20230503 Question and Answer Session

Question: If we are stuck in a place where there is no vegetables or anything vegetarian we can eat in our culture, and we refuse to eat anything else then we die of starvation, then technically is it called suicide?

Jayapatākā Swami: Since you are in Texas, they have vegetables and fruits here. Why are you thinking of hypothetical situations? But just to answer your question, there was a drought and a sādhu, a great devotee, he was trying to get out of a desert. But he had no water, no food. He was crawling around and he thought he might die. Then he came across a dead dog, so then he ate the dead dog. Then he got out of the desert and then followed all the principles. So Kṛṣṇa sent him some food, and he did not kill the dog, the dog had already died, but he ate it. So like that, if you have no food, the only thing is you come across a dead animal, you eat it. That would lead you to survive. That is considered an emergency, and emergency knows no rules. It is not that there were so many dates and nice food and things, but he goes ahead and eats a dead dog. It was, eat the dog or die. So Kṛṣṇa sent a dead dog, he ate it and survived, and then he followed his principles after. But it is very unlikely that you would meet such a situation. I saw in some place people are eating cactus. There is no food and they take out the spikes off and some cactus have spikes, and they saw it tasted good and they ate it. So we are allowed to try to survive. If there is no food, we die, we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Question: We fast till midnight on Janmāṣṭamī and Gaura Pūrṇimā and we take anukalpa-prasāda to break the fast and other viṣṇu-tattva days we fast till midday and take regular prasāda to break the fast. But today on the auspicious appearance day of Narasiṁha Caturdaśī we are fasting till dusk and breaking the fast with anukalpa-prasāda. Why is this so?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see Narasiṁhadeva appeared at sunset. So therefore, we fast till sunset. Here we have daylight saving time. But in Māyāpur sunset is around 6pm. But here it is 8.11pm. I don’t know what they do. But technically, you could observe and break your fast at sunset and take grains, but because in Māyāpur we have Narasiṁhadeva Deity, so we feel we would rather do anukalpa. But that is optional. On all the viṣṇu-tattva days it is optional but on Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī, Gaura Pūrṇimā, because we are kṛṣṇa-bhaktas, it is required to eat anukalpa. Those temples that have Lord Sītā-Rāma Lakṣmaṇa also Hanumān, on Rāma-navamī there they generally take anukalpa as far as I know. Anyway, in Māyāpur we have this tradition that we like to do anukalpa on Narasiṁha Caturdaśī. Actually, if you are fasting till 6 pm, if you eat grains, maybe you will get indigestion! Anyway, devotees in Māyāpur, generally, they would like to take Ekādaśī prasāda. Once Hari Śauri was asking me, and I told him it was optional. Here probably they take grains.

Sarvajaya Mādhava dāsa: Yes, Guru Mahārāja. Here tradition is we take grains. But you are Māyāpur personified, so wherever you are there, Māyāpur is there, so we follow Māyāpur standards!

Question: After initiation if someone eats onion garlic intentionally is it considered not following the four regulative principles?

Jayapatākā Swami: If you take my initiation, they are supposed to take vows not to eat meat, fish, egg, onion and garlic. If someone accidentally takes that is another thing. One time I heard that Śrīla Prabhupāda was a guest in some house. They said they would prepare without onion and garlic, but some devotee, said, Śrīla Prabhupāda, there is onions here. But he did not say anything, he just kept the onion aside and ate it. He wanted to be a good guest it seems. But we should avoid certain things. In India they say, āmiṣa āhāra niṣedha. Āmiṣa also included on and garlic, red masoor dal and other things. 

Question: I am from Punjab in North India, there is a culture and tradition like there are events like doing Rāmāyaṇa-paṭha, invite devotees and host a Bhāgavatam, invite someone who translates Bhāgavatam and do it for seven days, do the Bhāgavata-saptāha. For Rāmāyaṇa it is the Rāmacarita-manasa, these kinds of events are very popular. Is it okay for me to promote such cultural events here as a Bhakti-vṛkṣa leader?

Jayapatākā Swami: In India, we don’t do Bhāgavata-saptāha, we call it Bhāgavata-kathā or something else. Usually Bhāgavata-saptāha, some professional does it. Actually, I mean Parīkṣit Mahārāja he heard Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam all twelve cantos day and night without eating or sleeping. And so, we listen for an hour or two, usually they talk about rasa-līlā or something, but we may take any part of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. If you do it in that way, it is alright. Call it Bhāgavata-kathā or something. That may last seven days. So we have different devotees who are expert at speaking. The Rāmacarita-manasa, some of the verses are somewhat impersonal. The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa is better. And one devotee is translating the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Vidvāna Gaurāṅga dāsa. So the original Rāmāyaṇa done by Vālmīki is authorized.