This will be my last post for this blog as Google is ending the email subscription service for it in August. I will instead start making public blog posts at my Patreon site, and to get you started I've made over 50 of my previous posts public.
The big news is that a few people have joined with me and we've purchased land for an ecovillage! Join and follow me on Patreon to read all about it!
I'm now offering unlimited $1 per month subscriptions to my Patreon site. I also published a hardcover version of my Kriya Yoga book (paid link) that also includes color pictures. Starting on May 2nd, 2021, I'll be hosting live streamed yoga classes based on my Kriya Yoga book for Patreon subscribers. See you there!
I just published a book called "Manoj the Yogi on Kriya Yoga" (paid link)
This book is a synthesis of all the knowledge and experience I've acquired over the last 19 years, distilled down to its essential essence. The book has been written with both the beginner and expert in mind. The book is short, simple and to the point. It contains just 7 lessons, where the first is suitable for all and the last for only the most advanced yogis, everything essential is covered. I've taken inspiration from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, as well as the work of Swami Satyananda Saraswati and Paramahansa Yogananda in creating this condensed yet extremely effective course on Kriya Yoga.
Love always.
My Patreon site is now live at: patreon.com/ManojTheYogi
The $1 per month sale price has started and will end at 12 pm noon on Wednesday, May 20th, as per the local time in Ottawa, Canada.
That should give you about 24 hours to sign up at this price, after which the price increases to $5 per month until next Wednesday when it reaches its final point of $10 per month.
For full details of what you get, please see the video at my Patreon site and thanks so much for joining me in this new adventure.
Love always.
Just a heads up that I'm planning to start a Patreon page where I'll offer weekly live streamed yoga classes.
I'm primarily interested in creating a community, and motivating people to sign up sooner rather than later. To achieve that goal, I'll offer the $1 price for the first 24 hours, then $5 for the next 6 days. After that $10 is a fair price to join, but anyone can still email me if that's too much of a financial burden and I'll give them the $1 price.
The above poem is by Catherine M. O’Meara and was posted on her blog on March 16, 2020. On the same day Deepak Chopra shared it, making it a worldwide sensation, for it beautifully captures the start of humanity's journey to the Golden Age.
My own journey started in 2001 after 9/11, then in 2010 I started this blog and all of you joined me, now with the events of 2020, I feel strong evidence for the start of the Galactic Shift is finally here. The Founders in 2007 had this to say.
As planet Earth moves into the more intense frequency bands of the Galactic Shift (between 2015 and 2035), she and one to two billion humans will move into fourth density. Another four to five billion souls will be unable to make the shift from third to fourth density and will leave Earth and reincarnate on other planets more suited to their level of soul growth.
As detailed in my blog, the Founders expected the events we are seeing today to have started in 2015, but now that they have started, it's probably a good time to re-read my blog and start thinking about taking real action to be fully prepared for the next 20 years, for our arrival in the Golden Age is now in sight.
This is a video by Steve Johnson, whose experience of the breathless state I posted previously here: Steve on the Breathless State. In the second half of this video, starting at the 27:44 mark, Steve provides an excellent explanation of Kechari Mudra and I've included an excerpt below. Finally, I was honored that Steve chose to mention me at the end of the video. Thank you Steve!
The purpose of a mudra is to redirect the energy flows in the body. The reason kechari mudra is known as the king of all mudras is because of the benefit it bestows.
Number one: the ability to stop the Breath or go Breathless which quiets the mind considerably.
Number two: it completes the electric circuit; it attaches the spine to the brain.
Number three: allows the Sadhaka to balance the Nadis which then makes the electricity of the body go up the Sushumna or Brahmin Nadi.
Number four: allows the Sadhaka to rub a nerve center which leads to Dharana or one-pointedness of mind.
Number five: turns on your Kundalini or opens the knot at the Muladhara Chakra.
Number six: allows the Sadhaka to push on a nerve center shutting off all sensory perception.
Number seven: allows the Sadhaka to drink from the Fountain of Youth or King Arthur's Holy Grail. Absorption of the liquid the brain makes which is also known as Ayahuasca, Amrita, or DMT with the tongue separates the consciousness from the mind. This is the land of milk and honey.
