Rama Ekadashi Vrat Katha (Kartika Krishna)

In the Brahma Vaivarta Purana and Padma Purana, King Yudhishthira asks Lord Sri Krishna:

Bhagwan Sri Krishna 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 60, where Krishna tells Yudhishthira of King Muchukunda, his daughter Chandrabhaga and her husband Shobhana. Chapter numbers differ between editions and translations, so treat this as a guide to that translation.

In ancient times, a noble emperor named King Muchukunda ruled the earth. He was a close friend of Indra and Lord Shiva, renowned for his strict observance of dharma. In his kingdom, no one was permitted to eat grains on Ekadashi—even horses, elephants, and domestic animals were given no grains on this holy day.

King Muchukunda had a virtuous daughter named Chandrabhaga, who was married to Prince Shobhana, the son of King Chandrasena.

One day, Prince Shobhana visited his father-in-law's palace. It happened to be the sacred day of Kartika Krishna Rama Ekadashi.

Prince Shobhana had a weak physical constitution and could not endure hunger. Chandrabhaga worried for her husband:

Prince Shobhana resolved to observe the fast:

Throughout the day, Shobhana endured intense hunger and thirst. By midnight, as his body weakened from severe physical exhaustion, Prince Shobhana passed away peacefully in devotion.

King Muchukunda and Chandrabhaga performed the funeral rites on the banks of the sacred river. However, rather than entering the funeral pyre, Chandrabhaga resolved to live in ascetic penance at her father's house, observing every Ekadashi with unbroken faith.

Due to the supreme merit of having kept the Rama Ekadashi fast, Prince Shobhana was immediately reborn as a radiant, celestial king on Mount Mandara!

He was crowned monarch of a magnificent celestial city named Devapuri, filled with golden palaces, wish-fulfilling trees (Kalpavrikshas), and attended by Gandharvas and Apsaras, celestial musicians and nymphs. However, because Shobhana had kept the fast reluctantly out of royal constraint, his celestial kingdom was unstable and temporary (Asthira).

One day, a Brahmin from King Muchukunda's kingdom named Somasharma was traveling through the Mandara mountains and recognized King Shobhana seated on his golden throne.

Somasharma asked:

Shobhana explained:

Somasharma returned and narrated the wondrous event to Princess Chandrabhaga.

Overjoyed, Chandrabhaga traveled to the hermitage of Sage Vamadeva, who sanctified her with Vedic mantras. Chandrabhaga then ascended to Mount Mandara and approached her husband.

With deep love, Chandrabhaga solemnly proclaimed:

The instant she dedicated her merit, Prince Shobhana's celestial city of Devapuri became solid, golden, and permanently eternal!

The divine couple lived in boundless celestial bliss and spiritual perfection, singing praises to the supreme glory of Rama Ekadashi.

1. 1.Dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi & Vishnu: Worship Lord Vishnu together with Goddess Rama (Lakshmi) during the festive Diwali season.
2. 2.Lighting Deepa (Lamps): Offer unbroken ghee lamps in Vishnu temples and beneath the Tulsi plant.
3. 3.Bestower of Auspicious Wealth: Fulfills desires for domestic harmony, prosperity, and spiritual liberation.
4. 4.Dvadashi Parana: Conclude the fast on Dvadashi morning after morning prayers and feeding Brahmins.

Prince Shobhana's vow at Chandrabhaga's side began with the same Sankalpa every Ekadashi asks of its devotees: a resolve taken at dawn before Lord Narayana, naming Rama Ekadashi and committing to the fast and its Parana without turning back, even when the body protests. Krishna tells Yudhishthira that Shobhana's Sankalpa was sincere but reluctant, taken to protect his honor rather than from inner faith.

The fast calls for abstaining from grains from sunrise to sunrise, with fruit or milk permitted for those who cannot keep the stricter discipline, exactly the standard King Muchukunda enforced even for the animals of his kingdom. Worship of Lord Vishnu together with Goddess Rama, another name for Lakshmi, is offered in the morning and repeated at dusk with unbroken ghee lamps lit in temples and beneath the Tulsi plant, carrying forward the festive light of the Kartika season that leads toward Diwali.

The fast concludes with the Parana on Dvadashi morning, within the window the Panchanga sets for that year, after morning prayers and the feeding of Brahmins. Only after this offering does the devotee take the first meal of the new day, the same discipline that, kept once with reluctance and once with complete love by Chandrabhaga, was enough between them to make an entire celestial kingdom permanent.

Rama Ekadashi's teaching lies in the gap between Shobhana's fast and Chandrabhaga's: both kept the same vrata, yet one produced a kingdom that could not hold, and the other, offered freely out of a lifetime's accumulated devotion, made it eternal. Krishna tells Yudhishthira that the fast itself is never in question, only the faith behind it, and that love given completely, as Chandrabhaga gave hers, can finish what duty alone began.