Apara Ekadasi 2203

King Yudhishthira asked Sri Krishna the name and the greatness of the Ekadashi of the dark half of Jyeshtha (Purnimanta; Vaishakha in Amanta). The Padma Purana gives no tale of a person for this day. Sri Krishna answered with praise of the day itself.

"You have asked well, for the good of the people," He said. "This Ekadashi is called Apara, and its fruit has no end. Whoever keeps it becomes famous in the world."

Sri Krishna said that Apara frees even those weighed down by the gravest sins. One who has killed a brahmana or his own kin, one who has destroyed an unborn child, one who speaks ill of others or desires the wives of others, is freed from sin by it. So are those bound for hell for deceit: the false witness, the one who cheats with false weights and measures, the one who studies false scriptures, the false astrologer and the false physician. A kshatriya who abandons his duty and flees from battle falls to a fierce hell, but by Apara he sheds his sin and goes to heaven. A disciple who speaks ill of his own teacher falls to a fearful hell, but by Apara he too reaches a good end.

Then Sri Krishna described its greatness by comparing it with the holiest acts. The fruit of Apara equals the merit of bathing at Prayaga in Magha when the sun is in Makara, of bathing at Kashi on the day of an eclipse, and of offering pindas to the ancestors at Gaya. It equals bathing in the Gautami when Jupiter is in Simha, and in the Krishnaveni when Jupiter is in Kanya. It equals seeing Kumbhakedara, the pilgrimage to Badarikashrama, and bathing at Kurukshetra at a holy time. It equals a sacrifice with rich gifts of elephants, horses and gold, and the gift of a cow that has just calved, of gold or of land.

"This vow," said Sri Krishna, "is an axe to the tree of sin, a forest fire to the fuel of sin, the sun to the darkness of sin, and a lion to the deer of sin. Those who live without it are born only to die, like bubbles on water or ants among creatures. One who keeps Apara and worships Vishnu is freed from every sin and honoured in the world of Vishnu."

Sri Krishna said that He told this for the good of the people, and that whoever tells or hears it gains the merit of a gift of a thousand cows.