Now that is quite a list there so let's talk about them one at a time...
Last year I read a great free book on Kechari Mudra by Yogi Maheshwar. The book is called Khecari Mudra: When the Divine Goddess Takes Off in Inner-Space. It covers many topics not found in other books along with the author's personal experiences and recommendations. I found the information quite useful and highly recommend it. As an excerpt, I'll share his experience with Babaji.
I was not favourably disposed toward bhakti, toward devotion when I first started yoga lessons, it did not belong at all to my previous way of thinking. If I had fallen on yoga lessons emphasising that aspect I would not have been hooked at all. I shall confess that even an om chanting was difficult to tolerate for me! At some times while practising advanced difficult practices (in particular kumbakas), I was shyly asking a bit of help to Śiva, represented by an image on the wall of the yoga studio, nothing more.
My bhakti discovery has been tightly connected to that of the Kriya Yoga of Babaji, the atemporal himalayan yogi becoming famous thanks to Yogananda book Autobiography of a Yogi. I have been initiated to Kriya Yoga by my friend Sita in the spring of 2015. The two days initiation started with a puja in Babaji’s honour. That ceremony was something new for me, I did not feel very confortable with all that. I was finding that time was passing slowly during that initiation’s weekend; the practices proposed seemed to me very soft compared to the ones I was used to. In particular no retentions, no unending pranayamas. I had the wrong feeling in those days of the necessity of pretty strong ways of practicing. With Kriya Yoga I will learn in between other things that the strong ways are not always necessary. I had the need of strong practices at a certain moment in time but that is not everyone’s rule.
At the end of the initiation the last practice is dedicated to Babaji. While the practice has not even begun Babaji’s mantra, that I did not know yet the previous day, becomes active, it starts to resonate in me. Everything happens as if I was hearing someone reciting the mantra close to my ear, strongly, much faster that I could master consciously... Babaji is appearing to me, he opens his arms and shelters me in there in a cascade of benevolent grace; the connection with that lineage of yogis and yoginis is sealed.
Om Kriya Babaji Namah Aum!
Five years ago on Jan 1, 2013, one Bitcoin was worth US$14.08 and on Dec 17, 2017 the price briefly passed US$20,000. A small investment of only $1408 for 100 coins was momentarily worth over $2 million just 5 years later. Bitcoin was the first of now over 1500 cryptocurrencies that exist today, but it still has the overall largest market value. From Wikipedia:
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and worldwide payment system. It is the first decentralized digital currency, as the system works without a central bank or single administrator. The network is peer-to-peer and transactions take place between users directly, without an intermediary.
The second coin by market value is Ethereum. It started 2017 at US$8.35 and peaked on January 13, 2018, at over US$1400. I bought some Ethereum coins at the end of May 2017 for a price of around US$200 and in June 2017 my son built a special computer for about US$1000 to "mine" the coins. He now has mined almost three coins. From Wikipedia:
Ethereum is an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform featuring smart contract (scripting) functionality. It provides a decentralized Turing-complete virtual machine, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which can execute scripts using an international network of public nodes.
The last crypto coin/platform I want to tell you about is EOS. It is currently in the ICO phase and the platform is expected to launch shortly after the ICO completes on June 1, 2018. I invested in the ICO earlier this month on April 10, 2018 at a price of US$6.00, which in hindsight was clearly divine timing, as starting on April 11 the price began shooting up and is currently over US$19.00. From Wikipedia:
EOS is a cryptocurrency token and blockchain that operates as a smart contract platform for the deployment of decentralized applications and decentralized autonomous corporations. EOS aims to become a decentralized operating system supporting industrial-scale applications, with claims to eliminate transaction fees and also conduct millions of transactions per second.
I know that many people don't understand what's so special about cryptocurrencies, so here's a great article on Medium that explains them beautifully. Essentially, a cryptocurrency token is an incentive, like when the company you work for gives you stock options. They are initially not worth anything, but if the company becomes successful they could be worth a lot, so you do your best to help make the company successful.
