Dev Uthani Ekadashi katha

Vishnu’s four months of sleep

Gita Press, Ekadashi-vrat ka Mahatmya (based on the Padma Purana), the Shayani and Prabodhini Ekadashi sections.

Telling the glory of Ashadha Shukla Ekadashi, the Shayani Ekadashi, Krishna says to Yudhishthira that from that day one form of his stays with King Bali, and the other sleeps on the bed of Shesha in the ocean of milk. This sleep lasts until the coming Kartik Shukla Ekadashi.

So these months are called a time to live by dharma with special care. The same passage gives the rules of the four months: while the Lord sleeps, sleep on the ground; give up greens in Shravan, curd in Bhadrapada, milk in Ashvin and dal in Kartik; or keep brahmacharya through these months.

The sleep ends on Kartik Shukla Ekadashi, which is why it is called Prabodhini, the Ekadashi of awakening. In the Gita Press Prabodhini mahatmya Narada calls it the Ekadashi on which Lord Govinda wakes.

Folk tradition also tells the Vamana story behind this sleep: after the gift of three steps of land, the Lord came to live with King Bali; then Lakshmi tied a protective thread on Bali, made him her brother and asked for the Lord back, and since then the Lord spends four months of every year with Bali. Lakshmi and the thread are not in this passage of the Gita Press book.

The servant who ate with God

A folk katha, given by Webdunia, Bhakti Bharat, India TV and News24. It is not in the Padma-based Gita Press book or on Drik Panchang.

In the kingdom of a righteous king everyone kept the Ekadashi fast. On that day no one in the kingdom was given grain; in Bhakti Bharat’s telling, not even the animals.

One day a man from another kingdom came to the king asking for work. The king said, “You shall have work, but on one condition: on Ekadashi there will be no grain, only fruit and fasting food.” The man agreed.

When Ekadashi came he was given fruit and fasting food, but his hunger was not eased. He pleaded with the king, “Maharaj, fruit does not fill my stomach; please give me grain.” At his plea the king gave him flour, dal and rice.

He took it to the river bank, bathed and cooked. Then he called out to God, “Come, Bhagwan, the food is ready.” At his call the four-armed Lord came, dressed in yellow. The two sat and ate together, and then the Lord vanished. The man went back to his work.

When the next Ekadashi came he asked the king for twice as much. The king asked why, and he said, “Maharaj, God eats with me too.” The king did not believe him and decided to go and see for himself.

The king hid quietly behind a tree. The man bathed and cooked as before and called God, but this time God did not come. He called again and again, and still God did not come.

At last he said, “Bhagwan, if you do not come, I will jump into this river and give up my life.” The moment he said this, God appeared. He sat and ate with him, and then took him in His vimana to His own abode.

Seeing all this, the king understood that the true fruit of a vrat comes from a pure heart and sincere feeling, not from the outward rule alone. After that he too kept the fast with a pure mind, and in the end he reached heaven.

The king tested by God as a beautiful woman

The second folk katha, told briefly: given by Webdunia (2015 and 2021) and News24.

In another king’s realm, too, no one ate grain on Ekadashi. To test him, God took the form of a beautiful, helpless woman and sat by the road. The king was charmed and wished to make her his queen.

She set a condition: all power over the kingdom would be hers, and the king would do as she said. He agreed. On Ekadashi she had grain dishes cooked and told the king to eat; if he refused, she said, the eldest prince would be beheaded.

Then the elder queen said to the king, “A son can be had again, but dharma once lost does not return.” The prince too was ready to give his head for his father’s dharma.

Then God appeared in His true form, praised the king’s devotion to dharma and offered a boon. The king asked for liberation, handed the kingdom to his son and left this world in a vimana.

Tulsi and Shaligram: two stories that became one

Shiva Purana, Rudra Samhita, Yuddha Khanda 2.5.23, 2.5.26 and 2.5.41; Devi Bhagavata 9.24–25; Padma Purana, Uttara Khanda 15 (checked in English translation on wisdomlib.org). The folk telling is from Webdunia and Bhakti Bharat.

The story most often told at Tulsi Vivah goes like this: Vrinda, wife of Jalandhara, was so faithful that no one could defeat him. Lord Vishnu took Jalandhara’s form, and Vrinda’s vow was broken. Vrinda cursed him to become stone; at the plea of Lakshmi or the gods the curse was taken back or softened, and Vrinda gave up her life in the fire. Tulsi grew from her ashes, and the Lord said his Shaligram form would be worshipped with Tulsi and he would accept no offering without tulsi leaves. That is why Tulsi and Shaligram are married every year in Kartik.

In the Puranas these are two separate stories that folk tradition has joined into one. The first is of Vrinda and Jalandhara. By the Shiva Purana, Jalandhara was born in the ocean from the fire of Shiva’s anger, and his wife Vrinda was the daughter of the asura Kalanemi. Vrinda’s faithfulness made Jalandhara unbeatable. Vishnu worked an illusion: first, as an ascetic, he showed her a vision of her husband slain, then came to her in Jalandhara’s form. Vrinda’s vow was broken, and Jalandhara fell.

Learning the truth, Vrinda cursed Vishnu. In the Shiva Purana the curse is that his wife will be carried off and monkeys will be his helpers, pointing ahead to the Rama avatar; in the Padma Purana, that someone disguised as an ascetic will carry off his wife. In neither does Vrinda curse Vishnu to become stone. Then Vrinda gave up her body in fire.

By the Shiva Purana, Vishnu then sat by Vrinda’s ashes, lost in grief. The gods prayed to Mula-Prakriti; from the seeds she gave grew the amla (dhatri), the malati and the tulsi, and Vishnu’s delusion ended. In the same episode of the Padma Purana, tulsi is said to arise in the forest from Vrinda’s sweat.

The curse of stone (Shaligram) belongs to the second story, of Tulasi and Shankhachuda (Shiva Purana 2.5.41, Devi Bhagavata 9.24). Tulasi was married to the asura Shankhachuda, and his power held as long as her faithfulness held. While Shiva was fighting Shankhachuda, Vishnu went to Tulasi in Shankhachuda’s form, and her vow was broken.

Learning the truth, Tulasi cursed Vishnu to become a rock. In the Shiva Purana Shiva then tells her that her body will become the Gandaki river, she herself will become the tulsi plant, and Vishnu will dwell on the Gandaki’s banks as the Shalagrama stones; the Devi Bhagavata gives the same outcome. Tulasi remained ever dear to Vishnu.

The Devi Bhagavata (9.25) counts Vrinda and Vrindavani among Tulasi’s eight names, and puts Tulasi’s birth festival on the Kartik full moon, the day Vishnu first worshipped her. We did not find the rite of Tulsi Vivah described in the chapters we checked; the rite comes down through tradition.