Saphala Ekadashi

What the day is

• Ekadashi is the eleventh lunar day of each fortnight — twice a month, 24 times a year, 26 in a year with an extra (adhika) month.
• It is the day of Vishnu; the texts call it Hari Vasara, "Hari's day".
• The fast is an offering, not a diet: the hunger is given to the Lord and the mind turns to him.

What the texts promise

• The Puranas place Ekadashi first among vows: it cleanses wrongdoing and steadies devotion.
• Each Ekadashi has its own name, story and promised fruit — see this day's card.

Who keeps it

• Smartas and Vaishnavas, householders and ascetics, in every region.
• Note: The digests address this vow to every person from age eight to eighty.

Dashami evening (the day before)

• Eat one simple meal before sunset, then nothing more.
• Resolve in your mind to keep tomorrow's fast.

Brahma muhurta (before dawn)

• Wake, bathe, and put on clean clothes.
• Take the sankalp: name the day, this Ekadashi, and the fast you will keep.

Pratah (morning)

• Do the main Vishnu puja in the morning window this page shows.

Midday and afternoon

• Read, chant, or listen to the katha — keep the day for the Lord.
• Do not sleep in the day.

Sandhya (dusk)

• Light a ghee lamp and sing the evening aarti.

Night

• Keep jagaran: stay awake with kirtan, japa and katha as long as you are able.

Dwadashi morning

• Break the fast in the parana window this page shows — never before it, never after Dwadashi ends.

Prepare

• Clean the puja place; set an image of Vishnu, Krishna or a Shaligram on a yellow cloth.
• Keep ready: water, Ganga jal if you have it, Tulsi leaves picked the day before, yellow flowers, sandal paste, incense, a ghee lamp, fruit, panchamrit.

Sankalp

• Hold water and a flower in the right hand; say the place, the day, this Ekadashi and your vow; let the water go.
• Note: Use flowers, not rice (akshat), in today's puja.

Worship

• Invite the Lord, offer a seat, and water for his feet, hands and sipping.
• Bathe the image with water, then panchamrit, then clean water again.
• Offer a yellow cloth or thread, sandal paste and yellow flowers.
• Offer Tulsi leaves — Vishnu's worship is not complete without them.
• Offer incense and the lamp, then fruit and fast-food naivedya with a Tulsi leaf on it.

Recite

• Chant "Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya" — one mala of 108 if you can.
• Read the Vishnu Sahasranama, a chapter of the Gita, or the Bhagavata.
• Read or hear this Ekadashi's katha.

Close

• Sing the aarti and ask forgiveness for any lapse in the worship.

At dusk

• Wash hands, feet and face, or bathe again.
• Light a ghee lamp before Vishnu, and one beside the Tulsi plant (practice)
• Offer fruit or milk as the evening naivedya, then sing the aarti.

Jagaran (night vigil)

• Stay awake into the night with kirtan, japa and katha.
• Keep the lamp burning while you keep watch (practice)
• Keep it as far as health allows; a short vigil kept with love is a true vigil.

Before sleep

• Bow, offer the night's chanting to Vishnu, and sleep on a simple bed (practice)

Which aarti

• Om Jai Jagdish Hare — the Vishnu aarti sung in homes across North India; you will find it in the app's Bhajans.
• If your family sings another Vishnu or Krishna aarti, keep to yours.

When

• At the close of the morning puja.
• At dusk, with the evening lamp.
• At the end of the night vigil, if you keep one.

How

• Circle the lamp before the Lord: four times at the feet, twice at the navel, once at the face, then seven times around the whole form (practice)
• Offer the flame to everyone present; each cups the hands over it and touches the eyes (practice)

The grades, strictest first

• Nirjala — no food and no water, from sunrise until the parana.
• Water only.
• Milk, fruit and water.
• Phalahar — fast foods without any grain, once or twice in the day.
• One meal without grain after nightfall, for those who cannot do more.

How to choose

• Pick the grade you can keep to the end; a lighter vow kept whole is better than a strict vow broken.
• Follow your family's custom where it has one.

What never breaks a vow

• Water, roots, fruit, milk, medicine, and food taken at your guru's word.

Avoid all day

• Every grain and its flour: rice, wheat, barley, millet, maize.
• Every pulse and bean: dal, chana, rajma, moong, urad, masoor.
• Onion, garlic, meat, fish, eggs and alcohol.
• Ordinary salt — cook with rock salt (sendha) instead (practice)

Rice above all

• Even those not fasting keep rice off the plate on Ekadashi (practice)

Permitted

• Fruit, milk, curd, paneer, ghee, nuts and makhana.
• Potato, sweet potato, arbi, raw banana and pumpkin (practice)
• Flours not from grain — singhara, kuttu, rajgira — and sama; strict Vaishnava homes leave kuttu and sama too (practice)
• Cumin, black pepper, ginger and green chilli for flavour (practice)

Why grain is left

• The Padma Purana tells that on Ekadashi wrongdoing takes shelter in grain — so grain is set aside for the day.

Who the texts address

• Everyone from age eight to eighty, in both fortnights.