Bitcoin proved it’s possible to embed incentives in software so that the same level of coordination and efficiency is achieved without establishing legal entities, signing agreements, employment contracts etc. Bitcoin proved that economic coordination at the global scale that was previously extremely costly is now possible with pure software. This is the real breakthrough of Bitcoin, the creation of a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO).
Ethereum takes the idea of Bitcoin to the next level. It abstracts out the underlying platform so that you can focus on building other incentive structures. Ethereum does the same for DAOs. DAOs are not organisations as we normally imagine them (own stuff in the physical world, have employees etc). DAOs are pure economic coordination mechanisms. By distributing risks and rewards, DAOs can make people that never met each other contribute resources to the shared purpose.
Cryptographic tokens represent various risk/reward profiles and their holders create various incentive networks.
Web 1.0 — Static Document Networks : web of static pages connected via hyperlinks.
Web 2.0 — Social Networks : web of people connected via social links (likes, follows).
Web 3.0 — Incentive Networks: web of people connected via economic links (tokens).
In 2016, I wrote about The Singularity and a world where machines do all the work, but if we bring DAOs into the picture, then not only do they do all the work but also make all the money :-) From Forbes:
Terra0, a project involving an augmented self-owned forest proposed by Paul Seidler and Paul Kolling from the University of Arts, Berlin. In the project, forest land ownership is structured as an AI DAO with smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. Then, using drones and satellites, the AI DAO can evaluate the wood stock and decide how much and when to sell in the market. Once the project is up and running, the AI DAO can pay out debts to its initial owners and eventually turn a forest into the autonomous, self-owned entity that controls its own resources. Taking this idea further, we can imagine self-owned AV (autonomous vehicles) and robots becoming a normal part of our future economy.
Above is an image of the comet Lovejoy flying past the Earth. Comets are essentially balls of ice and dust that begin to melt as they fly past the Sun producing a dusty gaseous tail.
According to the Founders, the comet Annanhutak, as part of its 10,500 year orbit, will make its scheduled pass within 25 million miles of the Earth on May 5, 2017. This is approximately the same distance as between the Earth and Venus when they pass each other, however, the influence of Annanhutak is more significant. It is responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs about 60 million years ago when it came unusually close to the Earth during that particular pass. The Earth got hit by the icy gasses in the comet's tail causing the temperature to drop drastically to well below what the dinosaurs could withstand.
The passage of Annanhutak is the second of three major astronomical events that will assist in increasing the Earth's vibration to bring us to the Golden Age. The first was the precessional alignment in 2012 and the third will be the passage of the planetoid Nibiru in 2030.
I searched the list of near-parabolic comets, which are comets with an orbit of more than 1000 years, to look for a match to Annanhutak and found a comet named "C/2015 ER61" that will reach its closest point to the Sun on May 9, 2017 at a distance of 1.050452 AU. One AU equals the distance from the Earth to the Sun, so subtracting one leaves the closest possible distance to the Earth at 0.05 AU which corresponds to only 4.65 million miles. This means 25 million miles is entirely reasonable for the current pass.
The only problem is the length of the orbit, which wikipedia states is 170,000 years, so I decided to look for another source and found the Minor Planet Center Database Search and entered "C/2015 ER61". This produced 3 sets of data for 3 epochs, and each epoch corresponded to a different length of orbit: 7,533 years, 11,401 years and 158,133 years. These differences are caused by unknown perturbations, but given that 10,500 falls within this range, it may be the actual orbit once perturbations are accurately accounted for.
If you click the "Interactive Orbit Sketch" on the same page with the epoch data, you will see the orbit of the comet as shown below. The yellow ball in the center is the sun and the third orbit from the sun in light blue is the Earth. The comet orbit is dark blue when below the Earth orbit plane and yellow when above.
Due to the passage of Annanhutak, the Founders anticipate "a mild to moderate fluctuation in Earth’s EM field in May of 2017". They also say the following:
Because 3D humanity will already be weakened from their experience of the precessional alignment (while 4D humanity will be strengthened), the fluctuations from the comet will further accelerate the changes already underway in humanity. Add to this the likelihood that the economic and political systems of Earth will be a lot less stable, and you have a formula for dramatic change. In the event that the economic systems of the countries of Earth are still functioning in 2017, they could be severely tested by floods, strong storms and droughts attributed to the passage of the comet.
