kAmada ekAdashi

- Contributed Phanindra Mankale on Sumadhwa forum

Significance:

The Ekadashi that occurs during the light fortnight of Chaitra is named Kamada Ekadashi. It consumes all sins. It is very purifying, and it bestows the highest merit upon one who faithfully observes it. Also interesting to note from the story how a wife saved her husband from curse by performing ekadashi.

On dwadashi day special pooja is offered to Sri Hari using 'damana manjari' a daisy like plant with bluish green leaves and small yellow flowers. This is called damankOtsava. Prior to this pooja, poojas are offered to rati and Manmatha ( Kamadeva )

On the ekadashi day, infront of Sri Hari rati and kama deva idols are installed on a sarvotobhadra mandala. dhavana twigs are also placed along. After kamadeva pooja is done, Keshava idol is installed/invoked in the center and pooja done to Sri Keshava with dhava manjaris along with kama gayatri ( Please talk to your gurus for more detailed info on this pooja ) Kamadeva is worshipped with anthryami deva of Pradhuymna as Sri Hari roopa. It is very auspicious to do pooja to Sri Hari with Dhavana & maruga leaves in the month of Chaitra.

Katha from Purana: ( Padma Puran )

Once, long ago, there was a city named Nagpura and Naga King Pundarika was its ruler. In his court there were Nagas, Gandharvas, Kinnaras, and Apsaras among its citizens.

Among the Gandharvas were Lalit and his wife Lalita, who was a lovely couple. These two were intensely attracted to each other. Lalita loved her husband dearly, and likewise he constantly thought of her within his heart. They were inseparable.

Once, in the court of King Pundarika, many Gandharvas were singing, Lalit was one among them. While singing Lalit could not help thinking about his beloved, and because of this distraction he lost track of the song's melody. Lalit sang the song improperly, and one of the envious snake named kakort who was in attendance at the king's court complained to the king that Lalit ws lost in the thought's of his wife that's because he lost track and sang improperly. The king became furious upon hearing this, and he shouted, 'Oh foolish knave, because you were lustfully thinking of your wife instead of reverently thinking of your king as you performed your court duties, I curse you to at once become a Demon !, a man-eating demon with a terrified apperance.

Lalit immediately became a fearful Demon. His arms were eight miles long, his mouth was as big as a huge cave, his eyes were as awesome as the sun and moon, his nostrils resembled enormous pits in the earth, his neck was a veritable mountain, his hips were four miles wide, and his gigantic body stood a full sixty-four miles high. Thus poor Lalit, the Gandharva singer, had to suffer the reaction of his offense against King Pundarika.

Seeing her husband suffering as a horrible monster, Lalita became overwhelmed with grief. She thought, 'Now that my dear husband is suffering the effects of the kings' curse, what is left for me? What should I do? Where should I go?' In this way Lalita grieved day and night. Instead of enjoying life as a Gandharvas wife, she wandered everywhere in the thick jungle with her husband, who had fallen completely under the spell of the king's curse. He wandered fitfully across forbidding region, a once-beautiful Gandharva now reduced to the behavior of a man-eater.

One day, while wandering in the jungle, Lalita met the sage Shringi . He was sitting on the peak of the Vindhyachala Hmountain. Approaching him, she immediately offered the ascetic her respectful obeisance's. The sage noticed her bowing down before him and said, 'Sister, Who are you and why have you come here? Why you look so gloomy. Please tell me everything in truth.'

Lalita replied, 'Oh Brahmana, my name is Lalita. I wander in the jungle with my dear husband, whom King Pundarika has cursed to become a man-eating demon. I am greatly aggrieved to see him like this. Oh Saint, please tell me how I can perform some act of atonement on behalf of my husband. How can I free him from this demonic form, please help me. The sage replied, 'There is an Ekadashi named Kamada that occurs in the light fortnight of the month of Chaitra. It is coming up soon. Whoever fasts on this day has all his desires fulfilled. If you observe this Ekadashi fast according to its rules and regulations and give the merit you thus earn from your fast to your husband, he will be freed from the curse at once.'

Lalita faithfully observed the fast of Kamada Ekadashi according to the instructions of the sage Shringi, and on Dvadasi she appeared before him and the Deity of Lord Vasudeva and said, '

mayAtaM tadvrataM chIrNM kAmadAyA upOkshaNaM |

tasya puNya prabhAvENa gachChatvatya pishAchatA ||

I have faithfully observed the fast of Kamada Ekadashi. By the merit earned through my observance of this fast, let my husband be free from the curse that has turned him into a beast. May the merit I have gained thus free him from his misery.'

And Lalita's husband, who stood nearby, was at once freed from the king's curse. He immediately regained his original form as the Gandharva Lalit, a handsome heavenly singer adorned with many beautiful ornaments. All this was accomplished by the power and glory of Kamada Ekadashi. At last the Gandharva couple boarded a celestial airplane and ascended to heaven.

Sri Krishna continued, 'Oh Yudhishthira! , anyone who hears this story should certainly observe holy Kamada Ekadashi to the best of his ability, such great merit does it bestow upon the faithful devotee. I have therefore described its glories to you for the benefit of all humanity.

There is no better Ekadashi than Kamada Ekadashi. it also nullifies demoniac curses. In all the three worlds and moreover it grants all the wishes'. Its also equivalent of doing Vajapayee yagna.

Thus ends the narration of "Kamada Ekadashi" from Padma Purana Part-3 uttarakhanda 48th chapter.