Apara Ekadashi
Lord Vishnu
When it falls
The date shifts because it tracks the moon, not the Gregorian calendar.
Calculated for India (IST) using precise Panchang astronomy. Dates can shift by a day at locations far to the east or west.
What Apara Ekadashi grants
Apara Ekadashi is one of the twenty-four Ekadashis kept across the year for Vishnu, and falls on the eleventh day (Ekadashi) of the dark, waning fortnight (Krishna Paksha) of the month of Jyeshtha. The word apara means boundless or limitless, and that is the promise the tradition attaches to it: the merit (punya) earned by keeping this particular fast is described as without measure. It is sometimes also called Achala Ekadashi or Bhadrakali Ekadashi in different regions.
The phala, or fruit, of this Ekadashi is described in the Puranic account that Krishna gives to Yudhishthira: the fast is said to wash away even grave faults — the kind of wrongdoing a person carries with a heavy conscience — and to free the observer from them. In plain terms, it is kept as a day of self-correction and devotion, when a person sets ordinary appetites aside, turns the mind to Vishnu, and lets the discipline of the fast stand in for a fresh start.
Ekadashi recurs twice in every lunar month — once in the bright fortnight and once in the dark — so there are roughly two dozen across the year, each with its own name and story. Apara Ekadashi is the Jyeshtha one in the dark fortnight, falling in the early-summer stretch of May or June. The practice on each is broadly the same: a fast for Vishnu, a quiet day of remembrance, and the parana, or breaking of the fast, the next morning.
Rituals & observance
The observance is a fast for Vishnu kept through the Ekadashi day and broken the next morning. Families keep it more or less strictly, but the common elements are these:
- Keep a fast through the day. The strictest form takes nothing, including water (nirjala); a common lighter form allows water, fruit, milk and other non-grain food. Elders, children, the unwell, and pregnant women take a gentler version or skip it.
- Avoid grains, rice, beans and lentils for the day — these are traditionally set aside on every Ekadashi — along with onion, garlic and any non-vegetarian food.
- Worship Vishnu at home: bathe and dress early, light a lamp, offer tulsi leaves, flowers and fruit, and recite his names or the Vishnu Sahasranama.
- Read or listen to the Apara Ekadashi katha (the story of its merit) and keep the mind on devotion rather than ordinary distractions; many stay awake into the night in prayer.
- Give in charity (daan) — food, water, or cooling things suited to the early-summer heat — which is held to be especially fitting on this day.
- Break the fast (parana) the next morning, on Dwadashi, within the prescribed window after sunrise and before the Dwadashi tithi ends. The parana is begun at the right time ({{muhurat.pujaTime}}), traditionally by first eating grains again.
Regional variations
How this date is determined
Observed on the Ekadashi tithi of Jyeshtha (Krishna paksha), reckoned by sunrise (udaya tithi).
Dates are computed to astronomical precision (NASA/JPL ephemeris), in line with traditional panchang.