If humans decide to experience the comet’s passage in a loving instead of fearful way, any radiation or cooling of the atmosphere associated with the passage of the comet will be only minimally felt.
I don't know about you, but it's been pretty cold in Ottawa this winter :)
Wikipedia states the following about the Singularity:
The technological singularity (also, simply, the singularity) is the hypothesis that the invention of artificial superintelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization.
The singularity has been talked about for decades and always seemed a long way off as little progress had been made in the field of artificial intelligence...until last year. The company DeepMind, acquired by Google in 2014, has built an artificial neural network that can think and learn just like a human being. In the video above, at the 10 minute mark, you can see how the AI learned to play some 1980's Atari video games. It started out much worse than a human, but because it is able to play and learn continuously, in a mere 24 hours it had learned to play better than any human.
One game that computers have never been able to beat a human at, unless given an advantage, is the ancient Chinese game of Go. Earlier this year, DeepMind's AI named AlphaGo finally achieved that goal, defeating world champion Lee Sedol 4 to 1 in a best of 5 match. Again, it was AlphaGo's ability to learn and teach itself that made this possible.
Unlike previous AI victories — such as Deep Blue’s defeat of chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997, or IBM Watson’s Jeopardy! triumph in 2011 — DeepMind programmed AlphaGo to be capable of teaching itself, not just carrying out a set of fixed moves or activities.
I believe this ability to teach itself and quickly surpass human ability in any task, makes artificial superintelligence and the singularity an almost certainty. This will eventually create a world where machines do all the work, leaving humans free to focus on creative and spiritual pursuits, but there may be a lot of turmoil before we get there.
I recently read the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind that discusses numerous technological advances taking place at the present time, beyond just artificial intelligence. The author, Yuval Noah Harari, believes humans are on the verge of becoming gods through technology.
geneticists have already managed to engineer genius mice that display improved memory and learning skills, and super-worms that live up to six times their normal lifespan. There is no technical reason why we could not start engineering superhumans too. Within a century or even a few decades, genetic engineering and other forms of biological engineering might enable us to make far-reaching alterations not only to our physiology, immune system, and life expectancy, but also to our intellectual and emotional capacities.
That was written in 2014 and then earlier this year in 2016, Elizabeth Parrish became the first woman to actually become biologically younger through gene therapy.
In March 2016, the same tests taken again by SpectraCell revealed that her telomeres had lengthened by approximately 20 years, from 6.71kb to 7.33kb, implying that Parrish's white blood cells (leukocytes) have become biologically younger. These findings were independently verified by the Brussels-based non-profit HEALES (HEalthy Life Extension Company), and the Biogerontology Research Foundation, a UK-based charity committed to combating age-related diseases.
That description led me to the wikipedia page on telomeres where I came across the following study that was done.
A 2013 pilot study from UCSF took 35 men with localized early-stage prostate cancer and had 10 of them begin "lifestyle changes that included: a plant-based diet (high in fruits, vegetables and unrefined grains, and low in fat and refined carbohydrates); moderate exercise (walking 30 minutes a day, six days a week); stress reduction (gentle yoga-based stretching, breathing, meditation)" and also "weekly group support". When compared to the other 25 study participants, "The group that made the lifestyle changes experienced a 'significant' increase in telomere length of approximately 10 percent.
So there you have it. With some simple lifestyle changes, you can make yourself biologically younger to the same extent as Elizabeth did, and it has been scientifically proven! So you will have a choice for achieving immortality: technology or spirituality, however, there is a catch if you take the technological approach. Here's what the Founders have to say, taken from the book Earth Awakens.
Your genetics researchers will continue to map out the “immortality gene” and develop new technologies for splicing and combining it with existing “mortal genes.” Stem cell research will continue, despite opposition from some religious groups. Cloning and related practices will be extended and refined.
Although these new medical advances will start prolonging the lives of a few human beings, the vast majority will be unresponsive because the cause of their aging and decay will not have been addressed. Keeping a human body alive when the soul has given up interest in living does not work, and eventually the soul will find a way of exiting the body in such cases. Of course, the egoic self will continuously try to prolong itself, mostly out of fear of death or belief in self-importance.
