Rama Ekadashi

What is Rama Ekadashi?

Rama Ekadashi falls in the waning half of Kartika, and the Brahma-vaivarta Purana gives its name as Ramaa. In 2027 devotees fast on Tuesday, 26 October.

Significance

Lord Sri Krishna tells Maharaja Yudhishthira that the Ekadashis of the waning moon and of the waxing moon bring the same high merit, just as the milk of a black cow is as good as that of a white one. The Purana also shows how seriously Ekadashi was kept. On Dasami, the day before, King Muchukunda had a kettledrum sounded to announce that no one in his kingdom was to eat on Ekadashi. Even the animals were given no grain.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave the day the same weight. He once asked His mother, Srimati Sacidevi, for a single gift in charity: that she give up grains on Ekadashi. From then on she kept the fast. The Purana closes its account of this Ekadashi with a promise:

Anyone who simply hears this narration of the glories of the sacred day of Ramaa Ekadasi, is freed from all kinds of sin and attains the supreme abode of Lord Vishnu.

Brahma-vaivarta Purana, glories of Rama Ekadasi

How to observe it

Avoid grains and beans, chant more of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, and set aside time to hear the story of Shobhana and Chandrabhaga. Srila Prabhupada usually kept the fast in the simplest way the scriptures allow. At Kurukshetra the fast is broken on Wednesday, 27 October, between 6:32 AM and 10:14 AM.