Kamada Ekadashi

In the Padma Purana, the sage Vasishtha tells King Dilipa that Kamada Ekadashi of Chaitra's bright fortnight is most holy, a forest fire to the fuel of sin. It destroys sins such as killing a brahmin and ends the pishacha state. No tithi in the three worlds is greater, and reading or hearing its katha brings the fruit of the Vajapeya sacrifice.

According to the katha, while singing in the court of the serpent king Pundarika in Nagapura, the Gandharva Lalit began thinking of his wife Lalita and lost the measure of his song. When the serpent Karkotaka told him, Pundarika in anger cursed him to become a man-eating rakshasa, and Lalit became a hideous rakshasa eight yojanas tall.

Weeping, Lalita wandered the forests with her husband. At a hermitage, a sage of peaceful form told her to keep the Kamada Ekadashi vow and give its merit to her husband. Lalita fasted, and on Dwadashi, before Lord Vasudeva, offered the merit. In that instant Lalit's rakshasa state left him, and the two rode a celestial chariot, lovelier than before.

Devotees bathe in the morning, take the vow, worship Lord Vishnu and hear the Kamada Ekadashi katha. The fast is kept without water, with water only or with fruit, as one is able.

In the katha Lalita offered the vow's merit to her husband, so on this Ekadashi many devotees also keep the fast with the resolve of easing a family member's suffering. The next day, on Dwadashi, alms are given and the fast is broken within the prescribed parana muhurat.