In order for humans to attain physical immortality while in fourth density, they will need to have a great degree of enthusiasm and excitement about being alive. They will need to have a strong sense of purpose and commitment to being on Earth. They will also need to clear their subconscious and unconscious fear of death. If they are ready to move into fifth density ascension, then they will not need modern medicine to attain immortality anyway.
I just finished reading Sal Rachele's latest book "The Real History of the Earth" and thought it was great. Regarding the predictions, this book confirms what was hinted at in Sal's last book, that nothing major would happen until after the comet flyby on May 5, 2017 that causes another ascension boost and a major upheaval in world economies.
On December 21, 2012 the Earth reached a 4.00 vibration and transitioned to being a 4D planet. By mid-2015 the Earth reached a vibration of 4.25. In Sal's last book he had stated a person needed to be within 1.00 of the Earth to remain on the planet (i.e. at least 3.25 with the Earth at 4.25), but in this book he says a person needs to be within 0.5 of the Earth to remain here.
Since Sal's last book, the average vibration of humanity has increased from 3.55 to 3.60, but during that same time period the Earth has gone from 4.05 to 4.25. So the situation has reversed from most people being within the 0.5 range to now being outside it. This means that in the coming years more people will be dying such that by 2020 deaths will exceed births and the world population will begin declining. As I wrote last December, world population is what I'm using to validate the predictions.
In terms of physical ascension, similar rules apply, as it's also extremely difficult to maintain a physical vibration more than 0.5 higher than the Earth average. Since physical ascension requires a vibration of 5.00, this will only be possible once the Earth reaches a vibration of 4.50 which is not expected until sometime between 2030 and 2050.
Boy, 2050 would be a much longer wait than what I was expecting when I first read about physical ascension back in 2008, but the book does offer some hope. It hints that high in the mountains far away from 3D civilization the Earth maintains a much higher vibration than the average. So moving to a 4D spiritual community far from any 3D cities might allow for physical ascension as early as 2025. In any case, I'll be here waiting, watching and raising my vibration through daily spiritual practice.
I had the pleasure of meeting Thane Heins and getting a live demonstration of his device, the ReGenX Generator, back in 2012. Here are some quotes from others that have seen and examined his device.
"Of course it accelerates when a load is applied...! This represents several new chapters in physics, that is why we are consulting MIT."
-Dr. Habash, University of Ottawa (2007)
"I saw it. It's real. Now I'm just trying to figure it out. To my mind this is unexpected and new, and it's worth exploring all the possible advantages once you're convinced it's a real effect."
-Markus Zahn, Ph.D., M.I.T. Professor of Electromagnetics and Electrical Systems (2007)
"When we finally understand what Thane Heins has discovered, we likely will have to rewrite the laws of electromagnetism."
-Mike Brace EV World Tech Editor (2010)
Mike Brace, the source for that last quote, wrote a great article back in 2012 called Heins Effect Gaining Credibility. Here is an excerpt.
When I last spoke to Thane several years ago he had come to grips with the mechanics of his technology, but not quite the explanation of it (at least not one that most engineers could understand). He could prove it in the lab to anyone that questioned it but without that basic, rock solid and understandable explanation of how his electric motor can draw less energy, and accelerate at the same time, most of his naive colleagues just scratched their heads and walked away. [deleted] It almost seems like free energy... creepy, huh.
Mike goes on to explain his theory for how the device might work, but I believe it is a zero-point energy device and only a theoretical physicist with an understanding of string theory will be able to understand and explain it. Here is an excerpt from the String theory Wikipedia page.
One notable feature of string theories is that these theories require extra dimensions of spacetime for their mathematical consistency. In bosonic string theory, spacetime is 26-dimensional, while in superstring theory it is ten-dimensional. In order to describe real physical phenomena using string theory, one must therefore imagine scenarios in which these extra dimensions would not be observed in experiments.
I believe the free energy generated by Thane's device is coming from one of these extra dimensions. In a 2012 post, I explained how a zero-point energy device operates by opening a tiny window to another dimension and allowing energy to flow through.