Excused from the full fast

• Children under eight and elders over eighty.
• The sick, and anyone who needs medicine — take it; it does not break the vow.
• Pregnant and nursing mothers: a light phalahar, never a dry fast (practice)
• Those with diabetes or other conditions: ask your doctor and keep phalahar (practice)

If you cannot fast

• Still leave grain for the day, and keep the puja and the Lord's name.
• Some families let one member keep the fast on behalf of another who cannot (practice)

During a period or sutak

• Keep the fast; do the puja in your mind, or let someone else perform it (practice)

Dashami (the day before)

• Eat once — a simple sattvik meal before sunset.
• Leave aside: bronze vessels, meat, masoor dal, chana, honey, food from others' kitchens, a second meal, and union.
• Pick tomorrow's Tulsi leaves today — Tulsi is not plucked on Ekadashi (practice)
• Sleep early so you can rise before dawn.

Dwadashi (the day after)

• After the parana, keep the same restraints as on Dashami.
• Do not sleep in the day.

The day this page shows

• Fast on the day that dawns in Ekadashi (the Smarta rule) — this page names it for your city.
• When Dwadashi would end before the next sunrise, the fast moves one day earlier so the parana falls while Dwadashi still lasts.
• When Ekadashi touches two sunrises, almanacs print two days; this page shows the one the rule selects.

Vaishnava reckoning

• Vaishnava traditions test the dawn earlier, at arunodaya — about an hour and a half before sunrise.
• If Dashami is still present then, they fast on the next day instead.
• So in some months a Vaishnava calendar shows Ekadashi one day after this page.
• Note: If your family follows a Vaishnava calendar, keep its day.

When

• On Dwadashi, inside the parana window this page shows.
• Not before sunrise, and not during Hari Vasara — the first quarter of Dwadashi.
• Before Dwadashi ends — letting Dwadashi pass with the fast unbroken spoils the vow.
• Morning is best; midday is avoided; if the morning is missed, the window moves to the afternoon.

If Dwadashi is about to end

• Sip water with a Tulsi leaf, or charanamrit, before it ends; eat afterwards.
• King Ambarisha did exactly this in the Bhagavata — water both breaks the fast and keeps it.

How

• Bathe, do a short Vishnu puja, and offer the food to the Lord first.
• Begin with charanamrit or Tulsi water, then a little of what was offered.
• Give food or a gift to someone in need before you eat (practice)
• Eat a simple sattvik meal; grain returns now.

The demon Mura

• In the Satya age the demon Mura drove the gods out of heaven.
• Vishnu fought him for a long age of the gods, then withdrew to rest in a cave at Badarikashrama.

The maiden from Vishnu

• As Mura raised his weapon over the sleeping Lord, a radiant maiden came forth from Vishnu's body.
• She fought Mura and destroyed him.

The boon

• Waking, Vishnu named her Ekadashi, for she appeared on the eleventh lunar day.
• He granted that whoever fasts on her day is freed of wrongdoing and reaches his abode.
• This birth is remembered on Utpanna Ekadashi — "utpanna" means "born".

Bright fortnight (Shukla)

• Kamada (Chaitra) — Lalit, cursed to become a rakshasa, freed by his wife Lalita's fast.
• Mohini (Vaishakha) — the wayward Dhrishtabuddhi redeemed on the sage Kaundinya's advice.
• Nirjala (Jyeshtha) — Bhima keeps one waterless fast for the merit of all.
• Devshayani (Ashadha) — King Mandhata's drought ends; Vishnu's sleep and Chaturmas begin.
• Putrada (Shravana) — King Mahijit is blessed with a son.
• Parsva (Bhadrapada) — the sleeping Lord turns; the story of Vamana and Bali.
• Pashankusha (Ashwin) — the fowler Krodhana is freed at life's end.
• Devuthani (Kartika) — Vishnu wakes; Chaturmas ends.
• Mokshada (Margashirsha) — King Vaikhanasa frees his father; Gita Jayanti.
• Putrada (Pausha) — King Suketuman and Queen Shaibya are blessed with a son.
• Jaya (Magha) — Malyavan and Pushpavati freed from a pishacha's form.
• Amalaki (Phalguna) — a hunter's night beside the amla worship makes him a king.

Dark fortnight (Krishna)

• Note: Months here are amanta; North Indian purnimanta calendars name each of these one month later.
• Varuthini (Chaitra) — King Mandhata made whole at Mathura.
• Apara (Vaishakha) — the murdered King Mahidhvaja freed from a ghost's life.
• Yogini (Jyeshtha) — Hemamali, Kubera's gardener, healed on Markandeya's advice.
• Kamika (Ashadha) — the worth of Tulsi worship on this day.
• Aja (Shravana) — King Harishchandra regains his kingdom and son.
• Indira (Bhadrapada) — King Indrasena frees his father; falls in Pitru Paksha.
• Rama (Ashwin) — Shobhana and Chandrabhaga.
• Utpanna (Kartika) — the birth of Ekadashi Devi.
• Saphala (Margashirsha) — the exiled prince Lumpaka turns his life around.
• Shattila (Pausha) — the six uses of sesame.
• Vijaya (Magha) — Shri Rama keeps it before crossing to Lanka.
• Papamochani (Phalguna) — the sage Medhavi and the apsara Manjughosha released.

In an extra (adhika) month

• Padmini (bright) — Queen Padmini's fast brings the birth of Kartavirya Arjuna.
• Parama (dark) — the poor Brahmin Sumedha and his wife Pavitra.

Name

• Saphala means "fruitful". Margashirsha, dark fortnight (amanta).

Katha

• Lumpaka, the exiled son of King Mahishmata, went without food one cold night and offered fruit to Vishnu at dawn.
• That unknowing fast changed his life, and he returned to rule.

Special to this day

• Offer seasonal fruit to Vishnu.