The Story of the Yajna-Sitas and the Glories of Ekadashi
The Yajna-Sitas approached Rama to enjoy, but Lord Rama had vowed to accept only Sita as His wife, so he gave a benediction that they will become gopis in Vraja and their desires will be fulfilled. I have explained this pastime in Groups of Gopis.
In the Garga Samhita, Sri Narada Muni explains to Sri Bahulashva, the story of the Yajna-Sitas that became gopis, a sacred and auspicious story that fulfils all desires and removes all sins.
In the south is a country named Ushinara, where for ten years it did not rain. Fearful that it would never rain, the wealthy gopas travelled there, with their families and cows, to the circle of Vraja.
With the help of King Nanda, they made their homes in beautiful and sacred Vrindavana by the shore of the beautiful Yamuna. The yajna-sitas, who had received a blessing from Lord Ramachandra, took birth in their homes as beautiful gopis decorated with splendid youthfulness.
When they saw handsome Lord Krishna, they became bewildered with love for Him. To ask what vow they might follow to attain Krishna’s mercy, they approached Sri Radha.
The gopis said: “O Radha, O beautiful, lotus-eyed daughter of King Vrishabhanu, please tell us what vow we may follow to attain Lord Krishna’s favour. O Radha, You have made Lord Krishna, whom even the great demigods cannot approach, into Your submissive servant. You are the most beautiful girl in all the worlds. You have crossed to the farther shore of the deep meaning of all the scriptures.”
Sri Radha said: “To attain Lord Krishna’s mercy you should follow the vow of fasting on Ekadashi. In that way, You will make Lord Krishna into your submissive servant.”
The gopis said: “O Radha, please tell us the names of the different Ekadashis throughout the year. Month after month, how should the different Ekadashis be observed?”
Sri Radha said: “During the dark fortnight of the month of Margashirsha (November-December), in order to kill the demon Mura, the holy day of Ekadashi was born from the body of Lord Vishnu.”
Desiring your welfare, I will tell you the names of the twenty-six most sacred Ekadashis that appear in the different months.
Their names are: 1. Utpatti, 2. Moksha, 3. Sa-phala, 4. Putrada, 5. Shat-tila, 6. Jaya, 7. Vijaya, 8. Amalaki, 9. Papa-mocani, 10. Kamada, 11. Varuthini, 12. Mohini, 13. Apara, 14. Nirjala, 15. Yogini, 16. Deva-shayani, 17. Kamini, 18. Pavitra, 19. Aja, 20. Padma, 21. Indira, 22. Pashankusha, 23. Rama, 24. Prabodhini.
There are also two more Ekadashis, both named Sarva-Sampat-Prada, during the extra month of leap-year. In this way, there are twenty-six Ekadashis in all. A person who chants the names of these twenty-six Ekadashis attains the result of following Ekadashi for one year.
O girls of Vraja, please hear the rules for observing Ekadashi. On Ekadashi, one should control the senses and sleep on the ground. On Dwadashi, one should eat only once.
During Ekadashi one should be pure-hearted and very clean, wear clean garments, drink water only once, rise at Brahma-muhurta, and bow down to Lord Krishna
Bathing with well-water is an inferior kind of bath. Bathing in a pond is better, bathing in a lake is better than that, and bathing in a river is better still. In this way, one should bathe. On Ekadashi day one should be free of greed and anger, and one should not talk to sinful people, atheists, and offenders.
A person who follows the vow of Ekadashi should not talk to liars, offenders of Brahmanas, sinners, debauchees, thieves, adulterers, and the ill-behaved and immoral.
In the home, one should, with devotion in the heart, worship Lord Krishna, and offer Him food and a lamp.
From the Brahmanas, one should hear the stories of Lord Krishna. One should offer Dakshina to them. One should keep a vigil, singing the glories of Lord Krishna throughout the night.
When Ekadashi is ended, and the Dashami day has come, one should avoid these ten things: 1. eating from a brass dish, 2. eating flesh, 3. masura dal, 4. kodrava grains, 5. chick-peas, 6. spinach, 7. honey, 8. and the food of others, 9. eating twice, and 10. sex. One should also avoid gambling, playing, sleeping and chewing betelnuts.
