Review of 'Ekadashi Reminder' for Android

Ekadashi - the eleventh lunar day (Tithi) of the Shukla (bright) or Krishna (dark) paksha (fortnight) of every lunar month in the Hindu calendar (Panchang) - has important place in spiritual culture of India. 

Fasting
In Hinduism it is considered a spiritually beneficial day and is usually observed by a partial fast. Beans and grains are not eaten during Ekadashi, as on this day these two foods are believed to be contaminated by sin. Only fruits, vegetables and milk products are eaten during Ekadashi. This period of abstention runs from sunrise on the day of Ekadashi to at least sunrise on the day following Ekadashi. Devotees of Lord Vishnu observe Ekadashi fasting to seek His blessings.

Magic tech
Two Ekadashis occur in one month according to positions of the moon. The progression of the moon from full moon to new moon is divided into fifteen equal arcs. Each arc measures one lunar day, called Tithi. The time it takes the moon to traverse that distance is the length of that lunar day. Ekadashi refers to the 11 tithi, or lunar day. The eleventh tithi therefore corresponds to a precise phase of the waxing and waning moon. In the bright half of the lunar month the moon will appear roughly 3/4 full on Ekadashi, and in the dark half of the lunar month the moon will be about 3/4 dark on Ekadashi.

Calculation rules
Calculation of Ekadashi has two rules: Smartha and Vaishnava. The Smarta rule is simple – Ekadashi should be visible at the time of local sunrise. Bhagavata or Vaishnava Ekadashi observance is based on the rule that Dasami or the tenth day during a lunar fortnight should have ended before Arunodaya (96 minutes period before sunrise on the Ekadashi or the 11th day in a lunar fortnight). As can be noted the Vaishnava rule is a little bit spirituel and sophisticated. Eventually Vaishnava fasting day might be one day after of Smartha fasting day.

Tools
In recent years a lot of good, accurate and free software with Panchang and Hindu calendars appeared for personal computers as well as for smartphones and tablets. Their modern powerful processors can momentarily do the calculations ether Lunar and Solar positions for some moment or the time of some event (Purnima, Amavasya, Ekadashi...) with an accuracy of up to 1 second.
As for Smartha Ekadashi - the fasting days are shown in any Hindu calendar or Panchang as the tithi with numbers 11 and 26. More calculations need to be done to get Vaishnava fasting days. But this is also not a problem because there are a lot of free software which performs the job very accurately now.

This article will introduce one of such programs for Android which calculates Vaishnava fasting days (Reference №2). And also it has additional benefits shown below:

• sends notification messages
• shows all Ekadashi stories
• supports of Daylight Saving Time
• supports Hindi, English, Ukrainian, Russian, Hungarian and Portuguese
• has time machine for years 2010-2026 AD
• doesn't have unwanted popups, spam and ads
• has very small size and consumes minimum of resources
• doesn't require Internet connection
• doesn't retrieve or store any identifying information
• doesn't collect anonymous usage data
• has very simple and user-friendly interface:

Main screen

1. Installation

Ok, let's start and install the application from Google Play: http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acd.ekadashi
After opening the app for the first time it asks such questions for configuring:

• Current location
• using Summer Time (DST)
• using algorithm ('Current location' or Mayapur, see below)
• the frequency of notifications

Go to the chapter 3. Settings to get more details about configuring application.
Then 'Help screen' is appeared and shows the main controls:

• Time machine - 'Set date' and 'Set time'
• Refresh
• Menu 1
• Menu 2
• Swipe left - swipe right
• Fullscreen

After tapping on any place of the screen the 'Help' disappears and the 'Main screen' is opened.

2. Main screen

It consists of 'Top bar' which displays current state and settings:

• date on the left side - April 24, 2016
• current time on the right side - 01:23
• selected 'Current location' in the center - Mumbai city
• used timezone = +5.5 hrs.
• the status of notifier ('On' or 'Off') - On

Below the 'Information panel' shows data of the next Ekadashi fasting: Ekadashi name - VARUTHINI - and the number of days the fasting will happen in - in 8 days. The 'Information panel' also has 2 important elements - 2 menus which drop out after tapping on Lotus-Tilak icon (Menu 1) and on the vertical menu - 3 vertical dots (Menu 2):

'Menu 1' consists of 4 elements:

• 'Sharing' - this one lets to share/send Ekadashi dates and stories. Also it is possible to share installation/support links in social networks, including Facebook
• 'About' - shows application version and developer's email address
• 'Technical Information' - shows technical details about current Ekadashi such as: masa, paksha, Gaurabda, sunrise time, HariVasara time, location, timezone...
• 'Acknowledgments' page says 'Big thanks' to everybody who has taken part in application development and support

'Menu 2' also consists of 4 elements:

• 'Settings' - this will be described in the chapter 3. Settings in details
• 'Color theme' - lets choose one of 7 preconfigured themes
• 'Language' - lets change language. NOTE: after selecting the language it needs to exit from app and then start it again to apply changes
• 'Help screen' - shows hints of the location of control elements on the main screen

After the 'Information panel' there is 'Data panel' or swipe area which can be scrolled left or right with a finger. Scrolling left to right leads to displaying previous Ekadashi fast. Scrolling right to left leads to displaying next Ekadashi fast. So, it is possible to get information about all 24 (or 26 with Adhika masa ) Ekadashi fasts in one Gaurabda/ChandraVarsha: from one Gaura Purnima to the next Gaura Purnima. Switching Gaurabda/ChandraVarsha in the past or in the future is done by using 'Time machine' described in the chapter 4. Time machine
The first line of 'Data panel' shows in the center the name of Ekadashi which data are displayed on this panel. On the left there is a name of previous Ekadashi. On the right - name of next Ekadashi.

