![](\"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads6\/tumblr_o8jtrwlX6W1sbj0vuo1_500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
What\u2019s Your Vow?
\nAnanda Vrindavana Devi Dasi: Being austere is not highly regarded in contemporary culture. We over eat, oversleep, over mate, and over defend. The concept of having less or doing less is something that may be admired from a distance but generally not considered so welcome when it\u2019s closer to home.
\nIn yoga teachings, austerity is considered the wealth of those who seek self-realization and an understanding of how to discover our love for Krishna. Wealth. Think about that for a moment. Who does not want wealth? However, this wealth is all about the things that money can\u2019t buy. Austerity, when done properly, brings a veritable treasure \u2013 wisdom, an opening of the heart, feelings of love for Krishna and an understanding of everything around us!
\nVows are part of the practice of austerity and the Kartik month, which started yesterday, is considered the best month of the year to take a vow. Depending on who we are and where we live, our vows will be shaped. Many go to Vrindavan India for this month and practice austerities like eating once a day, chanting 64 rounds on japa beads, or walking without shoes to Krishna\u2019s sacred places.
\nFor us here in the comfortable USA we can choose vows that work for us (not a good idea to go barefoot to the office :). It can be a small thing that we do for Krishna every day, for one month, but it should stretch us. We should feel the pinch a little bit and in that struggle, the offering becomes sweeter.
\nWe don\u2019t have to tell anyone our vow, although it is helpful to have a \u2018vow buddy\u2019 whom we can lean on. The mind loves to take down vows so we may need a support group :)
\nHere are some ideas to get us started. Do something. Our life will be all the better for it.
\ngive up sweets
\nchant 4 extra rounds
\nread 10 Gita verses a day
\ndo a daily act of charity
\ngive away a book about Krishna every day
\ndon\u2019t criticize others
\ndon\u2019t complain
\ntake a cold shower
\ndo menial service
\ndo what no one else wants to do
\ngive up TV
\ngive up Starbucks
\nsleep on the floor
\njoin the outdoor kirtan on the weekends
\nbecome a monthly donor
\nskip a meal
\ngive up chocolate
\nbe a vegetarian
\ndrop caffeine
\ndrop alcohol
\ngive 50% of your income away for that month
\nonly take ahimsa milk
\noffer a ghee lamp every day to Krishna
\nsing the Kartik prayer
\ndon\u2019t watch the news
\npray more, speak less
\nlove more, hate less
\nlive more, give more, and be more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![](\"http:\/\/68.media.tumblr.com\/17fb072f6fbc2d4110be1a647f6f2a88\/tumblr_o8jtrwlX6W1sbj0vuo1_500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
What’s Your Vow?
\nAnanda Vrindavana Devi Dasi: Being austere is not highly regarded in contemporary culture. We over eat, oversleep, over mate, and over defend. The concept of having less or doing less is something that may be admired from a distance but generally not considered so welcome when it’s closer to home.
\nIn yoga teachings, austerity is considered the wealth of those who seek self-realization and an understanding of how to discover our love for Krishna. Wealth. Think about that for a moment. Who does not want wealth? However, this wealth is all about the things that money can’t buy. Austerity, when done properly, brings a veritable treasure – wisdom, an opening of the heart, feelings of love for Krishna and an understanding of everything around us!
\nVows are part of the practice of austerity and the Kartik month, which started yesterday, is considered the best month of the year to take a vow. Depending on who we are and where we live, our vows will be shaped. Many go to Vrindavan India for this month and practice austerities like eating once a day, chanting 64 rounds on japa beads, or walking without shoes to Krishna’s sacred places.
\nFor us here in the comfortable USA we can choose vows that work for us (not a good idea to go barefoot to the office :). It can be a small thing that we do for Krishna every day, for one month, but it should stretch us. We should feel the pinch a little bit and in that struggle, the offering becomes sweeter.
\nWe don’t have to tell anyone our vow, although it is helpful to have a ‘vow buddy’ whom we can lean on. The mind loves to take down vows so we may need a support group :)
\nHere are some ideas to get us started. Do something. Our life will be all the better for it.
\ngive up sweets
\nchant 4 extra rounds
\nread 10 Gita verses a day
\ndo a daily act of charity
\ngive away a book about Krishna every day
\ndon’t criticize others
\ndon’t complain
\ntake a cold shower
\ndo menial service
\ndo what no one else wants to do
\ngive up TV
\ngive up Starbucks
\nsleep on the floor
\njoin the outdoor kirtan on the weekends
\nbecome a monthly donor
\nskip a meal
\ngive up chocolate
\nbe a vegetarian
\ndrop caffeine
\ndrop alcohol
\ngive 50% of your income away for that month
\nonly take ahimsa milk
\noffer a ghee lamp every day to Krishna
\nsing the Kartik prayer
\ndon’t watch the news
\npray more, speak less
\nlove more, hate less
\nlive more, give more, and be more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10650,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28439"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39001,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28439\/revisions\/39001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}