Saphala Ekadashi Vrat Katha

Yudhishthira asked Shri Krishna about the Ekadashi of the dark fortnight of Pausha. Krishna said that it is called Saphala, that it makes every effort fruitful, and that on it the Lord should be worshipped with fruits. Then he told this story.

The city of Champavati was ruled by King Mahishmata. His eldest son, Lumpaka, was given to every sin: he gambled, drank, insulted holy men and wasted his father's wealth on vice. When he would not change, the king banished him from the kingdom.

Lumpaka went to live in the forest. By day he stole from the city and the villages around it, and he lived on meat and wild fruit. He made his home under an old peepal tree in the forest, a tree held sacred.

In the month of Pausha, on the night of Dashami, the cold was bitter. Lumpaka had no clothes to keep him warm, and he spent the night shivering under the tree, unable to sleep. By morning he had fallen unconscious from the cold. He came to his senses only at midday on Ekadashi. Too weak to hunt, he gathered whatever fruits had fallen to the ground and came back to the tree as the sun set.

He was too weak to eat. Placing the fruits at the root of the peepal tree, he said sadly: "May the Lord be pleased with these fruits." The cold kept him awake again all that night. Without knowing it, he had fasted on Ekadashi, offered fruits to the Lord, and kept vigil through the night.

Lord Vishnu was pleased with this unknowing fast. In the morning a divine horse appeared beside him, and a voice from the sky said: "By the merit of Saphala Ekadashi your sins are destroyed. Go back to your father and take up the kingdom." Lumpaka returned home a changed man. His father gave him the kingdom, and he ruled by dharma for many years. In the end he left the throne to his son and devoted himself to the Lord.

Shri Krishna said that if even a fast kept without knowing it bears such fruit, a fast kept with faith bears far more.