Shattila Ekadashi Vrat Katha

Yudhishthira asked Shri Krishna about the Ekadashi of the dark fortnight of Magha. Krishna said that it is called Shattila, because on it sesame is used in six ways: in the bath, as a paste rubbed on the body, in the fire offering, in water offered to the ancestors, in food, and in gifts. Then he told the story that he himself had once told Narada.

Long ago there lived a Brahmin woman on earth who was devoted to Lord Vishnu. She kept many fasts and vows, so many that her body became thin and weak. She worshipped the Lord and gave gifts to Brahmins, but she never gave anyone food.

Lord Vishnu thought: "Her body is purified by her fasts and she will reach my abode, but because she has never given food, she will find no satisfaction there." To test her, the Lord took the form of a beggar and went to her door asking for alms. Annoyed, she picked up a lump of clay and put it in his begging bowl. The Lord went away.

In time the woman died and, by the merit of her fasts, reached heaven. There she was given a beautiful house, but it was completely empty. There was no grain, no food, nothing at all, only the lump of clay. Unhappy, she went to the Lord and asked: "I worshipped you with so many fasts. Why is my house empty?"

The Lord said: "You never gave food to anyone, and to me you gave only clay. When the wives of the gods come to see you, do not open your door until they tell you the merit of the Shattila Ekadashi fast."

When the goddesses came to see her, she did as the Lord had said and asked them about Shattila Ekadashi. They told her its glory and its observance. She kept the Shattila Ekadashi fast with devotion, and by its power her house was filled with grain, wealth and every comfort, and she herself became radiant and beautiful.

Shri Krishna said that whoever keeps this fast and gives sesame and food in charity never knows poverty or misfortune.