Gauna Yogini 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.
Why Yogini Ekadashi can appear twice in the calendar
Gauna Yogini Ekadashi is not another monthly Ekadashi with a different story. It is a second observance date for Yogini Ekadashi, the Vishnu fast of Ashadha Krishna Paksha. The word gauna marks the later or secondary observance used by a Vaishnava fasting tradition when the lunar day's relation to sunrise does not permit everyone to keep the vrat on the same civil date.
In the sunrise-skipped configuration represented on this page, Ekadashi begins after sunrise on the first day and ends before sunrise on the next. The tithi is real, but it never owns a sunrise. Smarta and Vaishnava rules handle that exceptional sequence differently: the ordinary Yogini entry is assigned to the earlier date, while the Gauna or Vaishnava fast is kept on the later day, often under a Mahadwadashi rule.
The meaning of the vrat does not change. Worship remains directed to Vishnu, and the traditional Yogini Ekadashi account of Hemamali, duty and release remains the relevant story. What changes is the fasting discipline: the later observer must use the Gauna day's sankalpa and the parana window calculated for the following morning, not the ordinary Yogini parana printed for the previous date.
Rituals & observance
Treat this as a calendar-rule distinction, not as a requirement to fast twice. Follow the tradition used by your family, temple or guru, and use timings calculated for your location.
- Choose one observance: Smarta households normally follow the ordinary Yogini Ekadashi date; Vaishnava households may follow the Gauna or Vaishnava date. Do not combine both into an unsupported two-day fast merely because both entries appear.
- Confirm the local sankalpa date: the split depends on sunrise and tithi end times, so use a panchang set to your city. A date copied from another country or time zone can select the wrong civil day.
- Keep the Vaishnava Ekadashi discipline: avoid grains, beans and lentils. Depending on health and inherited practice, the fast may be nirjala, water-only or phalahar with fruit, milk and permitted non-grain foods.
- Worship Vishnu: light a lamp, offer tulsi, flowers and fruit, recite Vishnu's names, and read or hear the Yogini Ekadashi vrata katha. The later date changes the calendar rule, not the deity or story.
- Use the Gauna parana: break the fast on the morning after the Gauna observance, within the Vaishnava parana window shown for that date. Do not use the ordinary Yogini parana, which belongs to observers who fasted one day earlier.
- Protect health: children, older people, pregnant people and anyone managing illness or medication should not copy a strict nirjala fast without appropriate guidance. The calendar distinction does not require unsafe fasting.
Regional variations
How this date is determined
Observed on the Ekadashi tithi of Ashadha (Krishna paksha), reckoned by sunrise (udaya tithi).
Dates are computed to astronomical precision (NASA/JPL ephemeris), in line with traditional panchang.
