పాపమోచినీ ఏకాదశి 2023

Sri Krishna told Yudhishthira the story that the sage Lomasha once told King Mandhata. In the lovely Chaitraratha forest, the young sage Medhavi, son of the sage Chyavana, was doing deep penance.

The apsara Manjughosha, helped by Kama, drew Medhavi away from his austerities. He stayed with her for fifty seven years, which seemed to him no more than part of a night. When he finally realised how much time and merit he had lost, he cursed her in anger to become a pishachi. She begged for mercy, and the remedy given was the Papamochani Ekadashi of the coming dark fortnight.

Both Manjughosha and Medhavi kept the fast. She was freed from the curse and regained her divine form, and Medhavi recovered the merit of his lost austerities. Papamochani means the remover of sins: hearing this account is said to bring the merit of gifting a thousand cows.