Bhishma (Jaya) Ekadasi 1960

King Yudhishthira asked Sri Krishna about the Ekadashi of the bright half of Magha. Sri Krishna said that it is called Jaya. It destroys even the sin of killing a brahmana. Then He told an ancient story.

Once, in Indra's heaven, in the Nandana grove full of parijata trees, Indra, in joyful mood, had the apsaras dance while the gandharvas sang. Among them was the gandharva Pushpadantaka, and also Chitrasena, with his wife and his daughter Malini. Malini's daughter was Pushpadanti. Pushpadantaka's son was named Malyavan.

Malyavan was captivated by Pushpadanti's beauty, and she held him with her glances. The two came to dance and sing to please Indra, but they were so taken with each other that their minds wandered. They looked only at each other, and they did not sing as they should.

Indra saw that their hearts were bound to each other and took it as an insult. In anger he cursed them. "Shame on you, fallen ones, you have disobeyed me. Become goblins, husband and wife, and go to the world of mortals to reap the fruit of your deed."

Struck by the curse, the two came to the Himalaya mountains as goblins. They forgot that they had ever been gandharvas. They suffered terribly from the snow and the cold. Their teeth chattered as they wandered among the caves.

The goblin said to his wife, "What dreadful sin have we committed to fall into this state? Hell is fearful, and to be a goblin is painful. One should take every care never to sin."

By good fortune, the Ekadashi of Magha named Jaya came. On that day the two ate nothing and drank no water. They killed no living creature and ate neither leaves nor fruit. Full of grief, they stayed beside an ashvattha tree. The sun set and a terrible night came. Trembling, they held each other close and lay on the bare ground, and they could not sleep at all.

So the night passed, and the sun rose on the twelfth day. Without knowing it they had kept the vow of Jaya and had stayed awake through the night. Sri Krishna said, "I thought in My heart of their freedom." By the power of Vishnu their goblin bodies fell away. Pushpadanti and Malyavan took back their old forms, with their old love and their old ornaments. They rose in a heavenly chariot and went to heaven, and bowed before Indra.

Amazed, Indra asked how they had been freed from his curse. Malyavan said, "By the grace of Vishnu, by the vow of Jaya, and by the strength of our devotion to you." Indra said, "You are pure now, and worthy of honour even from me. Those who keep the day of Vishnu are honoured by us too."

Sri Krishna said that whoever keeps Jaya has, as it were, given every gift and performed every sacrifice. Whoever tells or hears this story gains the merit of the Agnishtoma sacrifice.