Jaya Ekadashi Vrat Katha

Yudhishthira asked Shri Krishna about the Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Magha. Krishna said that it is called Jaya, that it is very holy and frees one even from the life of a ghost or pishacha, and told this story.

Once, in the Nandana garden of heaven, Indra was enjoying music and dance with the gods. Gandharvas sang and apsaras danced. Among the singers was the gandharva Malyavan, and among the dancers the apsara Pushpavati. When they saw each other, they were so drawn to each other that they lost the rhythm of the song and the dance.

Indra understood why their performance had faltered. He felt that they had insulted the gathering, and he cursed them in anger: "You have broken the discipline of this assembly. Fall to the earth and live as a pishacha and pishachini, husband and wife."

At once they fell to a peak of the Himalayas in the form of pishachas. There they suffered terribly. They felt neither the pleasure of smell nor of taste, and the bitter cold of the snow tormented them day and night. They could not sleep, and their teeth chattered with cold.

One day, which happened to be Jaya Ekadashi in the month of Magha, they were so miserable that they ate nothing all day. They had only a little water and sat under a peepal tree, regretting their mistake. That night, in the freezing cold, they could not sleep, and stayed awake the whole night. Without knowing it, they had kept the Jaya Ekadashi fast and vigil.

By the merit of that fast and by Lord Vishnu's grace, on the morning of Dwadashi they were freed from their pishacha bodies and regained their beautiful divine forms. A divine chariot came for them, and they returned to heaven. Indra was astonished and asked how they had been freed so soon. They told him that it was by the power of Jaya Ekadashi and the grace of Lord Vishnu.

Shri Krishna said that whoever keeps this fast is freed from the life of a ghost, and that whoever reads or hears this story receives the merit of a sacrifice.