Will Ekadasi Fasting solve problems immediately?

 One should not expect any miracles after fasting.  

Fasting purifies you from material attachments stage by stage.

We should not take the statements as it is.

But, fast thinking like this:

“We need to cut all our material attachments that are pulling us back from our forward movement towards Krishna. So, I will evaluate my devotion based on my level of detachment from material affairs. I will fast on ekadasis only as a penance for Krishna, but without any expectations. Krishna has said that every ekadasi offers certain benefits. It is for those who feel that they are distressed. He has said that such distressed people are also His devotees.  But, He has also said that those who worship Him without any expectations are very dear to Him.  So, I will just fast to show my love for Krishna.    Since I have no demands from Krishna, He has right to decide whether to give anything to me or not AND also when to give.  I have left that choice to Krishna Himself. So, let me just fast sincerely.  Krishna knows what, how and when to give me anything.”

We should try to have this maturity while fasting.  If an Ekadasi story says that you will get a child if you fast for this ekadasi, that means, Krishna will clear the bunch of karma you have that is preventing your getting a child, and then gives you a child after clearing your karma fast.  You have to wait till that and continue your devotional practices including fasting non-stop though it is delayed.

After fasting just one or a few ekadasis, you should not ask your wife whether she has become pregnant or not next month itself.  Who knows how much of karma you have from your past births?  Krishna alone knows that.  So, He has to clear them by giving the reactions through some incidences to you fast.

You may ask:  Why can’t Krishna clear my karma instantly showing special interest in me?

If Krishna clears all the karma of all the persons instantly, every person will commit serious offences and clear them by fasting only once.  Therefore, the people will lose interest in devotional practices.  They will stop the devotional practices once their needs are achieved and they become happy.

Only in rare cases of very sincere devotees, Krishna allows the karma of a person cleared instantly.  For others, He follows the regular process of clearing karma by allowing them to face the reactions fast.  However, Krishna ensures that all his devotees who did penances like ekadasi fasting get FINAL SUCCESS.  Atheists do not have this guarantee of final success. The process may be slow or fast depending on the storage of karma.

However, if the need is really urgent, Krishna does not hesitate to solve it immediately.

If you clean the house daily,  the cleaning will be faster within a few minutes every day.  But, if you clean the house once a week, the cleaning will take more time because there will be more dusts.  When we clean more dusts, the removed dusts will come again and get deposited on the floor again.  So, we have to clean the floor twice or thrice to get full cleanliness.

Similarly, you may have plenty of past karma.  So, Krishna may be clearing them as fast as possible now.  After fasting once or for a few times, you should not tell:  “Why I have not yet become pure even after 10 ekadasi fasts?”

Since you have tons of karma, it will take some time to purify you.  So, you have to wait for more period.

Just start to show devotion to the Lord and fast for ekadasi WITHOUT EXPECTING ANYTHING FROM KRISHNA IN RETURN.  Krishna will take care of your needs.

KRISHNA’S DEVOTEES NEITHER FAILS NOR FALLS.  This is Sure.

YOU SHOULD HAVE PATIENCE and ACCEPT THAT THE HAPPENINGS IN YOUR LIFE ARE GOOD FOR YOU.

Ekadasi Fasting is to get permanent relief from all the problems and to go back to Krishna. Though it will solve our problems also, we should entrust ourselves to Krishna and remain peaceful.