Apara Ekadashi, also called Achala Ekadashi, falls in the dark half of Jyeshtha, which is Vaishakha for those whose months end at the new moon. Its katha is the story of a good king murdered by his own brother, whose spirit could find no rest until a sage kept this fast and gave him its merit.
The next Apara Ekadashi, the Smarta and Vaishnava days if they differ, and the time to break the fast in your city are on the Ekadashi dates page. What follows is the story alone, in our own words.
The katha of Apara Ekadashi
Yudhishthira asked about the Ekadashi in the dark fortnight of Jyeshtha. Krishna told him, "It is called Apara, the boundless, because the good it brings has no edge. It is kept for Vishnu in his form as Trivikrama, the one who measured the worlds in three strides. Hear the story of a king it set free."
Two brothers
There was once a king named Mahidhwaja, upright and kind, who ruled his land by dharma. His people were content. He had a younger brother, Vajradhwaja, who was everything the king was not: harsh, greedy, and eaten up with envy. Every honour paid to his brother felt to him like a wound.
One night, his jealousy got the better of him. He killed the king in secret, carried the body out of the city, and buried it beneath a great peepal tree in the forest, where he thought no one would ever find it.
The spirit in the peepal
But a death like that does not rest easily. Mahidhwaja's spirit could not leave. It stayed in the peepal tree, a preta, neither in this world nor free of it. In its pain it troubled everyone who passed that way: travellers felt a chill, heard noises in the branches, were frightened off the path. Soon people avoided the road altogether.
Dhaumya's gift
One day the sage Dhaumya came along that road. He was a man of long tapas, and he could see what others could not. He stopped beneath the peepal, looked up, and understood at once who was there and how he had come to be there.
Dhaumya did not run, and he did not scold. He called the spirit down by the strength of his tapas and spoke to it gently, telling it the truth about what had happened and teaching it the way to peace. Then he did something more. The dark Ekadashi of Jyeshtha was near, and the sage kept Apara Ekadashi himself, fasting and worshipping on behalf of the king. When the fast was done, he offered its whole merit to Mahidhwaja.
At once the restless spirit was released. Mahidhwaja appeared in a radiant form, bowed to the sage with gratitude, and rose in a heavenly chariot to the abode of the gods.
Krishna told Yudhishthira that whoever keeps this fast, or even reads its story with attention, shares in that release.
Reading the story calmly
This katha has a murder, a body hidden under a tree, and a ghost that frightens travellers. It is not a ghost story to keep children awake. The old reading is that harm done in secret does not simply disappear; it lingers until someone faces it with truth and compassion, as Dhaumya did. The sage's answer to fear was kindness, and his gift was given freely to someone who could not help himself. The story asks nothing more frightening of us than that.
What the day is kept for
The mahatmya is generous with its claims for Apara. It says the fast clears even the faults people hide: giving false witness, cheating with weights and measures, a pupil speaking ill of his teacher, a person posing as a healer or astrologer without the learning. It likens the merit to bathing at Pushkar in Kartika, at Prayag in Magha, or at Kurukshetra during an eclipse. These are the text's words, a long list meant to say "even this can be set right", and families read them in that spirit rather than as a ledger.
The story also gives the day its second theme: a fast kept for someone else, here someone who has died. Many people remember departed family members on Apara Ekadashi and keep the fast with them in mind.
How it is kept
Apara comes in the hottest part of early summer, so many people keep a fruit-and-water fast rather than a dry one, and anyone older, pregnant or on medication should drink water through the day. Vishnu is worshipped as Trivikrama or Vamana in some homes. Because the story turns on a peepal tree, many families water a peepal and light a lamp beneath it in the evening. Some offer the day's merit to an ancestor at the Dwadashi puja, as Dhaumya did for the king. For the rest of the day, from the Dashami meal to parana, follow the Ekadashi puja vidhi.
In some families of Punjab, Haryana and Jammu the same day is known as Bhadrakali Ekadashi, and the goddess Bhadrakali is worshipped alongside Vishnu.
Before and after Apara
The Ekadashi before Apara is Mohini Ekadashi, the story of Dhrishtabuddhi and the sage Kaundinya. Next comes Nirjala Ekadashi, Bhima's waterless fast in the bright half of Jyeshtha. For auspicious hours on any day, check the choghadiya.