Param Satya is going to be preparing the prasadam with which the devotees will break fast at midnight on Janmastami.
Here in Australia where we are now, and in many parts of the world, devotees talk about an “Ekadasi Feast” to break fast at midnight.
When we arrived in Peru devotees there had never heard of such an idea. They customarily broke fast with the “full bloque“, as they put it (those guys can put away grains…). The first year we were there a GBC man circulated an email instructing that the feast should be Ekadasi prasadam.
In the interest of historical accuracy:
As I understand it, the concept of the “Ekadasi feast” comes from a garbled transmission of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions on how to observe the day.
These instructions are in his letters (you can find them in Siksamrita and the Vedabase), and also in the biographical works of early disciples (it was in Lilamrita or Hare Krishna Explosion or somewhere similar that I read about this).
The idea is that Janmastami is a day when fasting is observed, and that the fast should be broken at midnight with some light prasadam ala Ekadasi, which means some fruit or nuts. Feasting is then observed on the next day, the day of Nandotsava, Nanda Maharaja’s festival for the birth of his son Krishna.
Having a feast at midnight after a day fasting is of questionable sanity from a health perspective, and a little hard to find enjoyable, which is really what feasting is all about. How you break a fast is an important part of the fast from both the material (you can up to kill yourself by breaking a dry fast with too much water) and spiritual perspective (refer to the histories of King Rantideva and Maharaja Ambarisa for examples).
On the first Janmastami (it may have been a Gaura Purnima - the detail may differ, but the principle remainss the same) the devotees where all waiting eagerly in the temple room to break fast. Swamiji (as they knew Srila Prabhupada) prepared so many wonderful preparations for the Sunday Feast each week, so they couldn’t even begin to imagine what incredible banquet of delights this day would bring.
Srila Prabhupada descended the stairs at the appointed hour bearing… a plate with cut up pieces of apple, which he distributed to the devotees.
The instruction from Srila Prabhupada that I read in a letter where this matter was discussed was essentially:
Break fast at midnight with something like Ekadasi prasadam (when you are just supposed to take a few non-grain / bean things like fruits and nuts to keep your body going and the mind nominally pacified). Feasting is observed the day following.
I remember Hanuman prabhu talking about a book he was writing about how to observe Ekadasi according to the actual instructions that were given by Srila Prabhupada. He said to me:
In twenty years, the speculations will have increased ten fold. Right now, even though Ekadasi is supposed to be about fasting there is a special Ekadasi cookbook in the kitchen filled with the most opulent preparations imaginable. It’s like the goal is to avoid austerity.
If it continues this way, in the future on Ekadasi devotees will be chanting “Ekadasi Ekadasi” on their beads, and if you say the word: “Grains”, they’ll pull out a gun and shoot you.
Hanuman has a great sense of humour. The part about not saying “grains” refers to another “tradition” (where did it come from?) of not singing Bhaktivinode Thakura’s song Prasada-sevaya on Ekadasi because “it contains the word ‘anna‘, which means grains”.
According to some, you can’t sing that devotional song on Ekadasi because it contains a word that can be translated as “grains”, but you can of course say “grains grains grains” as you explain why you can’t sing the song.
Up to now I have never encountered an appeal to sadhu, guru, or sastra in support of this tradition, just an appeal to tradition and an obviously twisted and faulty logic. I’d be interested to know what kernel of truth gave birth to that conception - I certainly haven’t been able to find out from any of its proponents so far.
Krishna addresses this pramana, “tradition”, in his Govardhan-lila, and Srila Jiva Goswami discusses its shortcomings in his work on epistemology (how to get valid knowledge) Tattva Sandarbha.
Local audiences, this isn’t a personal dig at anyone, so please don’t take it like that, it’s just me commenting on my journey. International audiences, well, you don’t really care do you? I’m just some guy in a remote country who’s mildly interesting enough to read his site, and hardly threatening to you…
Call me a pedant if you will… and yes, I will be eating whatever is there at midnight, according to what my body needs / can sustain, including the obligatory cashews and caramel. At midnight. After a day of fasting. Now that’s what I call austerity… 
I’m not going to do a dry fast and do that though. A year or two ago I did a dry fast and then ate something at 1 am (it’s never midnight) and wiped myself out for a good couple of days. Not advisable. This year I am going to drink water during the day, take some fruits if needed to sustain my energy in the afternoon, and take a small amount of prasadam at midnight in the association of devotees.
With the rigors involved in a public program of the scope that we are doing this year there is small room for error (like losing control of the fire element in the body) so I am prepared to sacrifice whatever benefit there may be in doing a full fast in order to be able to execute that service with full attention. Another year, or another life, when I have no responsibilities on the day I can do a full fast and simply chant from start to finish.
The other thing that we have to balance with the fasting is the impact on our ongoing service. Thursday is another day, and Friday yet another. Atma Yoga is closed one day and we have an obligation to the public that must be fulfilled.
