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Varuthini Ekadashi � Shri Vallabhachariya Utsav - Vrat Katha
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Falls on: Vaishakh krishna paksh
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Yudhisthir to Vasudev
Yudhisthir said, �Hai Vasudev, I offer my most humble obeisances unto You Please now describe the Ekadashi of Vaisakh krishna paksh, including its specific merits and influence�.
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Dharmaraj Yudhisthir to Shri Krishna
Dharmaraj Yudhisthir said, �Hai Shri Krishna, hai Vasudev, please accept my humble obeisances. Please describe to me the Ekadashi that occurs during sukla paksh of Caitra. What is its name, and what are its glories"?
Shri Krishna explains to Maharaj
Bhagwan Shri Krishna said, �Maharaj, in this world and the next, the most auspicious and magnanimous Ekadashi is Varuthini Ekadashi, which occurs during krishna paksh of Vaisakh. Whoever observes a complete fast on this sacred day, has his sins completely removed, obtains continuous happiness, and achieves all good fortune. Fasting on Varuthini Ekadashi makes even an unfortunate woman fortunate. Upon anyone who observes it, this Ekadashi bestows material enjoyment in this life and liberation after death. It destroys the sins of all and saves people from the miseries of rebirth�.
Bhagwan Shiv�s punishment
�By observing this Ekadashi properly, King Mandhata was liberated. Many other kings also benefited from observing it kings such as Maharaja Dhundhumar, in the Iksvaku dynasty, which became free from leprosy resulting from a curse, Bhagwan Shiv had imposed as a punishment. Whatever merit one obtains, by performing austerities, and penances for ten thousand years is achieved by a person who observes Varuthini Ekadashi. One who observes this Ekadashi fast gains the merit one achieves by donating a great amount of gold during a solar eclipse at Kuruksetra. Indeed, he who observes this one Ekadashi with love and devotion certainly attains his goals in this life and the next. In short, this Ekadashi is pure and very enlivening and a destroyer of all sins�.
All charities are good but cannot gain merits as
1. Better than giving horses in charity, is giving elephants.
2. Better than giving elephants is giving land.
3. Better than giving land is giving sesame seeds.
4. Better than sesame is giving gold.
5. Still better than giving gold is giving food grains, in the name of all the ancestors, Devtas, as human beings become satisfied by eating grains. Thus there is no better charity than this in the past, present, or future.
6. Yet learned scholars have declared that Kaniya Dhan performing a marriage of young girl to a worthy person is equal to giving food grains.
7. Moreover, Shri Krishna has said that giving cows in charity is equal even to giving food grains.
8. Still better than all these charities is teaching spiritual knowledge to the ignorant.
9. Yet the entire merits one can attain, by performing all these acts of charity are attained by one who fasts on Varuthini Ekadashi.�
Dependant on daughter�s wealth
�One who lives on the wealth of his daughters suffers a hellish condition until the inundation of the entire universe, hai Bharata. Therefore, one should be especially careful not to use the wealth of his daughter, a householder, who takes his daughter's wealth, out of greed. Who tries to sell his daughter or who takes money from the man to whom he has given his daughter in marriage-such a householder becomes a lowly cat in his next life. Therefore, it is said that whoever, as a sacred act of charity, gives in marriage a maiden decorated with various ornaments, and who also gives a dowry with her, obtains merit that cannot be described even by Citragupt, the chief secretary of Yamaraj in the heavenly abode. One who fasts on Varuthini Ekadashi, however, can easily achieve that very same merit.�
Condition of Ekadashi fast & Merits
�The following things should be given up on Dashami, the day before Ekadashi. eating on bell-metal plates, eating any kind of urad dal, eating red lentils, eating chick-peas, eating onion, eating spinach, eating honey, eating in another person's home, eating more than once, and sex. On Ekadashi day, itself one should give up the following: gambling, sports, sleeping during the daytime, betel nut and its leaf, brushing one's teeth, spreading rumors, faultfinding, talking to the spiritually fallen, anger, and lying. On Duvadashi, the day after Ekadashi, one should give up the following: eating on bell-metal plates, eating urad dal, red lentils, or honey, lying, strenuous exercise or labor, eating more than once, sex, shaving, smearing oil on one's body, and eating in another's home.� Bhagwan Shri Krishna continued, �Whoever observes Varuthini Ekadashi in this way becomes free from all sinful reactions and returns to the eternal, spiritual abode. One who worships Bhagwan Janardan on this Ekadashi by staying awake throughout the night also becomes free from all his sins and attains to the spiritual abode. Therefore, Maharaj, he who is frightened of his sins and their attendant reactions, and thus of death itself, must observe Varuthini Ekadashi by fasting very strictly�.
�Dharamraj Yudhisthir, he who hears or reads this glorification of the sacred Varuthini Ekadashi obtains the merit earned by donating one thousand cows in charity, and at last he returns home, to the abode of Bhagwan Vishnu�.
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