Mohini Ekadashi Vrat Katha

Yudhishthira asked Shri Krishna about the Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Vaishakha. Krishna said that Shri Rama once asked the sage Vasishtha the same question, wishing for a vrat that would end sorrow, and told him Vasishtha's answer.

On the banks of the Sarasvati there was a city called Bhadravati, ruled by King Dyutiman. In it lived a rich and pious merchant named Dhanapala, who built wells, rest houses and gardens for the public. He had five sons. The youngest, Dhrishtabuddhi, was the opposite of his father: he gambled, drank, kept bad company and wasted the family's wealth.

Unable to reform him, Dhanapala at last threw him out of the house, and his relatives turned away from him. When his ornaments and clothes were sold and gone, Dhrishtabuddhi took to stealing. He was caught more than once and punished by the king, and finally driven out of the city. He wandered in the forest, hungry and miserable, living by hunting.

One day, by chance, he reached the ashram of the sage Kaundinya just as the sage was returning from his bath in the Ganga. A few drops of water from the sage's wet clothes fell on him, and at once his mind turned. He fell at the sage's feet and begged for a way to be free of his sins.

Kaundinya told him to keep the fast of Mohini Ekadashi in the bright fortnight of Vaishakha, which destroys sins piled up over many lives. Dhrishtabuddhi kept the fast as the sage taught. His sins were destroyed, his life was changed, and in the end he rode Garuda to the abode of Lord Vishnu.

Vasishtha told Rama that there is no vrat in the three worlds better than this one to end delusion, and that hearing its story gives the merit of giving a thousand cows. On this day Lord Vishnu is also remembered as Mohini, the enchanting form he took at the churning of the ocean to give the nectar to the gods.