“This message was brought to you by the Hare Krishna Fundamentalist Faction.
”
… if i may ….
From what I know ‘anna‘ CAN mean grains but if a definition were required for the word then ‘nourishment’ is more accurate as ‘annam’ includes all sustinance and not limited to just ‘grains’.
Further to what you’ve pointed out here about ISKCON-isms that linger on for years - its amazing how liberal the translators of so many of our accessory literatures were. Excepting His Divine Grace, I wonder if these devotees knew how future generations of westerners would take their works so authoritatively? Did they know that so many rigid and impractical directives would be extrapolated from their often generalized translations?
Having been brought up devotionally in a temple predominated by Indian bodied residents from various parts of the subcontinent, it was really confusing for me to learn the proper ways to do things as many of these older devotees would advise me according to the customs from their particular region of India. One devotee would stress something completely contrary to what another devotee stressed. I was confused, especially when it came to anything connected to deity worship.
It took me a while but then I read the Pancaratrika-pradipa and thought that I finally could take refuge in an authoritative source. But when I spoke with HH Bhanu Swami and HH Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami they both told me that this book, that they co-authored, was a general guide for deity worship in ISKCON and not an authoritative manual. In other words, to solve a disagreement on ettiquite the Pancaratrika-pradip shouldn’t be consulted as an absolute be-all-and-end-all source as we would the Gita or Bhagavatam.
Eventually I came to learn that pancaratrik procedures for Gaudiya Vaisnavas were originally given by the goswamis - namely Srila Sanatana Goswami and Srila Gopala Bhatta Goswami in Hari-bhakti-vilasa. When I read this book it was clear that the deity worship we practice in ISKCON does not conform tit-for-tat with their writings either. (not by a long shot)
Rather, the procedure for puja that Srila Prabhupada established for ISKCON is based more on local Bengali tradition as per his upbringing. Does this mean that Srila Prabhupada gave us an unauthorized method of puja? No. I don’t think so. It means that its just not all that important which foot you step on to the alter with first (some say only the right foot should be used) or how many times we wrap our thread around our ear before we take a leak (I was chastised by someone for not doing it three times. My thread is barely long enough to wrap around my huge body what to speak of three times around the ear. I’d have to tilt my head way to the right which could affect my aim.)
My thinking is like this: The basic principles of cleanliness, punctuality etc… are essential and certainly as sadhikas our conformity to higher authority should be a prominent aspect of our consciousness when performing devotional service. However, to get into the attitude of chastising others based on our feeble understanding of how things should be done, is not conducive to any sort of cohesive teamwork for the deities pleasure.
Our essential practice is based on Bhagavat-viddhi. This process is much simpler wherein the jiva comes into contact with the Supreme Lord via Harinam or authentic Hari-katha in Vaisnava association. It seems, from Srila Prabhupada’s teachings, that our approach to Pancaratrik should be supportive of this awakening of relationship - in awe and reverence at first but certainly not limited to that as the relationship progresses.
So should we water Tulsi devi with three drops or just one? Should we lift our pinky finger into the air when we offer the cloth in arati (this idea was big about 10 years ago)? Should we wrap our thread around our thumb when doing acaman? If you ask me I’d say “Great! Just don’t force it on anyone else as the only way Krishna will accept our service.” patram pushpam phalam toyam
Please note that the above liberality is only in relation to pancaratrika and not in relation to transmission of our siddhanta - that has to be tit-for-tat with no mucking around otherwise our efforts are basically useless.
Thanks for bringing up this interesting topic in relation to Ekadasi and fasting. You may already know that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura would personally instruct his disciples to eat kichari on Ekadasi so that they could have enough energy to go out and preach.
Each morning the brahmanas gathered on the bank of the holy Ganges and offered their prescribed prayers to the Lord. Each of them brought with him a copper vessel for offering water.
Unfortunately, because these copper vessels were indistinguishable from one another, they were always getting mixed up between brahmanas. So one old brahmana got into the habit of placing a lump of clay from the riverbank in his own vessel before taking bath. That way, when he returned, he’d be able to distinguish his offering cup from the rest.
But the other brahmanas thought that the placing of a clay ball in one’s cup before taking bath must be an esoteric ritual. So not wanting to appear ignorant of the fine points of brahminical observances, they all started placing clay balls in their cups before going for bath. Thus when the old brahmana came from the river, he again found it hard to locate his own copper vessel.
“Fie on these imitators!” he groaned as he examined the different vessels, trying to pick out his own. “Without understanding the reason for anything, they just follow blindly. Despite their big learning and priestly positions in society, they have no common sense.”
On the other end of this, not usually addressed, is that the last meal before fasting should be high fiber like a simple salad, popcorn, or fruit, so the system is cleansed for the fast and heavy fat or protein doesn’t linger in the gut. Makes the day easier.