Bharatheeyam : ( 08/11/2012. )

15/08/2018 Chapter 16 : The Significance of Ekadasi - 8. A talk given on the 17th of January, 1970, on the request of devotees. There is no planet which is static. Even the sun is not ultimately static. The whole solar system is moving and rushing towards some huge star which is eighty million times larger and brighter than the sun and whose light has not yet reached us, as astronomers tell us. We have to understand that there is relative motion amongst planets and we are relatively influenced by the planets. Each planet tells upon our system and we cannot get rid of their influence as long as we are on this planet, of which we are a part. The gravitational pull of planets has an influence on us. The sun is said to influence the centre of our personality; hence the sun is called Atmakaraka. He is the soul-influencer of the human body. In the Rig-Veda, the sun is identified with the soul of the universe as well as the soul of the individual. The different limbs of our body an...

02/08/2018 Chapter 16 : The Significance of Ekadasi - 7. A talk given on the 17th of January, 1970, on the request of devotees. Ekadasi is a Sanskrit word, which means 'the eleventh'. It refers to the eleventh day of a fortnight in a lunar month. There are two fortnights in a lunar month – the bright and the dark. So, Ekadasi occurs twice in a month, in the bright fortnight and the dark fortnight. The special feature of Ekadasi, as most people know it, is a fast – abstinence from diet. This is how it is usually understood. "We do not eat on Ekadasi," is what people understand. In this country (India) it has become a routine to be abstemious, if not observe a complete fast on this day. The significance of this particular observance is not merely constituted of a fast, physically, though it is also an essential element; it has other deeper aspects. In fact, the fast is only a practical expression and a symbol of something else that we are expected to do, which i...