Mohini Ekadashi

In the Padma Purana, Lord Krishna tells Yudhishthira that Shri Ram once asked the sage Vasishtha this same question: which is the finest vow, the one that destroys every sin and removes every sorrow. Vasishtha named Mohini Ekadashi of Vaishakh's bright fortnight, by whose power a person is freed from the net of delusion and from heaps of sin.

According to the katha, the Chandravanshi King Dhritiman ruled the city of Bhadravati on the banks of the Saraswati. In that city lived Dhanapala, a wealthy and virtuous merchant who built water-stalls, wells, monasteries, gardens and ponds for others. He had five sons: Sumana, Dyutiman, Medhavi, Sukrita and Dhrishtabuddhi. The youngest, Dhrishtabuddhi, was sunk in gambling and bad company and squandered his father's wealth.

One day his father saw him wandering at a crossroads with his arm around a courtesan's neck and turned him out of the house, and his kin abandoned him too. Wandering in misery, in the month of Vaishakh he reached the ashram of the sage Kaundinya, who had just returned from bathing in the Ganga. Kaundinya told him to keep the Mohini Ekadashi fast, which destroys even mountain-sized sins of many lifetimes. Keeping it with due rites, Dhrishtabuddhi became free of sin, took a divine form and rode on Garuda to Vishnu's abode.

Devotees bathe in the morning, take the vow, worship Lord Vishnu and listen to the story of Dhrishtabuddhi. According to the Padma Purana, reading and hearing this mahatmya brings the merit of giving a thousand cows.

Many traditions also hold that Lord Vishnu took his Mohini form at the churning of the ocean on this very tithi, and because of the shared name this Ekadashi is linked to that episode as well. The Purana's own katha does not include it; there, 'Mohini' is the tithi that frees one from delusion (moha).

The fast is broken the next day, on Dwadashi, within the prescribed parana muhurat. This Ekadashi comes a few days after Akshaya Tritiya, during the holy month of Vaishakh.