Many people engaged in spiritual practice are aware of these other dimensions and the energy that resides there, as the human body also has aspects that exist in these other dimensions, and through spiritual practice it is possible to shift your consciousness into them and experience them directly.
Now with Thane's device and other zero-point energy devices, physicists will be able to easily observe the energy flowing in from another dimension as predicted by string theory. They just have to open their minds and take a serious look at it.
Buying gold just became incredibly easy. Certainly, buying gold bars that you took delivery of was also pretty easy, but storage could be a problem unless you are happy hiding them in your mattress. Safety deposit boxes are a hassle and opening a brokerage account requires lots of paper work. BitGold solves all of these problems. All you need is a smart phone to confirm your identity, a credit card or interact bank account for payment, then choose your preferred vault location and voila, you now own some gold.
As an added bonus, if you use this link to open your account you will get 0.5 grams of gold for free! Worth about US$18. Here are some snippets from a recent blog post of theirs.
We’d like share our reasons why we believe gold can be useful to anyone’s overall savings, and describe the key differences between having a gold account versus your traditional savings or spending accounts.
1. It Is Permanently Yours
Over the course of history (6,000 years!) gold has been ultimately chosen by every great human civilization, community, nation and society as the desired currency due to its permanence. When you buy gold, it’s always yours. In fact, you never really own it you’re just looking after it over your own lifetime because it will outlive you, your children and even your descendants thousands of years from now.
2. Gold is just a currency like Dollars, Euros, Yens or Pounds
Most national currencies were linked to or redeemable in Gold until 1971 when “Fiat Money” was re-introduced by the United States and soon thereafter every other country. Since then, gold has gained over 3,000% vs. the US Dollar which is arguably the world’s strongest fiat money. Gold may seem to go up, down or sideways but in reality and when viewed over long-timescales such as the avg. human lifecycle – it always rises.
3. Gold Preserves Purchasing Power
Only gold provides effortless long-term preservation of value. The scientific properties of gold are what make it so special. As humans we have nothing else that has a cost-structure which is linked to our natural human systems (farming, energy, labor, mining) that is also permanent and inexpensive to store (At BitGold, storage is free!) Gold is the only element that allows us to effectively measure the value of food and energy, over long periods of history. That is why it’s future cost will always also be related to the value of food and energy.
4. Gold is not an Investment like a Stock or Bond, it’s a Store of Value for Long-term Predictable Savings
The biggest mistake people tend to make is comparing the price and performance of gold with investments such as stocks or bonds. Gold should only be compared with currencies because fiat currencies were introduced by governments in 1971 to replace gold. An investment in the stock market or the purchase of a house requires management, oversight and running costs. Investments also carry risk of total loss. For every successful investment such as shares of Google or Apple there are also failed investments such as shares of Lehman Brothers or Kodak. Gold doesn’t require any upkeep, it’s just a piece of metal that is very expensive to produce and very cheap to store.
5. BitGold Offers the Cheapest and Fastest Way to Buy Gold
New innovative technology is changing how commerce and currency can work more efficiently. At the most fundamental level, we are here to help you preserve your wealth. Our success is built on your success. We’ve begun a journey to build a global operating system for Gold that is designed to enable you to save, and pay how, when, and where you prefer. There are no minimums. Start with as little as .01 grams of gold!
For about 6 months in 2002 I practiced Ekadashi fasting and found it to be a powerful addition to my yoga practice. Let's start with the mythology behind the fast. Here is a quick summary from OnlineTemple.com:
It is said that the demon Mur conquered Indralok after defeating Indra and other Devas. The Devas sought refuge in Lord Vishnu and requested Him to defeat the demon. The battle between Lord Vishnu and the demon lasted for many years. During the battle, Lord Vishnu decided to rest in a cave for some time. Sensing victory over Lord Vishnu, the demon entered the cave only to find a beautiful damsel called Ekadashi who fought and killed Mur. On waking up, Lord Vishnu found that Ekadashi had killed the demon. Pleased with Ekadashi, Lord Vishnu blessed Her and said that whosoever worships Ekadashi on the same day would attain moksha.
