एकादशी का व्रत: विष्णु का चंद्र-दिन और इसकी असली शक्ति

Frequently asked

Common questions

• When and how do you break an Ekadashi fast the next morning?+

  The fast is broken on Dwadashi, the morning after, and that meal is called parana. Three things decide the timing. Break it after sunrise and not before. Break it while Dwadashi is still running, because letting Dwadashi pass without parana is held to spoil the observance. And many lineages wait out Hari Vasara, the first quarter of Dwadashi, before eating. Both of those windows shift every fortnight with the tithi and they differ by city, so take them from a panchang for your own place rather than from a fixed clock time. The meal itself is light and vegetarian, rice and dal in moderate quantity being the usual choice, and the custom is to give something away, food, money or time, before you eat yourself.

• Which Ekadashi should you start with?+

  Any Shukla paksha Ekadashi is the easier place to begin. The waxing fortnight Ekadashi is the more widely observed of the two and is generally held to be the gentler one physically, while the Krishna paksha Ekadashi is considered more potent for clearing past karma and is harder to keep. Do not start with Nirjala Ekadashi, which is kept without food and without water for a full day and night and is not a beginner's fast. Many people also choose to begin on Devuthani Ekadashi in Kartika, which marks Vishnu's awakening and the reopening of auspicious activity, simply because it is an easy date to remember and to keep returning to.

• Is Ekadashi a good day for a wedding?+

  Ekadashi sits among the tithis muhurta counts as auspicious, and Devuthani Ekadashi in Kartika is the day that traditionally reopens the marriage season after Chaturmas. That is not the same as saying any Ekadashi is a good wedding date. A vivaha muhurat is chosen from the tithi, the nakshatra, the weekday and the two charts read together, and there is also the plain domestic problem that Ekadashi is a fasting day, which sits awkwardly with a wedding feast. Families who fast every Ekadashi usually avoid it for that reason. Have the date chosen properly rather than picked off the tithi alone.

• Where is the Moon on Ekadashi?+

  Ekadashi is the eleventh lunar day of either fortnight, which means the angular distance between the Moon and the Sun has reached 132 degrees in the waxing half or 312 degrees in the waning half. Tithis are measured by that angle rather than by the clock, which is why an Ekadashi does not start at midnight and does not last exactly twenty four hours, and why the fasting and parana windows have to be read off a panchang for your city.

• Who should not keep the Ekadashi fast?+

  Pregnant women, particularly in the first trimester, children under twelve, people with diabetes unless a doctor has agreed a modified protocol, anyone on medication that has to be taken with food, and anyone recovering from illness or surgery. The tradition has a clear alternative for these cases rather than an exemption: observe the day mentally. Read scripture, keep the day simple, make an offering, give something away. The observance was never only about the food.