Kamada Ekadasi 2202

King Yudhishthira asked about the Ekadashi of the bright half of Chaitra. Sri Krishna told him an old and holy tale that the sage Vasishtha once told King Dilipa, when Dilipa asked the same question.

Vasishtha said, "The Ekadashi of the bright half of Chaitra is called Kamada. It is most auspicious, and it is a fire to the fuel of sins. Listen to its story."

Long ago there was a beautiful city named Nagapura, adorned with gold and jewels, where mighty nagas lived. Their king Pundarika ruled there, and gandharvas, kinnaras and apsaras served him. Among them were the gandharva Lalit and the apsara Lalita, husband and wife. They loved each other deeply. He was always in her heart, and she was always in his.

One day King Pundarika was at ease in his assembly, and Lalit was singing and dancing before him, but his wife was not with him. Thinking of Lalita, his tongue slipped and he sang the words wrongly. The great naga Karkotaka saw what was in his mind and reported the mistake to the king.

Pundarika's eyes grew red with anger. He cursed Lalit: "Wicked one, because you sing before me with your mind on your wife, become a demon who eats raw flesh and men."

At once Lalit took a demon's form. His arms were a yojana long and his mouth was like a cave. His body rose eight yojanas high.

Lalita was overcome with grief to see her husband so changed. "What shall I do? Where shall I go? My husband suffers under the curse," she thought, and she found no peace. She went with him into a dense forest. Weeping, Lalita wandered at his side.

At last she saw a lovely hermitage and a sage of peaceful form. She went quickly to him and bowed. The kind sage asked, "Who are you? Why have you come here? Tell me the truth."

She said, "I am Lalita, daughter of the noble gandharva Viradhanva. I have come for my husband's sake. Because of a sin he has become a fierce demon. Tell me what merit will free him."

The sage said, "It is now the bright half of Chaitra, in which falls the great Kamada Ekadashi, which destroys sins. Keep its vow as I tell you and give its merit to your husband. When the merit is given, his sin will leave him in a moment."

Lalita was overjoyed. She kept the vow, and then, near a brahmana and before Lord Vishnu, she said, "I have kept the Kamada vow. By the power of its merit, let his demon state go." The moment she spoke, his sins went away. He became a gandharva again, with a divine form. The two, more lovely than before, rose in a fine heavenly chariot, shining by the power of Kamada.

Vasishtha said that nothing in the three worlds is greater than this vow, and whoever tells or hears its story gains the fruit of the Vajapeya sacrifice.