On Ekadashi, one should avoid harsh speech, slander, theft, violence, sex, anger, and speaking lies.
On the Dwadashi, one should avoid brass utensils, flesh, liquor, honey, oil, speaking lies, Pushti, Shashti, and masura. By following these rules, one should observe the great vow of Ekadashi and Dwadashi.
The gopis said: “O noble-hearted one, please tell us when the vow of Ekadashi should be observed. What is the result of following Ekadashi? Please tell us the glories of Ekadashi.”
Sri Radha said: “If Dwadashi starts within the first twenty-two hours of Ekadashi, one should not fast on Ekadashi, but on Dwadashi instead. As one avoids drinking a cup of Ganga water into which a drop of wine has fallen, so one should avoid fasting on such an Ekadashi. When Ekadashi goes to its completion, and Dwadashi arrives at the proper time, then one should fast on Ekadashi.”
O girls of Vraja, now I will tell you the result of following Ekadashi. Simply by hearing this description, one attains the result of performing a Vajapeya-yajna.
A person who follows the vow of Ekadashi and Dwadashi attains the same pious result one attains by feeding eighty-eight Brahmanas.
A person who follows Ekadashi attains a pious result thousands of times greater than the pious result attained by performing the ritual of mixing the earth and the ocean.
For they who are drowning in the ocean of repeated birth and death, an ocean muddy with many sins, the vow of fasting on Ekadashi is the best means of deliverance.
Even though contaminated with hundreds of sins, a person who keeps a night-time vigil while following the vow of Ekadashi never sees angry Yamaraja.
As a lotus leaf is never touched by water, so a person who worships Lord Krishna with Tulasi leaves on Dwadashi is never touched by sin.
The results of a thousand Ashvamedha-yajnas and a hundred Rajasuya-yajnas are not equal to even a sixteenth part of the result of fasting on Ekadashi.
A person who follows Ekadashi delivers ten generations of his mother’s family, ten generations of his father’s family, and ten generations on his wife’s family.
As a white cow and a black cow both give the same kind of milk, so the Ekadashi of the bright fortnight and the Ekadashi of the dark fortnight both bring the same result.
O gopis, a fire burns a great pile of cotton, so a single Ekadashi burns the great Mount Meru of sins committed in a hundred births.
O gopis, when, either following the proper method or not following it, and whether it is great or small, one gives charity on Dwadashi, that charity becomes as great as a Mount Meru of charity.
A person who on Ekadashi hears the stories of Lord Krishna attains the same pious result he would attain by giving great charity everywhere on the seven continents.
A person who bathes at Sankhoddhara-tirtha and gazes at the Deity of Lord Gadadhara there does not attain even one-sixteenth of the piety one attains by fasting on Ekadashi.
A person who makes four-hundred thousand pilgrimages to Prabhasa, Kurukshetra, Kedara, Badarikashrama, Varanasi, and Sukarakshetra during eclipses of the sun or moon and gives great charity there does not attain even one-sixteenth of the piety one attains by fasting on Ekadashi.
O gopis, as Lord Sesha is the best of serpents, as Garuda is the best of birds, as Lord Vishnu is the best of Deities, as the Brahmanas are the best of castes, as the banyan is the best of trees, and as a Tulasi leaf is the best of leaves, so fasting on Ekadashi day is the best of sacred vows.
A person who follows Ekadashi attains the result of performing austerities for ten thousand years.
O girls of Vraja, now I have described to you the result of following the vow of Ekadashi. Please follow the vow of Ekadashi at once.
After hearing from Sri Radha’s mouth, the glories of Ekadashi, the gopis that had been yajna-sitas, and who were now yearning to attain Sri Krishna, carefully followed Ekadashi.
Pleased by their observance of Ekadashi, Krishna enjoyed a rasa dance with these gopis on the full-moon night of the month of Margashirsha (November-December).
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