--- title: "Ekadashi Fasting at Work: A Desk-Job Guide" description: "Ekadashi fasting at work in the US: keeping the fast through meetings, lunch invites and long commutes, what to tell colleagues, and how to be kind to yourself." author: "Manikandan" published: 2026-10-19 updated: 2026-10-19 canonical: https://www.pariharaonline.com/blog/fasting-with-a-desk-job tags: ["Ekadashi", "Fasting", "NRI Life"] --- # Ekadashi Fasting at Work: A Desk-Job Guide ## In short - Check the Ekadashi date for your US city, since lunar days can differ from India by a day. - A short, honest line such as 'It's a fasting day in my tradition' is usually all coworkers need. - With a desk job, a fruit-and-milk fast is often wiser than a waterless one; keep the spirit, adapt the form. A team lunch lands on Ekadashi, and you are holding a coffee while everyone around the table orders burritos. It has happened to me more times than I can count, in an office in New Jersey where I was, for years, the only person fasting on a Tuesday for reasons nobody else had heard of. Here is what I have learned: Ekadashi fasting at work is entirely possible if you plan a day ahead, keep the fast gentle, and explain it in one honest sentence. You can keep the fast and the friendship. ## Ekadashi fasting at work: planning ahead The first surprise for many people abroad is that Ekadashi does not always fall on the same day in the United States as in India. The tithi, the lunar day, is calculated from sunrise at your location, so an Ekadashi that begins on a Wednesday in Chennai is often kept a day earlier in California. Use a panchangam, the traditional almanac, set for your own time zone. Many temple websites and apps publish one for American cities. Once you know the day, a little planning does most of the work: - **Put it in your calendar**, privately, a day before, so you are not caught out by a lunch invitation. - **Eat lightly the evening before.** A heavy dinner makes the morning harder. - **Pack a small fasting bag:** fruit, a handful of nuts, perhaps a flask of milk or buttermilk, a bottle of water. The tradition's simple rules on grains and beans are set out in [the Ekadashi fasting rules](https://www.pariharaonline.com/blog/ekadashi-fasting-rules). - **Look at your meetings.** If you have a long presentation at three in the afternoon, when energy often dips, see whether it can move to the morning. ## What do I tell my coworkers? Less than you think. Most colleagues are curious, not suspicious, and a short answer satisfies nearly all of them. Something like: "It's a fasting day in my tradition, twice a month. I'm fine, just not eating grains today." No apology. No lecture on the lunar calendar unless someone asks. In my experience people respond in three ways. Most say "oh, nice" and move on. A few are genuinely interested and ask more, which can become one of the better conversations you have at work. And one or two will offer you a cookie at four o'clock every single time, out of kindness. Smile and say no thank you. For more on explaining Hindu practices simply, explaining Hindu festivals to coworkers is worth reading. If there is a team lunch, go anyway. Order a fruit bowl or a salad without beans, or just a drink. Sitting at the table matters more than what is on your plate. ## Keeping it gentle The Bhagavad Gita has a passage I come back to on fasting days. Krishna tells Arjuna that yoga is not for the one who eats too much, nor for the one who does not eat at all, but for the one who is moderate in eating and sleeping and working. Moderate, not heroic. So be moderate. Drink water through the day; many of the headaches people blame on fasting are simply thirst. Expect a dip in energy in the mid-afternoon and do not schedule your hardest thinking for then. If you drive a long commute, or do physical work, eat something, a banana, some nuts, before you get behind the wheel. If you have a health condition or take regular medication, talk to your doctor and choose a lighter fast; avoiding grains while eating otherwise normally is still Ekadashi. On the day when work is truly overwhelming, a lighter fast is not a lesser one. The biggest Ekadashi of the year, described in the significance of Vaikunta Ekadashi, falls in the busy end-of-year season, and many people who work keep it with one meal. That month has its own rhythm too; the meaning of Margazhi describes it. Some families end a fasting day with a short reading, and the meaning of the Satyanarayan Katha is a good one to share on a weekend. ## One small thing to carry into the week Before the next Ekadashi, open your work calendar and add it as a private reminder, with a note the evening before that says "light dinner, pack the bag". Then pack the bag the night before: fruit, nuts, water. In the morning you will not have to think about it, and the fast can be what it is meant to be, a quiet thread running under an ordinary working day. ## Questions people ask ### How do I fast at work without feeling awkward? Plan ahead: keep fruit, nuts or milk at your desk, move lunch meetings where possible, and join team lunches with a drink if you like. Most colleagues respect a simple explanation. Treat it matter-of-factly rather than apologetically. People are often curious and appreciative when you share a bit about the tradition. ### How do I explain religious fasting to coworkers? Keep it short and friendly: 'Today is Ekadashi, a fasting day in my tradition, so I'm skipping grains.' You can add that it happens twice a month and is about discipline and prayer. Avoid long justifications. Many coworkers will relate it to fasts in their own traditions. ### Is Ekadashi on a different day in the USA than in India? It can be. Ekadashi is determined by the lunar day, or tithi, at local sunrise, so the date in a US time zone sometimes falls a day earlier than in India. Use a panchangam set to your city, or check with your local temple, to know when to fast and when to break the fast. ## Related reading - [Ekadashi Fasting Rules for Beginners](https://www.pariharaonline.com/blog/ekadashi-fasting-rules) - [Fasting and Focus: What an Empty Stomach Teaches](https://www.pariharaonline.com/blog/fasting-and-focus) - [Tiruvannamalai Deepam, Watched From Far Away](https://www.pariharaonline.com/blog/tiruvannamalai-deepam-from-afar) Source: https://www.pariharaonline.com/blog/fasting-with-a-desk-job