Akhaṇḍa Ekādaśī Vrata
Akhaṇḍa Ekādaśī Vrata, simply known as Akhanda Ekadashi Vrata, Sanskrit: अखण्ड एकादशी व्रत, Telugu: అఖండ ఏకాదశి వ్రతం, Hindi: अखंड एकादशी व्रत.
The Akhaṇḍa Ekādaśī Vrata is the unbroken keeping of the Ekādaśī fast for a full year, through every three-day cycle of Daśamī, Ekādaśī and Dvādaśī in both fortnights of the lunar month. It is offered to Bhagavān Vishṇu. It is taught in the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Mārgaśīrsha Māsa Māhātmya, Chapters 12 and 13. It is called akhaṇḍa (unbroken) because it must be kept without a break, and above all without the error of keeping the Dvādaśī vow when it is overlapped by Daśamī.
The text presents this vrata as the one that raised a Śūdra, through the merit his grandson gave him, into King Vīrabāhu, a king devoted to Bhagavān Vishṇu. Its merit, given by the keeper to an ancestor, frees that ancestor from many births in naraka (hell).
The grave error of the Daśamī-overlapped Dvādaśī
The foundation of this teaching is the error of keeping the Dvādaśī vow when the Dvādaśī tithi is overlapped by Daśamī. Devaśarma tells the Śūdra that in a former birth the Śūdra was a pious brāhmaṇa at Avantī, devoted to virtue and the Vedas. Once he kept the Dvādaśī fast when Daśamī overlapped it. Because of that pāpa (sin) all his puṇya (merit) was lost and everything became useless. He then suffered the torments of naraka for many thousands of years.
The mind stained by a Daśamī-overlapped Dvādaśī feels no wish for virtue. This was the cause of his birth as a Śūdra with a leaning toward pāpa. The Skanda Mahā Purāṇa gives this in Mārgaśīrsha Māsa Māhātmya, Chapter 12.
Redemption through merit given by another
The Śūdra had a daughter, and her son lived in Vidarbha. He had kept the Akhaṇḍa Ekādaśī Vrata correctly and gave its merit to his mother’s father, the Śūdra. This gift, together with the Śūdra’s kindness to Devaśarma as a guest, freed the Śūdra completely.
Yama himself wiped away the pāpa of the Daśamī overlap, the pāpa of ten thousand births, and the pāpa of that birth. Then Bhagavān Vishvaksena, who is Bhagavān Vishṇu himself, appeared riding Garuḍa and said:
“O Śūdra, I, Janārdana, am pleased with you. Because you honoured the brāhmaṇa as a guest, your pāpa has been destroyed. By the merit another gave you from the Ekādaśī Vrata, your pāpa from the overlap of Daśamī has been destroyed. Your grandson kept the vrata and gave you the merit. Therefore you are redeemed.”
The Śūdra and his wife then mounted the aerial chariot and went to svarga (heaven). Later they were born as King Vīrabāhu and Queen Kāntimatī. This is from Chapter 12.
The vidhi: the three-day cycle
The vrata is kept over each sequence of three days, Daśamī, Ekādaśī and Dvādaśī, throughout the year.
Daśamī
Take one meal, naktabhojana, at the eighth part of the day, when the sun grows dim. It is not taken at night. Avoid these ten things:
- eating from bell-metal vessels
- meat
- the masūra pulse
- canaka (chickpea)
- kodrāva grain
- greens
- honey
- other men’s food
- a second meal
- sexual intercourse
Ekādaśī
Keep a complete fast (upavāsa). Avoid these ten things:
- drinking water again and again
- violence
- unclean habits
- untruthfulness
- chewing betel
- brushing the teeth
- sleeping by day
- sexual intercourse by day
- playing dice
- sleeping at night, and talking with fallen persons
The mantra of the day:
“Today I am not going to enjoy my wife, O Keśava. I will not take my food today. To please you, O Deveśa, I keep these restraints day and night.”
Dvādaśī
Take a single meal (eka-bhukta). Avoid the ten Daśamī items, together with other men’s food (parānna) and honey or liquor (madhu). The mantra:
“Today I am keeping the holy Dvādaśī. I shall break my fast. O Bhagavān Vishṇu, whose banner bears Garuḍa, be pleased. By your favour I shall feed an excellent brāhmaṇa today.”
What upavāsa means
Bhagavān Vishṇu says that upavāsa does not mean only starving the body. It means that the person has kept away from pāpa and lives with good qualities. This is from Chapter 12.
The udyāpana
At the end of the year the udyāpana (concluding rite) is done, best in the bright fortnight of Mārgaśīrsha. The text says that failing to do the udyāpana brings blindness and leprosy.
Those present are twelve brāhmaṇas who know the procedure, and a thirteenth, the ācārya (preceptor), with his wife.
- The sponsor takes his holy bath and puts on clean clothes, with faith and control of the senses.
- The ācārya draws a maṇḍala with coloured powders, in the shape of the Sudarśana cakra, a lotus, or the Sarvatobhadra.
- A pot covered with white cloth is set on the maṇḍala. It is filled with water scented with camphor and aloewood, and holds five precious stones and five tender sprouts. A copper pot wrapped in red cloth, with garlands, is placed on it.
- A gold Lakshmī-Nārāyaṇa mūrti is set above. It weighs one karsha and is four aṅgulas tall, with its vehicle and weapons.
- Pāñcajanya is worshipped to the east of the maṇḍala.
- A fire altar is made to the north. The sponsor makes the saṅkalpa and offers homa with Vaishṇava Vedic mantras.
- The Purushasūkta pūjā is done. Japa (repetition) is made of the Pāvamanīya, the Madhusūkta and the Maṇḍalabrāhmaṇa, and of the particular sequences of mantras.
- For the homa, 101 pālāśa twigs, each a span long and soaked in ghee, are offered with the mantra “Idam Vishṇu…”. Ghee is offered four times. There are 101 main homas and 202 homas with sesame seed. Then the Grahayajña is done with caru (cooked rice offering).
- Gifts are given to the ṛtviks (priests): a milch cow, a splendid bull, 13 plots of land, clothes for the ācārya and his wife, 16 kinds of great gifts (including the Tulāpurusha), and 25 water pots wrapped in cloth. The full pot given to the ācārya completes the rite.
This is from Chapter 12.
Sources
- Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Mārgaśīrsha Māsa Māhātmya, Chapters 12–13