Sat (06/14/08) was the most auspicious Nirjala Ekadasi, its a day when devotees of Krsna / Vishnu are suppose to observe a complete dry fast (fast even from water), its stated in vedic scriptures that throughout the year if one breaks or fails to observer an Ekadasi fast, then one should fast completely on Nirjala ekadasi. Since i missed out on one fast (when i was traveling to US, change in time zone's made it difficult to observe ekadasi), hence i decided to try my best to observe a dry fast. I said TRY coz the mercury in Manila has been rising since the last week or so and the humidity has also gone higher, these conditions make it difficult for dry fast.
I gave a short Bhagvatm class in the temple room and then our temple president Mahendra prabhu gave a very interesting presentation on Fast and the physical and spiritual benefits of dry fast, this helped to strengthen my decision. After the class i went to bed and woke up around 1400 hrs, the sun was blazing to its glory and there were no signs of rain.... The day was pretty uneventful and time flew by quickly. At night i realized that we had not prepared anything for the devotees to break there fast the next morning, hence i started to make Gajar Halawa (carrot halawa), it was good that i made it, coz it helped me stay focused for the next 3 hrs, I finished cooking halawa by 0030 hrs, the devotees in the temple were having kirtan, i went to the temple room to take part in the kirtan, however it was difficult to sit for a long time and hence i went home and took a shower, it felt so nice. I tried to sleep, however it was difficult to sleep. The night passed by turning from one side to another, and listening to interesting discourses. At 4 am i went to the temple for mangla arti, the fast breaking time was 0530 hrs - 0900 hrs, as the clock struck 0530 we served cold sweetened milk, banana, and gajar halawa, after serving everyone i honored prasadam, drinking cold milk was a great satisfying feeling and the halawa too good. I finished eating by 0630 hrs, it was sunday and it was my turn to cook the afternoon feast, so i hurried home and caught some much wanted sleep till 0900 hrs.
I had already requested and instructed Amardeep to start preparation for rotis, when i reached our temple kitchen i was happy to see that he was well in to his task. I quickly started making preparations for making mix veggi and amritsari chole. We planned out our cooking, one burner to be used to making roti's, one for making Sabzi's (first mix vegg and then chole) and one burner to be used for first making suji halawa and then to be used for making aloo wada. Cooking was fun, i have always loved cooking and its gets even better when one is cooking for the lords pleasure and a good crowd, the only fear was that if i screw up with the spices then it would show bad in front of 60 - 70 guest and hence i am always cautious as to what and how much species we add. For drink i had decided to make Butter milk, as it was very hot and humid i thought that butter milk will be a better choice (which proved wrong latter on...). Everything was ready on time and after the noon prayers we started serving rotis, chole, mix vegg sabzi, aloo wada, halawa, everyone liked the typical Indian preparations and were eating with great gusto, then we served out Butter milk, generally we always have a sweetened or natural juice for drinks, and most of our local filipino guest were expecting some thing similar, however when they took the first sip of the a creamy, salty, minty drink their taste buds could not accept the paradim shift or the taste of the butter milk and most of them started to make weird faces, it was fun to see the way most of them reacted to butter milk. I also learned my lesson, no to experiment too much, next time i will make sure that i discuss the menu and its taste with some temple devotee and get there feed back before i start cooking. Overall it was a great experience. I wish these kind of days keep coming back again and again....
“We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called dreams.”
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