Narada Muni who am I you are Narada Muni , but nearby is a king who has great devotion to Krsna and when Narada Muni goes to see him he glorifies Indra.So it is so nice as it is a book about appriciating other vaisnavas .Today is Sat tila ekadasi at least here on the East coast of ISKCON . I once did Sat Tila Ekadasi with Aindra Prabhu he did everything related to Sat Tila ekadasi , made sweets with Sesame seeds and took bath in sesame seeds etc hahaha he did it all mentioned in Bhavisyottara Purana, so this was during cold season and I had just completed doing sankirtana with one of the Sankirtana bussed visiting Naimisaranya and Ayodhya and other places while we also distributed Srila Prabhupadas books.

Anyhow weather is heating up again and looking forward to be back on sankirtana , it was 5 degrees Fahrenheit for quiet a while and in old days i never let weather scare me but my wife wont even let me go in this kind of cold, wifes are a pain sometimes.
Have a nice day in Srila Prabhupadas service
your servant
Paramananda das

The glories of Sat-tila Ekadasi are narrated in the Bhavisyottara Purana in a conversation between the sage Dalbhya and Pulastya muni.
"Oh esteemed brahmana!" began Dalbhya muni.
"People are most polluted in the age of Kali, there are sinful acts taking place at all times! Heinous crimes such as the killing of brahmanas, killing of cows and general freeloadering are rife.
Please elucidate the process by which these perpetrators can be freed from their sinful acts."
The sage Pulastya replied: "O my dear friend and fortunate one, by observing the vow of Ekadasi which falls during the waning moon in the month of Phalguna all sinful reactions can be burnt to ashes.
"On the Ekadasi day the aspirant should rise early, bathe and then worship the Lord with prayers: O Lord Janardana! O most merciful Sri Krsna! You are the deliverer of the fettered fallen souls. Please do not exclude anyone from your mercy, those drowning in an ocean of grief need your mercy most. O Supreme Brahman! O Supreme Personality of Godhead! O Lord of the universe! Please hear my prayer and grant me the boon of assisting you in helping the conditioned souls of the material world. Please accept my fidelity and use me as an instrument in the struggle against Maya. O dear Laksmi devi please be kind to this lowly servant and grant that he may be freed from all anarthas."
"Thenceforth one should give charity to brahmanas, depending on means available one can offer umbrellas, cloth, shoes, sugar, or a pitcher filled with water. Cows of many colours may also be given and specific to this Ekadasi sesame seeds. By gifting sesame seeds on this day one can live in the heavenly planets for many years.
"Sesame seeds are used in different varieties on this day; one may bathe in water mixed with sesame seeds, smear sesame seed paste on the body, execute fire sacrifices with sesame seeds, offer oblations to the ancestors with sesame seeds and give sesame seeds in charity. By doing so one will free himself from more sinful reactions than he is able to commit. Thus this Ekadasi is known as Sat-tila.
Narada Muni once approached Sri Krsna and asked to hear the glories and results of observing Sat-tila Ekadasi; Krsna thus recounted the following story. "In ancient times, long before the world began even, there lived a female brahmani called Vanalika. She very soberly followed a strict vow of celibacy and engaged in worshipping the Lord. By constantly fulfilling the edicts of various vows she became emaciated and wearily weak. Although she gave charity to poor brahmanas and unmarried girls, she never offered food grains and thus the Demigods became wrathful against her. Despite this shortcoming I considered her a purified soul due to her extreme penance and heartfelt generosity towards the beggared brahmanas.
"O dear Naradaji, in order to test this brahmani I donned the garb of a mendicant and disguised myself suitably. I personally appeared in this mortal world, and taking a begging bowl in my own two hands I approached the house of that Vanalika brahmani.
"As I approached the house she appeared before me and said: "O dear mendicant! Where have you come from and please do not lie to me!?!"
"I played dumb and asked for charity once more; she became angry and placed a lump of clay in my begging pot. Thereafter I returned to my abode and resumed my duties. In due course of time that self same brahmani also returned to my transcendental abode and got a beautiful house to reside in. However, due to her misfortune she was bereft of wealth. She had no food grains in the house and gradually she grew restless and approached me with folded palms. She humbly inquired '"O Janardana, I have been engaged for many moons in performing penance and austerity; why am I now bereft of food grains and wealth?"'
"I replied to her thus: "You have come here from the material world, please return to your new residence and wait for a visit from the Demigods. They will come out of curiosity and the wives of the Demigods will take your darshan; then you should ask them about the glories of Sat-tila Ekadasi. Do not let them leave until they finish the narration. After hearing my instruction Vanalika returned home.
"One day when she was sitting in her house, the doors all locked shut. The wives of many Demigods mystically entered and said: "O dear beauty, we have come to take your darshan, as a resident of the spiritual realm you are indeed worshippable and we have thus come to see you.
'"If you wish to see me then, please explain the importance, piety and glories of Sat-tila Ekadasi before you leave."'
"Thereupon, one of the wives narrated the glories of this Ekadasi. Upon completing the recountal, Vanalika became satisfied and the Demigoddesses left, also satisfied with their darshan. Under the instruction of these munificent creatures Vanalika observed the Sat-tila Ekadasi day and became beautiful, effulgent and she received plenitude grains, wealth and gold.
"However, no one should observe this Ekadasi being controlled by greed or lust. By following this Ekadasi one's misfortune and poverty are destroyed. If one donates sesame seeds on this day then all his sinful reactions are vanquished."