Kamada Ekadashi Vrat Katha

Yudhishthira asked Shri Krishna about the Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Chaitra. Krishna told him the story that the sage Vasishtha once told King Dilip, an ancestor of Shri Rama.

In ancient times the naga king Pundarika ruled a rich city, and gandharvas, kinnaras and apsaras sang and danced in his court. Among them were the gandharva Lalit and his wife Lalita, who loved each other dearly. One day Lalit was singing before the king while Lalita was away. Thinking of her, he lost the rhythm and the words of his song. The naga Karkotaka noticed and told the king.

Pundarika was furious and cursed Lalit: "Because you think of your wife in my court, become a man-eating rakshasa!" At once Lalit turned into a huge, fearsome demon and went off into the forests, suffering terribly.

Lalita was heartbroken and followed her husband through the forests. At last she reached the ashram of the sage Shringi on the Vindhya mountains and asked him how her husband could be freed. The sage told her that the Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Chaitra, called Kamada, was near. "Keep its fast with devotion and give its merit to your husband, and the curse will end."

Lalita kept the Kamada Ekadashi fast with full faith. On Dwadashi, before the sage, she prayed to Lord Vishnu and offered the merit of her fast to her husband. At that moment the curse left Lalit and he regained his beautiful gandharva form. The two returned to the heavens together on a divine chariot.

Vasishtha told Dilip that this Ekadashi destroys even a sin as heavy as killing a Brahmin and frees one from demonic birth, and that whoever hears its story gains great merit.