Padmini Ekadashi 2235

From the Padma Purana

Padmini Ekadashi is also called Kamala Ekadashi, the name the Padma Purana gives it.

King Yudhishthira asked Sri Krishna about the holy month of Vishnu, the extra month called Purushottama. Krishna said that the Ekadashi which comes in this month is called Kamala, the best of days, and that by its power the goddess Lakshmi becomes kind.

In Avanti there lived a good brahmana named Shivasharman, who had five sons. The youngest, Jayasharman, was cruel and did wrong, so his father and all his relatives cast him out. Driven by his own deeds, he wandered into a distant forest. One day, by good fortune, he came to a great holy place. Thin with hunger and sad of face, he bathed in the Triveni and looked for the hermitages of the sages.

It was the Purushottama month, and many people had gathered there. Jayasharman came upon the fine hermitage of the sage Harimitra. There he heard the brahmanas tell the sacred account of Kamala Ekadashi, which gives both joy and freedom, and he kept the vow with them in a quiet temple.

That night Lakshmi came to him and offered him a boon. In wonder he asked who she was. Was she Indrani, wife of the king of the gods, or Bhavani, wife of Shankara? A gandharva or kinnara maiden, or the wife of the Moon or the Sun? He had never seen or heard of anyone like her.

Lakshmi said she was pleased with him. The god of gods had sent her from Vaikuntha, because at Prayaga, near the sages, he had kept the vow of the bright half of the Purushottama month. Through her favour, men would be born in his family who would rise to good fortune. She told him that this month is the best of months, as Garuda is the best of birds, and that even the gods long to be born in Bharata to worship Narayana. Then she granted him a boon and vanished.

Jayasharman went back to his father's house, now a rich man. Krishna said that whoever keeps this vow and listens to this account is freed from all sins.

Another story

In it the sage Pulastya tells Narada how Kartavirya Arjuna became so mighty that he could hold even Ravana prisoner, until Pulastya had him set free. In the Treta Yuga, King Kartavirya of the Haihaya line ruled from Mahishmati. He had many queens but no son. He left his kingdom to his ministers and went to do penance on Mount Gandhamadana, and his queen, a daughter of King Harishchandra, left her ornaments behind and went with him. After ten thousand years the king was only skin and bone, and still no son had come. Then the queen asked the holy Anasuya for help, and Anasuya told her of the two Ekadashis of the extra month, Padmini and Parama. The queen kept Padmini Ekadashi with devotion. The Lord appeared and granted her wish for her husband, and the king asked for a son whom none but the Lord could defeat. Their son was Kartavirya Arjuna, whom even Ravana could not overcome.