Amalaki Ekadashi

Addressing the eighty-eight thousand sages, Sutaji said that in ancient times the great king Mandhata asked Vashishthaji, "O Vashishthaji! If you are pleased with me, then please tell me the procedure of such a fast, which can prove beneficial for me."

Maharishi Vashishtha said, "O King! The fast of Amalaki Ekadashi is the best of all the fasts and ultimately gives salvation."

The king asked how the fast came to be and what its procedure was, and the sage told him: it is observed in the Shukla Paksha of Phalguna, it destroys all sins, and its virtue equals the fruit of donating a thousand cows. The amalaki, moreover, is honoured because it originated from the mouth of Lord Vishnu.

Then he told the legend. There was a city called Vedic, where people of all four varnas — Brahmin, Vaishya, Kshatriya and Shudra — lived happily, where the chanting of the Vedas always echoed, and where there was no sinner, evildoer or atheist. A Chandravanshi king named Chaitra Ratha ruled there. He was learned and religious, and in his kingdom no one was poor or miserly. All his people were devotees of Lord Vishnu, and young and old alike fasted on every Ekadashi.

When Amalaki Ekadashi of the Shukla Paksha of Phalguna came, the king and all his people, from the old to the children, kept the fast gladly. They came to the temple, installed the kalasha, and worshipped Dhatri with incense, lamp, naivedya, pancharatna and a golden umbrella, praying: "O Dhatri! You are the form of Brahma. You are born from Brahmaji and are the destroyer of all sins, salutations to you. Please accept my Arghya. You are honored by Shri Ramchandraji, I pray you, take away all my sins."

All of them kept vigil in the temple that night. A bird hunter came there in the night — a great sinner who supported his family by violence. Distressed with hunger and thirst, hoping for food, he sat down in a corner of the temple, and from there he listened to the story of Lord Vishnu and the Ekadashi Mahatmya, and so passed the whole night awake with the others. In the morning everyone returned home, and so did he, and there he ate.

After some time the hunter died. Though his violence towards living beings had destined him for hell, the fast and the vigil he had kept that day carried him instead to birth as the son of King Viduratha, and he was named Vasuratha. When he grew up he ruled ten thousand villages with a chaturangini army, rich in wealth and grain. He was like the Sun in radiance, like the Moon in brightness, like Lord Vishnu in bravery, and like Goddess Prithvi in forgiveness — religious, truthful, courageous, a devotee of Shri Hari, and a giver of charity every day.

Once King Vasuratha went hunting, lost his way in the forest, and slept beneath a tree. Hill bandits found him alone and rushed at him shouting "kill, kill," crying that this king had destroyed their parents, sons and grandchildren and driven them from the country, and that they would avenge themselves now. But their weapons could not touch him. A radiant divine power arose from the sleeping king's body and destroyed the bandits. When the king awoke he found them slain and wondered who had protected him, and a voice from the sky told him it was the merit of the Amalaki Ekadashi he had once kept, unknowing, in the temple.

Whoever observes Amalaki Ekadashi with devotion has all sins destroyed and attains liberation at the last.