Hemamālin and Yoginī Ekādaśī

The Yoginī Ekādaśī is the Ekādaśī (the eleventh day) of the dark fortnight of the month of Āshāḍha. Chapter 52 of the Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa explains it through the account of Hemamālin, a yaksha who gathered flowers for Kubera in the city of Alakā. Kṛshṇa tells this account to Yudhishṭhira.

Hemamālin’s failure

Hemamālin was a yaksha servant of Kubera, the lord of wealth, and he lived in the city of Alakā. His duty was to go every day to the Mānasa lake and bring back the finest lotuses. With these Kubera did his midday pūjā to Bhagavān Śiva. The duty could not be put off. It was Kubera’s own pūjā to Bhagavān Śiva, and it depended wholly on Hemamālin’s daily service.

One day Hemamālin stayed at home with his beautiful wife Viśālākshī. He was so fond of her that he lost all sense of time, and he gave himself up to pleasure. He did not fetch the flowers. Kubera waited in his temple through midday, and then asked his yaksha servants why Hemamālin had not come. They told him that Hemamālin was enjoying himself at home with his wife.

Kubera’s curse

The king of the yakshas was angry that his pūjā to Bhagavān Śiva had been stopped. He called for Hemamālin, who came in haste, unwashed and still untidy from being with his wife, and stood before Kubera shaking with fear.

Kubera’s eyes were red and his lips shook. He laid a fierce śāpa (curse) on Hemamālin. He would at once be parted from his wife, and his body would be struck by the eighteen kinds of leprosy. Hemamālin was driven out of Alakā on the spot.

Hemamālin fell from there, and the full weight of the curse came upon his body. In the day he had no peace, and at night he could not sleep. The pain never stopped. But some of his earlier puṇya (merit) was still with him, the puṇya from his long service in Kubera’s pūjā to Bhagavān Śiva. Because of it he kept the memory of his former life. He did not forget who he was or what he had lost.

The meeting with Mārkaṇḍeya

Hemamālin wandered in misery from the place where he had fallen, and he came to the Himālaya, the highest and holiest of mountains. There he found the āśrama of the great ṛshi Mārkaṇḍeya. This ṛshi lived so long that one hair of his body fell with each kalpa that passed, and he was almost as old as Brahmā.

Hemamālin came near from a respectful distance, bowed at the ṛshi’s feet, and stood before him shaking. Mārkaṇḍeya was kind by nature. He called Hemamālin to him and asked why he was suffering so. Hemamālin told him everything. He said who he was, Kubera’s flower-gatherer. He told of his failure, the curse, his misery now, and his parting from Viśālākshī.

The Yoginī vow

Mārkaṇḍeya said that Hemamālin had spoken the truth and hidden nothing, and he praised him for it. He then taught him an auspicious vow, the Yoginī Ekādaśī of the dark fortnight of Āshāḍha. Mārkaṇḍeya promised that through the puṇya of keeping this Ekādaśī, the eighteen kinds of leprosy on Hemamālin would surely and completely go away.

Hemamālin threw himself down before the ṛshi like a stick on the ground. Mārkaṇḍeya lifted him up with his own hands. Full of thanks and faith, Hemamālin kept the Yoginī vow exactly as the ṛshi had taught. The result was complete and at once. All eighteen kinds of leprosy left his body. Hemamālin became happy, was joined again with Viśālākshī, and went back to his former state.

What Kṛshṇa says of the vow

Kṛshṇa tells Yudhishṭhira that the Yoginī vow is like an ancient boat for all who are sunk in the ocean of worldly life. Its fruit equals that of feeding eighty-eight thousand brāhmaṇas. It removes great pāpa (sin) and gives the fruit of great puṇya.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 52