Vijaya Ekadashi Vrat Katha (Phalguna Krishna)

In the Skanda Purana and the Padma Purana, King Yudhishthira asks Lord Sri Krishna what the Ekadashi falling in the dark fortnight of the month of Phalguna is called, and how it guarantees victory over seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Bhagwan Sri Krishna replies that this tithi is known as Vijaya Ekadashi, the giver of unconditional victory. In the Treta Yuga, Lord Sri Ramachandra Himself observed this sacred fast on the advice of Sage Bakadalbhya before constructing the bridge across the raging ocean to defeat Ravana.

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 44, where the account of Rama and the sage Bakadalbhya at the sea is told. Chapter numbers differ between editions and translations, so treat this as a guide to that translation.

During the Treta Yuga, after Devi Sita was abducted by the demon king Ravana, Lord Sri Rama marched south with Lakshmana, Sugriva, and the vast Vanara army to the shores of the southern ocean, to the place known today as Rameshwaram. Standing on the seashore, Lord Rama gazed upon the terrifying, turbulent waters, teeming with ferocious sea creatures and raging tidal waves. He turned to Lakshmana and asked how such a vast army could ever cross this impassable ocean, and what divine austerity or means might secure their victory over the invincible Ravana. Lakshmana bowed and answered that a short distance away lived the ancient and omniscient Maharishi Bakadalbhya, who had witnessed many cosmic cycles pass, and that they should seek the sage's guidance before going further.

Lord Rama visited the hermitage of Sage Bakadalbhya and offered his prostrations. The sage, overwhelmed with devotion, told Rama that although he already knew Him to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead descended to establish dharma, he would still ask Him to observe the fast of Phalguna Krishna Vijaya Ekadashi. He explained that doing so would set a righteous example for ordinary humanity, teaching every future devotee that even an impossible obstacle yields to this fast when it is kept with full faith.

Sage Bakadalbhya described the exact ritual procedure to Rama. On Dashami, a golden, silver, copper, or clay Kalash should be filled with holy water, mango leaves and a coconut placed at its mouth, and the vessel set upon a bed of seven sacred grains, the Sapta-Dhanya. On Ekadashi itself, a golden idol of Lord Govinda should be installed upon the Kalash and worshipped with sandalwood, fragrant flowers, incense, lamps, and sweets. The entire night should then be spent in prayer and devotional singing before it, rather than in sleep. On the following Dvadashi morning, the consecrated Kalash should be donated, together with dakshina, to a worthy Brahmin, before the fast itself is broken.

Lord Rama followed Sage Bakadalbhya's instructions with exact devotion. Together with Lakshmana and the Vanara commanders, he observed the Vijaya Ekadashi fast with complete austerity through the day and night. By the boundless potency of that fast, the spirit of the ocean, Samudra Deva, appeared before Rama and granted permission for a bridge to be built across the waters. Nala and Nila, two Vanaras blessed so that anything they threw into water would float, used that gift to raise a bridge of floating stone across the sea. The Vanara army crossed to Lanka without further hindrance, vanquished Ravana and his demon hordes, rescued Devi Sita, and re-established righteousness across the three worlds.

Before the Dashami Kalash is even installed, the devotee takes a formal Sankalpa, holding water, rice, and flowers in the right palm while naming the present day, month, and year aloud. The stated intention follows Rama's own example at the ocean's edge: to observe Vijaya Ekadashi in order to overcome one named obstacle that otherwise seems impassable, whether a legal dispute, a stalled enterprise, a difficult undertaking, or an inner vice such as lust, anger, or greed. The fast's victory, in this understanding, is given to effort already underway rather than to passive waiting.

The observance begins with the Kalash Sthapana on Dashami, the day before Ekadashi, so that the pitcher and its seven grains are already consecrated when the fast itself begins at sunrise on Ekadashi in Phalguna Krishna Paksha. Through that day, the devotee keeps a strict fast from grains, performs puja to Lord Govinda each morning upon the Kalash with yellow flowers and incense, and chants the Rama Raksha Stotram and the Vishnu Sahasranama. As Rama and his companions did at the ocean's edge, the devotee keeps as much of the night as possible in wakeful prayer rather than sleep.

The fast concludes on the morning of Dvadashi with the donation of the consecrated Kalash, together with dakshina, to a Brahmin, followed by Parana, the ritual breaking of the fast. This act of Daan is not an afterthought to the observance but its closing half. The devotee who installed the Kalash on Dashami in anticipation of victory now gives it away entirely on Dvadashi, exactly as Rama's own victory was granted only once the sage's full instruction, including this final gift, had been carried out.

The story's deliberate strangeness is that Rama, already the Supreme Being by the sage's own account, still goes to a hermitage and performs a vrata like any ordinary devotee before a crossing His own divine power could presumably have forced open. Vijaya Ekadashi is kept today less as a fast that guarantees victory automatically than as one that asks the devotee to act, build, and prepare, as Rama, Nala, and Nila did. The fast's merit is trusted to open whatever final door effort alone cannot.