Mohini Ekadashi Vrat Katha (Vaishakha Shukla)

In the Surya Purana and Padma Purana, the supreme greatness of Mohini Ekadashi is narrated by Sage Vasishtha to Lord Sri Rama during the Treta Yuga.

When Lord Sri Rama was searching for Devi Sita in the forest, He asked Sage Vasishtha:

Maharishi Vasishtha replied:

For readers who wish to consult the text: in the Uttara-Khanda (the concluding section) of the Padma Purana, as numbered in N. A. Deshpande's English translation, this Ekadashi is told in Chapter 49, where Vasishtha answers Rama and tells of the merchant's son Dhrishtabuddhi and the sage Kaundinya. Chapter numbers differ between editions and translations, so treat this as a guide to that translation.

On the picturesque banks of the sacred Saraswati river stood the prosperous city of Bhadravati, ruled by King Dhritiman. In that city lived a wealthy and virtuous merchant named Dhanapala, a sincere devotee of Lord Vishnu who built inns, dug wells, and fed the poor.

Dhanapala had five sons: Sumana, Dyutiman, Medhavi, Sukriti, and the youngest named Dhrishtabuddhi.

Unlike his noble brothers, Dhrishtabuddhi was wicked, arrogant, and fallen. He associated with gamblers and thieves, squandered his father's wealth on vices, drank alcohol, and disrespected parents and Brahmins.

Pained by his repeated crimes, Dhanapala and his brothers ultimately banished Dhrishtabuddhi from the house and town.

Abandoned by all his fair-weather friends, Dhrishtabuddhi sold his clothes and jewelry to buy food. Soon, he had nothing left. Starving, he took to robbing travelers in the forest. Captured and beaten multiple times by the King's guards, he fled into the deep jungle, living in bitter cold and eating raw animal flesh.

One day, wandering in utter desperation during the month of Vaishakha, Dhrishtabuddhi arrived at the hermitage of the great Sage Kaundinya on the banks of the sacred river Ganga.

Sage Kaundinya had just emerged from the holy river after bathing. Drops of pure, sanctified Ganga water from the sage's clothes sprinkled onto Dhrishtabuddhi's body.

The divine touch of that holy water awakened Dhrishtabuddhi's conscience. Weeping in grief, he fell prostrate before Sage Kaundinya and cried:

Sage Kaundinya looked upon him with boundless compassion and said:

Dhrishtabuddhi observed the fast on Vaishakha Shukla Ekadashi with profound tears of repentance, remaining awake in prayer.

On Dvadashi morning, the twelfth lunar day that follows Ekadashi, by the boundless grace of Lord Vishnu, all his sins were incinerated. He was transformed into a divine, radiant soul.

Garuda-bedecked celestial chariots (Vimanas) arrived, and Dhrishtabuddhi ascended directly to the supreme realm of Vaikuntha.

1. 1.Freedom from Illusion (Moha-Kshaya): Dispels attachment to worldly illusions and vices.
2. 2.Worship of Lord Vishnu as Mohini Murti: Meditate on Lord Vishnu's enchanting form that distributed nectar (Amrita) to the devas during the Samudra Manthan.
3. 3.Chanting: Chant "Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya".
4. 4.Dvadashi Parana: Conclude the fast early on Dvadashi morning with charity and prasad.

Before Dhrishtabuddhi's fast could carry any merit, Sage Kaundinya instructed him to begin with the Sankalpa, the formal vow spoken at dawn before Lord Vishnu, naming Mohini Ekadashi and resolving to keep both the fast and the Parana that follows it without lapse. Any devotee who takes up this Ekadashi today is told to begin the same way: the Sankalpa is what turns a day of hunger into an offering, exactly as it turned a starving outcast's desperate vow into a path to Vaikuntha.

The fast itself calls for abstaining from grains from sunrise to sunrise, with a stricter nirjala, or waterless, discipline for those whose health allows it, and fruit or milk permitted for everyone else. Worship of Lord Vishnu in his enchanting Mohini form is offered in the morning with sandalwood, incense, and Tulsi, and repeated again at dusk, when the household remains awake through the night reciting the Vishnu Sahasranama, echoing the night Dhrishtabuddhi spent weeping in prayer rather than sleeping.

The fast ends with the Parana on Dvadashi morning, within the time window set by the Panchanga for that year. Devotees bathe, give charity to Brahmins and to those in need, and only then take their own first meal, just as Dhrishtabuddhi's transformation was sealed on a Dvadashi morning after his night of unbroken repentance.

Mohini Ekadashi's teaching rests entirely on who Dhrishtabuddhi was before Sage Kaundinya's water touched him: not a king, not a sage, but a man who had wasted every advantage his father's virtue had given him. Vasishtha tells Rama that this fast was given its power precisely so that no sin could be counted too large for it to burn away, provided the devotee comes to it, as Dhrishtabuddhi did, with real tears and a complete surrender rather than a formality.