Dev Uthana Ekadasi 2095

Having heard the greatness of Rama Ekadashi, King Yudhishthira asked Sri Krishna about the Ekadashi of the bright half of Kartika. Sri Krishna said He would tell it as Brahma, the creator of the worlds, once told it to the sage Narada. Narada had asked about Prabodhini, the day on which Lord Vishnu awakens. The Padma Purana gives no tale of a person for this day. Brahma answered with praise of the day itself.

Brahma said, "Listen, best of sages, to the greatness of Prabodhini, which destroys sins, increases merit and gives liberation. Until the Prabodhini of Kartika arrives, all the holy places, the oceans and the lakes go on roaring, and the Ganga roars upon the earth."

"A single fast on Prabodhini gives what a thousand horse sacrifices and a hundred Rajasuya sacrifices give. Haribodhini gives even what is beyond the three worlds. Sins as large as Mount Meru and Mount Mandara are burnt by it, and keeping awake on its night burns the sins of a thousand former lives like a heap of cotton."

"The ancestors of those who keep it with devotion rejoice and live in the world of Vishnu. Even one who has done a terrible sin is freed from the misery of hell and goes to the highest place of Vishnu. What is hard to win by horse sacrifices is won easily by keeping awake for Vishnu on Prabodhini. One who keeps it is truly fortunate, and he alone has purified his family. All the holy places of the three worlds are present in the house of one who keeps Prabodhini. It gives sons and grandsons, and one who keeps it is not born again."

"All the sin done by deed, mind and speech is washed away by Vishnu when a person keeps awake on Prabodhini. The bath, the gift, the prayer and the worship done on this day become endless. Vishnu, worshipped on this day, washes away the sins of childhood, youth and old age, and of hundreds of lives, small or great."

Brahma also praised the stories of Vishnu. "Vishnu is not pleased so much by sacrifices and gifts as by the telling of His stories in Kartika. Those who tell or hear His story, even half a verse or a quarter, gain the merit of a gift of a hundred cows. One who hears the story of Vishnu on the day of His waking gains the fruit of giving away the earth with its seven islands. One who passes Kartika in singing and in sacred study is not born again. One who sings, dances, plays music and hears the story of Vishnu stands above the three worlds."

Last, Brahma praised the tulasi. Tulasi is auspicious when it is seen, touched, thought of, spoken of, praised, planted, watered and worshipped. As long as a tulasi plant someone has planted grows with branches, flowers and leaves, those born in his family live in the house of Vishnu until the end of the world.