In terms of instructions for the fast, Wikipedia says the following:
Only fruits, vegetables and milk products are eaten during Ekadashi. This period of abstention runs from sunrise on the day of Ekadashi to sunrise on the day following Ekadashi.
The site drikPanchang.com provides everything you need to know to practice Ekadashi fasting, including a calculation of the Ekadashi days corresponding to your location. Ekadashi follows the lunar cycle which varies according to location. Here are some more food guidelines:
Devotees take single meal in the afternoon a day before fasting day to make sure there is no residual food in the stomach on next day. Devotees keep strict fast on Ekadashi day and break the fast on next day only after sunrise. Eating of all type of grains and cereals is prohibited during Ekadashi fasting.
Devotees can choose to observe fasting without water, with only water, with only fruits, with one time latex food (vegetables, milk and nuts) according to their will and body power.
When I practiced this fast, I ate normally the day before, took water only on the day of the fast, and ate normally the day after, which means fruit, followed by oatmeal for breaking the fast. Once I even tried no water, and had no problems. My meditation practice on the morning after the fast was always particularly deep and spiritual. You may be wondering why I stopped practicing? It was primarily due to my discovery of Shankhaprakshalana in the fall of 2002.
Many people don't understand why a loving God would create a world full of so much pain and suffering. The story of "The Little Soul and the Sun" adapted from the "Conversations With God" books does a nice job of explaining why that is. The excerpt below is the original version with some preamble taken directly from Book 1 and 3 of Conversations with God.
Book 1
Illness and disease are opposites of health and wellness, and are made manifest in your reality at your behest. You cannot be ill without at some level causing yourself to be, and you can be well again in a moment by simply deciding to be. Deep personal disappointments are responses which are chosen, and worldwide calamities are the result of worldwide consciousness.
Your question infers that I choose these events, that it is My will and desire they should occur. Yet I do not will these things into being, I merely observe you doing so. And I do nothing to stop them, because to do so would be to thwart your will. That, in turn, would deprive you of the God experience, which is the experience you and I have chosen together.
Do not condemn, therefore, all that you would call bad in the world. Rather, ask yourself, what about this have you judged bad, and what, if anything, you wish to do to change it.
Inquire within, rather than without, asking: “What part of my Self do I wish to experience now in the face of this calamity? What aspect of being do I choose to call forth?” For all of life exists as a tool of your own creation, and all of its events merely present themselves as opportunities for you to decide, and be, Who You Are.
This is true for every soul, and so you see there are no victims in the universe, only creators. The Masters who have walked this planet all knew this. That is why, no matter which Master you might name, none imagined themselves to be victimized— though many were truly crucified.
Each soul is a Master—though some do not remember their origins or their heritages. Yet each creates the situation and the circumstance for its own highest purpose and its own quickest remembering—in each moment called now.
Judge not, then, the karmic path walked by another. Envy not success, nor pity failure, for you know not what is success or failure in the soul’s reckoning. Call not a thing calamity, nor joyous event, until you decide, or witness, how it is used. For is a death a calamity if it saves the lives of thousands? And is a life a joyous event if it has caused nothing but grief? Yet even this you should not judge, but keep always your own counsel, and allow others theirs.
This does not mean ignore a call for help, nor the urging of your own soul to work toward the change of some circumstance or condition. It does mean avoiding labels and judgment while you do whatever you do. For each circumstance is a gift, and in each experience is hidden a treasure.
There once was a soul who knew itself to be the light. This was a new soul, and so, anxious for experience. “I am the light,” it said. “I am the light.” Yet all the knowing of it and all the saying of it could not substitute for the experience of it. And in the realm from which this soul emerged, there was nothing but the light. Every soul was grand, every soul was magnificent, and every soul shone with the brilliance of My awesome light. And so the little soul in question was as a candle in the sun. In the midst of the grandest light —of which it was a part—it could not see itself, nor experience itself as Who and What it Really Is.
Now it came to pass that this soul yearned and yearned to know itself. And so great was its yearning that I one day said, “Do you know, Little One, what you must do to satisfy this yearning of yours?”
“Oh, what, God? What? I’ll do anything!” The little soul said.
“You must separate yourself from the rest, of us,” I answered, “and then you must call upon yourself the darkness.’
