Ekadashi 2024 - Ekadashi Tithi Vrat

What is Ekadashi?

Ekadashi refers to the 11th day after the full moon and the 11th day after the new moon. It refers to the eleventh day of a fortnight in a lunar month. There are two fortnights in a lunar month – the bright and the dark. So, Ekadasi occurs twice in a month, in the bright fortnight and the dark fortnight. During this period the human composition under goes a process called a mandala, approximately every 40-48 days. During this cycle comes three days when the human body does not demand any food, these three days may vary from person to person and need not come with equal spacing. It is said that if a person identifies these three days and gives his body no food as it is not demanding any then he/she might be able to help them out with many of their health issues.

The story of Ekadashi beings when some of the demigods who were vanquished by the terror of the demon Mura came to Lord Vishnu for help. After hearing the plight of the demigods Lord Vishnu immediately approached Mura and a fierce fight started between both of them. At first Lord Vishnu easily killed all the demons who were accompanying Mura but the actual fight between Lord Vishnu and Mura went on for 1000 celestial years. After some time Lord Vishnu gave his devotees the honour of killing Mura by themselves, and he himself retired into a cave in the Himalayas to rest. Mura seeing the Lord sleeping wanted to attack the lord. As he slowly approached Lord Vishnu, a young girl appeared from within the Lord and beheaded Mura. When the Lord woke up he saw the girl and the dead Mura and asked her who she was, in reply to this the girl said that she is Maha Shakti one of the internal potency of the Lord, who was born with Eleven (Ekadashi) Indriyas (Senses)n of the Lord Vishnu. She proclaimed that she was his eternal saviour. Hearing this Lord Vishnu was pleased and asked her to ask for any help. The girl asked for few benefits: -She asked Lord Vishnu to grant her his blessing so that becomes the one to be always chosen and loved one of the Lords. That she becomes the topmost of all the tithi’s , She also asked Lord Vishnu to grant her such powers that she is capable of destroying all the sins and also wanted him to grant her the powers of making the life of people happier.

It is believed by many people that observing a fast on these three days within the cycle of 40-48 days is very auspicious. The reason behind this thinking is that it is believed that the planet itself is in a certain state on this day that id we keep our body light on this day it will help us turn our awareness inwards. In other words, we can say that the possibility of opening of the door within is more on this day as compared to the other days.