15.10
saci kahe,--na khaiba, bhala-i kahila
sei haite ekadasi karite lagila
SYNONYMS
saci kahe—mother Saci said; na khaiba—I shall not take; bhala-i kahila—You have said very nicely; sei haite—from that day; ekadasi—Ekadasi day; karite lagila—began to observe.
Mother Saci said, “You have spoken very nicely.
I shall not eat grains on Ekadasi.” From that day, she began to observe fasting on Ekadasi.
PURPORT
It is a prejudice amongst smarta-brahmanas that a widow must observe fasting on Ekadasi but a woman who has her husband should not.
It appears that before the request of Lord Caitanya Sacimata was not observing Ekadasi because of her being sa-dhava, which means that her husband was living.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, however, introduced the system that a woman, even if not a widow, must observe the Ekadasi day and must not touch any kind of grains, even those offered to the Deity of Visnu.