When is Devshayani Ekadashi?
The answer
Wednesday, 14 July 2027
Vishnu sleeps; no weddings until Kartika.
Why that day
- The tithi it is
- Ashadha Shukla 11
Read the ordinary way: the day whose SUNRISE this tithi is running at.
And after that
Sunday, 2 July 2028
Ashadha Shukla 11
Saturday, 21 July 2029
Ashadha Shukla 11
How this date is worked out
A festival is a position, not a date. The lunar month is named by the sidereal sign the Sun stands in at the new moon that opens it, and the tithi is the Moon's distance from the Sun in twelve-degree steps. Both come from the same ephemeris this site casts birth charts with.
North India reckons a month from full moon to full moon, so the dark fortnight carries the next month's name — the same day is Shravana Krishna Tritiya in Pune and Bhadrapada Krishna Tritiya in Delhi. These dates use the northern reckoning, and the tithi is printed above so there is nothing to take on trust.
Why it is kept
Ashadha Shukla Ekadashi — Vishnu goes to sleep for four months from this day and wakes on Devuthani Ekadashi in Kartika. Those four months are the Chaturmas, and that is why marriages, house-warmings and mundans do not happen in them — the most practical fact about this day, and the thing people actually ask. The Chaturmas is the rainy season; by tradition sannyasis stop travelling and stay in one place through it.
The story behind it
King Mandhata
In the Satya Yuga no rain fell in King Mandhata's kingdom for three years. People began to starve.
Angira
The king went into the forest and asked the sage Angira. He said: someone in your kingdom has stepped off his dharma — but the remedy is not punishment.
The vrat
The sage named the Ashadha Shukla Ekadashi vrat. The king kept it with the whole kingdom, and it rained.
Bali and Vamana
In the other story Vamana sent Bali below, but was so pleased with his devotion that he promised to stay with him four months. Those four are the Chaturmas.
The sleep
Hence the other names, Padmanabha or Harishayani Ekadashi — Vishnu sleeping on Shesha in the ocean of milk.
What to keep ready
- An image of Vishnu reclining
- Tulsi — no bhog to Vishnu without it
- Yellow cloth, yellow flowers, sandal
- Panchamrit — milk, curd, ghee, honey, sugar
- A kalash, mango leaves, a coconut
- Seasonal fruit, panjiri, kheer
- One thing you have decided to give up for the Chaturmas
- The Ekadashi vrat katha
How the puja is done
1
Dashami
One sattvik meal the day before and nothing after sunset. The vrat is counted from there.
2
The vow
Bathe, take the sankalp before Vishnu, and with it the Chaturmas sankalp — one thing you will go without for four months.
3
Putting him to sleep
Yellow cloth, sandal and tulsi. By custom the image is laid down today: supte tvayi jagannatha jagat suptam bhavedidam.
4
The reading
The Vishnu Sahasranama or the Ekadashi katha. The night is traditionally kept awake.
5
Giving
Grain, cloth, and an umbrella or slippers — the traditional giving of the rainy month.
6
Parana
Break the fast in the Dwadashi window the next day. Feed someone first.
What to do
- Take the Chaturmas sankalp today, and make it small enough to keep — one thing, four months. That is this day's real work.
- Break the fast inside the Dwadashi window; missing it is the gravest fault of an Ekadashi vrat.
- Keep tulsi on the bhog, but pluck it the day before.
- From today, four months with no marriage, no house-warming, no mundan — if you are fixing a date, look after Devuthani Ekadashi.
- Umbrellas, slippers and grain are the giving the tradition names for the rainy month.
What not to do
- No rice at all today — the clearest rule of Ekadashi.
- Do not pluck tulsi on Ekadashi.
- No marriage, engagement, house-warming, mundan or new construction begun in the Chaturmas.
- No onion, garlic, masoor dal or tamasik food.
- Sleeping in the day and speaking ill of anyone are both out on Ekadashi.
The aarti
Om Jai Jagdish Hare
ॐ जय जगदीश हरे, स्वामी जय जगदीश हरे।
भक्त जनों के संकट, क्षण में दूर करे॥
जो ध्यावे फल पावे, दुख बिनसे मन का।
सुख सम्पत्ति घर आवे, कष्ट मिटे तन का॥
मात-पिता तुम मेरे, शरण गहूँ किसकी।
तुम बिनु और न दूजा, आस करूँ जिसकी॥
तुम पूरण परमात्मा, तुम अंतर्यामी।
पारब्रह्म परमेश्वर, तुम सबके स्वामी॥
तुम करुणा के सागर, तुम पालनकर्ता।
मैं मूरख खल कामी, कृपा करो भर्ता॥
शयन करो हे स्वामी, चार मास तक तुम।
जागो कार्तिक मासे, फिर मंगल हो हम॥
The sky has a calendar. So do you.
The same engine reads your own birth moment — every house, every graha, every period with dates.