Shattila Ekadashi

Arjuna bowed before Lord Krishna and said, "O Keshava! Hearing the stories of Ekadashis from your divine mouth has filled me with immense joy. O Madhusudana! Please be gracious and narrate the glories of other Ekadashis as well."

Krishna told him of Shattila Ekadashi, of the Krishna Paksha of Magha, recalling how Sage Dalabhya once asked Sage Pulastya how human beings, who sin through anger, envy, impulsiveness and ignorance, might yet be saved from hell.

Pulastya answered that in the month of Magha one should bathe, hold the senses in check, and put away lust, anger, greed, delusion, envy and arrogance altogether. During Pushya Nakshatra one prepares cakes of cow dung, cotton and sesame, and performs havana with them one hundred and eight times. On Ekadashi one fasts, keeps vigil through the night, and the next day worships Shri Hari with dhupa, dipa and naivedya, offering khichdi, and presents arghya with pumpkin, coconut, custard apple or betel nut, praying:

"O Lord of the Universe! You are the refuge of the destitute and the saviour of those drowning in worldly existence. O Kamalanayana! O Madhusudana! O Jagannatha! O Pundarikaksha! Along with Goddess Lakshmi, please accept this humble offering of mine."

Then one donates a pot of water and sesame to a Brahmin. For every sesame seed given, it is said, the giver dwells a thousand years in heaven.

Sesame used six ways — in bathing, in ubtan, in water, in havana, in food and in charity — is what gives the day its name, Shat-tila.

Pulastya then told the story itself. Long ago in the Mrityu Loka lived a Brahmani who kept fasts and austerities faithfully, once fasting a whole month until her body grew weak. She was intelligent, yet she never gave food or anything else to the deities or to Brahmins. Shri Hari observed that though her fasting had purified her body and would carry her to Vaikuntha, she had never given food — and without food, beings are not satisfied.

To teach her, the Lord came to her door disguised as a mendicant and asked for alms. In anger she put a lump of mud into his begging bowl. When at last she reached the spiritual world she found a house that was beautiful and entirely empty. Lord Vishnu revealed that it was empty because she had never fed the hungry while she lived. She was told to observe Shattila Ekadashi and to give sesame in charity; when she did, her house was filled with everything she needed.

The teaching of the katha is that fasting and worship alone do not bear their full fruit unless they are joined to genuine charity.