Papankusha Ekadashi Vrat Katha

Yudhishthira asked Shri Krishna about the Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Ashwin. Krishna said that it is called Papankusha, because it holds back sin as a goad holds back an elephant, and that on this day Lord Vishnu should be worshipped as Padmanabha. Then he told this story.

Long ago on the Vindhya mountains lived a hunter named Krodhana, whose name means "the angry one". He was cruel and violent. All his life he killed creatures, robbed travellers, drank and lived in sin, and never did a single good deed.

When he grew old, a messenger of Yama came to him in a dream and told him that his life would end in a few days and that Yama's messengers would then take him for punishment. Krodhana woke in terror. For the first time he feared the results of his deeds.

Not knowing where else to go, he went to the ashram of the sage Angira on the mountain. He fell at the sage's feet and said: "I have done nothing but sin all my life, and death is near. Show me a way to escape Yama's punishment that even someone like me can follow."

The sage took pity on him and said: "In the bright fortnight of Ashwin comes Papankusha Ekadashi. Keep its fast with devotion, worship Lord Vishnu and stay awake through the night. It will free you from all your sins."

Krodhana did as the sage taught, keeping the fast with a sincere and repentant heart. By its power all his sins were destroyed. When his time came, it was not the messengers of Yama but those of Lord Vishnu who came for him, and they took him to the Lord's abode.

Shri Krishna told Yudhishthira that whoever keeps this fast never goes to Yama's realm, and that its merit also reaches ten generations on the mother's side and ten on the father's.