Mohini Ekadasi 1964

King Yudhishthira asked Sri Krishna about the Ekadashi of the bright half of Vaishakha. Sri Krishna said that Sri Rama had once asked the sage Vasishtha the very same thing. Rama had said, "I have known the sorrow of being parted from Sita, and I am afraid. Tell me the best of vows, which destroys all sins and cuts off all sorrow."

Vasishtha said, "Rama, a person is purified merely by saying your name. Still, for the good of the people, I will tell you. The Ekadashi of the bright half of Vaishakha is called Mohini. By its power people are freed from the noose of delusion and from heaps of sin. Listen to its story."

On the lovely bank of the Sarasvati there was a holy city named Bhadravati. Its king was Dyutiman, of the lunar race. In that city lived a vaishya named Dhanapala, rich in wealth and grain. He did many good works. He built wells, temples, gardens and tanks. He was devoted to Vishnu and was calm by nature.

Dhanapala had five sons, Sumana, Dyutiman, Medhavi, Sukrita and Dhrishtabuddhi. The fifth, Dhrishtabuddhi, was always given to great sins. He chased the wives of others and loved gambling and drink. He wasted his father's money and wandered the crossroads with harlots. At last his father drove him out of the house and his kinsmen left him. When he had spent everything, even the ornaments on his body, the harlots too abandoned him. He was left hungry and without clothes.

He began to steal in his father's own city. The king's men caught him, and for his father's sake they let him go. At last he was chained and whipped. The king set him free with the words, "Foolish one, you shall not live in my kingdom."

In fear Dhrishtabuddhi fled into a dense forest. Driven by hunger and thirst, he became a hunter. With bow and quiver he killed deer, boars and birds, and lived on their flesh.

Then, by some small store of merit, he reached the hermitage of the sage Kaundinya, who had just bathed in the Ganga in the month of Vaishakha. A light touch of the sage's garment took away his sins and his ill fortune. Dhrishtabuddhi stood before the sage with joined palms and said, "Greatest of brahmanas, take pity on me. Tell me the merit by which I may be saved."

Kaundinya said, "Keep the vow of the Ekadashi called Mohini. On it, sins as large as Mount Meru, gathered over many lives, are destroyed."

Glad at heart, Dhrishtabuddhi kept the vow as the sage taught him. His sins vanished. He took on a divine body and rode on Garuda to the world of Vishnu, which is free from all trouble.

Vasishtha said that in all three worlds nothing is greater than Mohini. Sacrifices, pilgrimages and gifts are not equal to a sixteenth of it, and whoever tells or hears this story gains the merit of a gift of a thousand cows.