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.
Significance & story
Yogini Ekadashi is one of the twenty-four Ekadashis kept each year for Vishnu — the eleventh lunar day (Ekadashi) of the dark, waning fortnight of the month of Ashadha, usually falling in June or July. Every Ekadashi is treated as a day of fasting and inward turning, and each carries its own name and its own story; Yogini Ekadashi is the one held to release the keeper from the weight of past wrongdoing.
Its story, told in the Brahmavaivarta Purana as recounted by Krishna to Yudhishthira, concerns Hemamali, a yaksha in the service of Kubera, the lord of wealth. Charged with bringing flowers each day for Kubera's worship of Shiva, Hemamali was so lost in love for his wife that he failed in his duty; Kubera, finding the worship undone, cursed him with leprosy and separation from her. Wandering in misery, he came to the sage Markandeya, who advised him to keep the fast of Yogini Ekadashi. By that observance he is said to have been freed of the disease and restored to his old life — which is why the day is associated with cleansing and release rather than with any single deity beyond Vishnu himself.
As with the other Ekadashis, the merit attached to the day is described in the texts in large, deliberately striking terms — the fast is said to equal the feeding of many learned people, and to wash away sins of long standing. These are traditional measures of its importance within the vrat literature; the day itself is kept simply, as one of restraint, worship, and remembrance.
Rituals & observance
How Yogini Ekadashi is observed:
- Fasting (vrat) is the heart of the day. Many keep a full fast without food or water; others take a single light meal of permitted foods. The fast is begun after the Dashami (the day before) and held through Ekadashi.
- Grains, beans and lentils are avoided. What is taken instead is fruit, milk and dairy, root vegetables and nuts — the phalahar (fruit-diet) foods common to all Ekadashi fasts. Onion, garlic and ordinary cereals are set aside.
- Worship of Vishnu — usually as the form Krishna — with a lamp, tulsi (holy basil) leaves, flowers and fruit, often with readings or chanting from the Bhagavata or recitation of Vishnu's names.
- Keeping a night vigil (jagran) with bhajans and recitation is common among those who observe the day strictly, the wakefulness itself treated as part of the devotion.
- Acts of charity (daan) — giving food, clothing or water to those in need — are considered fitting to the day and part of the merit ascribed to it.
- Breaking the fast (parana) the next morning, on Dwadashi: food is taken after sunrise and within the parana window, before the Dwadashi tithi ends. It is traditional to give food or a small gift before eating, and to break the fast on grains.
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.