After it 'Begin fasting' and 'Break fasting' bars are followed. Each of these bars has event's date on the left side and event's time on the right (like in 'Top bar'). 'Break fasting' bar shows Parana - the period of time when it needs to break the fasting. Vaishnavas strictly follow this rule because otherwise the fasting is considered to be not accomplished.

After these bars the 'Ekadashi story' panel is followed up to the end of the screen. This panel is scrollable top-bottom to accommodate all the text of the story. The size of the text is small there. It is possible to show Ekadashi story text on the full screen with bigger text size by tapping on the 'Ekadashi story' panel.

It needs to tap any place to exit from full screen mode.

3. Settings

'Settings' menu configures all static parameters of the application:

1. Current location
   To select a value from built-in database of 4,000 cities it needs to input two or more letters from the city name.
   NOTE: Database is in English, so, it needs to input only ENGLISH letters!
   After entering at least 2 letters the window with available cities is appeared. It is possible to scroll top-bottom to show more cities available. Then it needs to select the city from the list. And after this - tap on "Accept" button to apply or 'Cancel' button - to reject.
   It is also possible to view a list of available cities by inputting 2-letters Language Code only, f.e.
   
   • 'in' - is 2-letters code of India
   • 'us' - is 2-letters code of USA
   and so on. It is always possible to add unexisting city to database by emailing to Abhay Charan prabhu directly (Reference №1). Full list of Language Codes is available http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php
   NOTE: It is planned to get rid of using Language Code and move to using Country Code instead.
2. Daylight saving time
   Currently 3 preferences are available for using Summer Time (DST):
   • Europe
   • USA
   • Australia
   It is possible to add more preferences by request (contacts are in Reference №1).
   After setting DST option on this screen the value of 'Time zone' will be shown below. Also it is recommended to check current clock value (from smartphone chip) with the last string on this screen (which is calculated by application) named "Local Time". If everything has been set correctly then both values will be equal.
3. Notifications
   To show program notifications in the system status bar it needs to set 'Fasting notifications' checkbox. The frequency of notifications is chosen from the 'Notify' list below and has such options:
   • send only notifications 'Today is fasting'
   • additionally send 'Tomorrow is fasting'
   • additionally send 'Fasting is in 1 day'
   • additionally send 'Fasting is in 2 days'
   • 'every day' option lets to send notifications every day
   NOTE: there is no option to set the time when notifications are fired. It is done automatically at approximately 10 minutes after the midnight.
   
4. Calculations of fasting time
   This option has been designed mainly for ISKCON lovers, who currently use 2 different algorithms for calculating the start time of the fasting (and other events). Both of them has been implemented, so, the application states full support for ISKCON (Reference №3):
   - using Mayapur city - stated by AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada and widely used until 1990 AD
   - using the 'Current location' - an alternative algorithm proposed in 1990 AD and widely used now.
   

4. Time machine

'Time machine' is built-in mechanism for switching year/Gaurabda in period of 2010-2026 AD (or Gaurabda 524-540) in the past or in the future.
Mentioned on the 'Help screen' the controls 'Set Date' and 'Set Time' can be used to travel to an arbitrary point in time and to get information about Ekadashi fasting for that moment.
F.e. if someone taps 'Set Date' and sets the date in 9 days (as in the screenshot above), then the application recalculates everything by setting that future date to now and shows previous, current and future Ekadashi data for that future moment. It looks like someone travels in time.
To return to current moment it needs to tap on 'Refresh' control or exit application/session.
Note: the application doesn't save a time or info between sessions. Every time the app is launched (or 'Refresh'-ed) it takes current time from system clock and makes calculations again.

Thanks for reading this, hope it has been useful, Hare Krishna!
Abhaya Prada devi dasi


Reference №1
More details about application and contacts:
- project Home page: http://www.facebook.com/EkadashiReminder
- install application from Google Play: http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acd.ekadashi
- add new cities to database, feature requests and so on: Abhay Charan prabhu "abhay.charan.d@gmail.com"
Reference №2
Calculations of Vaishnava fasting days are based on 'Sri Navadwip Panjika' by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura. This book can be easily found in Internet in English translation by Manoj Mitra, f.e. in the page http://www.facebook.com/notes/ekadashi-reminder-for-android/sri-navadwip-panjika/1140923125931329
Reference №3
The calculations were checked against Gcal for Windows Version 11
NOTE: GCal (for «Gaurabda Calendar») is a full-featured calendar calculation program for Gaudiya Vaisnavas. Downloaded from www.KrishnaDays.com. Developed by Gopalapriya prabhu of ISKCON Bratislava, Slovakia.
The results of the check are available on the page http://www.facebook.com/notes/ekadashi-reminder-for-android/qa-page/1142274792462829