“What is the darkness, o Holy One?” the little soul asked.
“That which you are not,” I replied, and the soul understood.
And so this the soul did, removing itself from the All, yea, going even unto another realm. And in this realm the soul had the power to call into its experience all sorts of darkness. And this it did.
Yet in the midst of all the darkness did it cry out, “Father, Father, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Even as have you in your blackest times. Yet I have never forsaken you, but stand by you always, ready to remind you of Who You Really Are; ready, always ready, to call you home.
Therefore, be a light unto the darkness, and curse it not.
And forget not Who You Are in the moment of your encirclement by that which you are not. But do you praise to the creation, even as you seek to change it.
And know that what you do in the time of your greatest trial can be your greatest triumph. For the experience you create is a statement of Who You Are—and Who You Want to Be.
Book 3
Do you remember the parable of The Little Soul and the Sun that I gave you in Book 1?
Yes.
There is a second half to that parable. Here it is:
“You may choose to be any Part of God you wish to be,” I said to the Little Soul. “You are Absolute Divinity, experiencing Itself. What Aspect of Divinity do you now wish to experience as You?”
“You mean I have a choice?” asked the Little Soul. And I answered, “Yes. You may choose to experience any Aspect of Divinity in, as, and through you.”
“Okay,” said the Little Soul, “then I choose Forgiveness. I want to experience my Self as that Aspect of God called Complete Forgiveness.”
Well, this created a little challenge, as you can imagine. There was no one to forgive. All I have created is Perfection and Love.
“No one to forgive?” asked the Little Soul, somewhat incredulously. “No one,” I repeated. “Look around you. Do you see any souls less perfect, less wonderful than you?”
At this the Little Soul twirled around, and was surprised to see himself surrounded by all the souls in heaven. They had come from far and wide throughout the Kingdom, because they heard that the Little Soul was having an extraordinary conversation with God. “I see none less perfect than I!” the Little Soul exclaimed. “Who, then, shall I have to forgive?”
Just then, another soul stepped forward from the crowd. “You may forgive me,” said this Friendly Soul. “For what?” the Little Soul asked. “I will come into your next physical lifetime and do something for you to forgive,” replied the Friendly Soul.
“But what? What could you, a being of such Perfect Light, do to make me want to forgive you?” the Little Soul wanted to know. “Oh,” smiled the Friendly Soul, “I’m sure we can think of something.”
“But why would you want to do this?” The Little Soul could not figure out why a being of such perfection would want to slow down its vibration so much that it could actually do something “bad.”
“Simple,” the Friendly Soul explained, “I would do it because I love you. You want to experience your Self as Forgiving, don’t you? Besides, you’ve done the same for me.”
“I have?” asked the Little Soul. “Of course. Don’t you remember? We’ve been All Of It, you and I. We’ve been the Up and the Down of it, and the Left and the Right of it. We’ve been the Here and the There of it, and the Now and the Then of it. We’ve been the Big and the Small of it, the Male and the Female of it, the Good and the Bad of it. We’ve all been the All of It. “And we’ve done it by agreement, so that each of us might experience ourselves as The Grandest Part of God. For we have understood that. ... “In the absence of that which You Are Not, that Which You ARE, is NOT.
“In the absence of ‘cold,’ you cannot be ‘warm.’ In the absence of ‘sad,’ you cannot be ‘happy,’ without a thing called ‘evil,’ the experience you call ‘good’ cannot exist. If you choose to be a thing, something or someone opposite to that has to show up somewhere in your universe to make that possible.” The Friendly Soul then explained that those people are God’s Special Angels, and these conditions God’s Gifts. “I ask only one thing in return,” the Friendly Soul declared. “Anything! Anything,’ the Little Soul cried. He was excited now to know that he could experience every Divine Aspect of God. He understood, now, The Plan.
“In the moment that I strike you and smite you,” said the Friendly Soul, “in the moment that I do the worst to you that you could ever imagine—in that self-same moment.., remember Who I Really Am.’ “Oh, I won’t forget!” promised the Little Soul. “I will see you in the perfection with which I hold you now, and I will remember Who You Are, always.”
