Today I was early getting up. My cell phone awoke me making feel startled. I looked at my cell phone's time and it read 3:42 and I panicked thinking that I had got up late. But when I looked at my computer's clock it read 2:45am. So I thought eh why not might as well get up anyway. So I got up and took a shower and then started my japa rounds. I had two left to do as soon as Mangal Aarti started.
Seems like everything was done early today, which seemed strange. I had gotten my service done early even closing up Govinda's just a tad bit early, I started getting Govinda's ready early, I went on my walk about ten min early, Bhagavatam class ended early today. So today I felt like an early bird. It felt nice though to have everything done and relax a bit. Madhavendra Puri even made a funny comment to me this morning saying "An early bird are you?" LOL. I love the devotee's sense of humor here in Toronto. I sure will miss that a lot when I'm in California.
So here I am now relaxing as the night comes to a close. I am going to try to squeeze in some reading. For some reason I am in the mood to read about Lord Balarama. I seem to be attracted to Him and I've been thinking about Him lately not sure why but it's okay. I love Him all the same! Not sure what my favorite Lord Balarama story is just yet. My mind drifts to diferent pasttimes of Krishna, sometimes about Lord Chaitanya and then to Lord Nrsimahadeva, and now to Lord Balarama. But at least I am thinking of Krishna and not something stupid that's temporary. Lord Balarama is completely transcendental for He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead because He is an expansion of Lord Krishna. :)
Tomorrow though is a special day in Iskcon called Shiva Ratri. It means the night of Lord Shiva who is a demigod. I always liked Lord Shiva I thought He was pretty cool just by looking at pictures of Him. He is one of the greatest devotees of Lord Krishna. Lord Brahma is also another great devotee of the Lord. Devotees on this day fast, some don't even drink water on this day to glorify Lord Shiva. I am not sure if I can do something like this or not. I know fasting is good for the body as it gives the stomach a rest from digesting food and clears out the system. Fasting for only one day will not hurt the body. I can probably fast most of the day in honor of Lord Shiva but not sure about all night as I would definately would feel sick by then. But we'll see how it goes tomorrow. I think there is some pasttmes about Lord Shiva in the Krishna book somewhere that I can read tomorrow.
