Recurring / Fortnightly · Twice every month, year-round
Also known as Ekadashi Vrata · Ekadashi Fasting
When it's kept
Recurring or moving vrats are best checked against this month's panchang for the exact next date.
Significance
Ekadashi is the most widely observed recurring vrat in the Vaishnava tradition, kept to purify body and mind, build self-discipline, and draw the grace of Lord Vishnu. Puranic texts describe each of the roughly twenty-four Ekadashis in a year as carrying its own specific merit, from relief of debt to freedom from cyclic rebirth.
The story
The Padma Purana tells of the demon Mura, who could not be defeated even by Vishnu's weapons. Vishnu created a female form, Ekadashi Devi, from his own being; she destroyed Mura, and a pleased Vishnu granted her a boon — that observing a fast in her name, on the eleventh tithi, would free a devotee from sin. Each subsequent Ekadashi in the lunar calendar came to be treated as her day.
Rituals
Across India
Observance varies by tradition and capacity: strict Vaishnava households keep a nirjala (no food, no water) fast, most keep a phalahar (fruit-permitted) fast, and some observe only a partial abstention from grains. Nirjala Ekadashi, in the month of Jyeshtha, is singled out as the one Ekadashi said to carry the merit of all the others combined, and is kept even by those who do not fast on the others.
Questions
Ekadashi is the eleventh tithi (lunar day) of each fortnight, observed as a fasting vow dedicated to Lord Vishnu. It is kept twice a month, believed to purify body and mind and to bring the grace of Vishnu.
It depends on the individual's tradition and capacity. Some devotees keep a nirjala (waterless) fast, but most permit water and fruit; a few take a single grain-free meal. There is no single universal rule beyond avoiding grains and beans.
The fast is broken (parana) the following morning, on the twelfth tithi (Dwadashi), within a specific time window given by the panchang — breaking it too early or too late is considered to reduce the vrat's merit.
Nirjala Ekadashi, falling in the month of Jyeshtha (May–June), is observed without food or water and is said to carry the combined merit of all the year's other Ekadashis — it is kept even by many who do not fast on the rest.
Book a pooja in your name, or check this month’s panchang for the exact next date.
