Sri Saphala Ekadashiसफला एकादशी

When Maharaja Yudhishthira asked Lord Sri Krishna about the Ekadashi of the dark fortnight of Pausha, the Lord replied: "This is the famous Saphala Ekadashi — the day on which Lord Hari makes every sincere effort of the devotee bear its full and complete fruit. To impress its glory upon you, listen to the story of Lumpaka, the wicked son of King Mahishmata."

In the city of Champavati ruled the pious King Mahishmata. He had five sons; four of them were noble and dharmic, but the eldest, Lumpaka, was utterly fallen. He was addicted to every form of sense gratification, robbed travellers, killed animals, defiled holy places and brought shame upon his royal family. Despite his father's many efforts to correct him, Lumpaka would not reform. Finally the king, with grief in his heart, banished him from the kingdom.

Lumpaka fled to the deep forest. There he continued his sinful life, surviving by hunting, by stealing from travellers and by violence. The forest near him contained an ancient banyan tree which the local sages worshipped as a manifestation of Lord Vasudeva. Beneath this tree, by some chance, Lumpaka happened to take shelter on the night of Dashami in the month of Pausha. The cold of that winter night was so severe that, although he tried, he could not sleep. He spent the entire night shivering, miserable, unable to even rise from where he sat under the tree.

When dawn broke he could neither stand nor walk; the cold had paralysed him. He had not eaten for many hours. Throughout that entire Saphala Ekadashi day he sat helpless under the sacred banyan tree of Lord Vasudeva. By chance, in his weakness, he plucked some of the tree's fallen fruits and laid them as if in offering before the tree, half-praying — perhaps for the first time in his life — to whichever god dwelt there. "If any divine being is here," he said weakly, "let these fruits be Your offering, and let me somehow live."

That night was a second jagaran. Lumpaka, unable to rise, sat all night before the tree of Lord Vasudeva. He had unintentionally fasted, unintentionally offered, and unintentionally kept vigil — the three pillars of an Ekadashi vrata. The next morning a transformation came over him. He felt a strange tenderness in his heart; old impulses fell silent; he wept for the first time in years. From that day his entire nature was changed. He became gentle, dharmic, devoted to Lord Vishnu. He returned to his father's kingdom in repentance. King Mahishmata, overjoyed, embraced him and restored him to the throne; and Lumpaka ruled for many years as a most pious king before, at the end of life, attaining the spiritual world.

Lord Krishna concluded: "O Yudhishthira, if an unintentional Saphala Ekadashi can transform the most fallen Lumpaka into a saintly king, what cannot a sincere observance accomplish? Saphala Ekadashi makes fruitful every effort of the devotee — material as well as spiritual. Even hearing this katha grants the merit of a Rajasuya yajna and the result of giving away a thousand cows in charity."