The Dev Uthani Ekadashi vrat katha explains why Vishnu is said to sleep for four months and wake on this day: after the Vamana avatar, the Lord promised King Bali to stay with him in the underworld, and that yearly stay, from Devshayani to Dev Uthani Ekadashi, is remembered as his sleep. Many homes also tell a gentle folk tale of a servant who asked for food on Ekadashi and whose simple faith brought the Lord to eat with him.
The day of the fast, the parana time for breaking it and the rule for choosing the Ekadashi are on the Dev Uthani Ekadashi date page; every Ekadashi of the year is listed on the Ekadashi dates page. The four months that end on this day are laid out on the Chaturmas page. This page holds only the stories, in our own words.
King Bali and the Vamana avatar
Bali was a king of the asuras and the grandson of Prahlad, the great devotee of Vishnu. He was brave, just to his people, and generous beyond measure; it was said that no one who came to his door asking for anything ever went away empty-handed. Through his strength and a great yajna he won the three worlds, and the devas, driven from heaven, turned to Vishnu for help. Their mother Aditi prayed and fasted for her sons.
Vishnu was born to Aditi as Vamana, a small Brahmin boy carrying an umbrella and a water pot. He walked to the place where Bali was performing a yajna and asked, very simply, for a gift: as much land as he could cover in three steps.
Bali smiled at so small a request and offered villages, cattle and gold instead. The boy declined; three steps were enough. Shukracharya, the guru of the asuras, saw who this child really was and warned Bali to refuse. Bali answered that he had given his word, and that if the Lord himself had come to his door to ask, he could hardly think of a greater honour. He poured water from his pot to seal the gift.
Then Vamana began to grow. With his first step he covered the earth, and with his second the heavens. There was nowhere left for the third. Bali knelt and offered his own head. The Lord placed his foot there and gently pressed him down to Sutala, a beautiful realm below the earth, giving it to Bali to rule.
Moved by Bali's honesty and surrender, Vishnu asked him to choose a blessing. Bali asked that the Lord stay with him and be always before his eyes. And so Vishnu stayed in Sutala, standing guard at Bali's door.
In Vaikuntha, Lakshmi waited for her husband, and when he did not come back she went to Bali in disguise. Bali took her in as a sister. When he asked what she wished for, she told him who she was and asked for her husband's return. Bali gave way, as he always gave way to anyone who asked. The arrangement that grew out of this, as the vrat books tell it, was that Vishnu would return to Vaikuntha, but would spend four months of every year with Bali. Those four months, from Ashadha Shukla Ekadashi to Kartika Shukla Ekadashi, are said to be the time when the Lord rests, and on Prabodhini Ekadashi he rises and returns.
Other tellings of the sleep
Some vrat books give a different reason: that Vishnu, after a long battle with an asura, lay down on the serpent Shesha in the ocean of milk to rest, and asked that his four months of rest be honoured with vows. Others speak simply of yoga nidra, the Lord's meditative sleep, which keeps the world in balance while he seems to rest. These ideas sit side by side in most homes without anyone feeling a need to choose.
The servant who asked for food
There was once a king whose whole kingdom kept the Ekadashi fast. On that day no grain was sold in the market and no grain was cooked in any kitchen; even the animals in the royal stables were given fodder rather than grain.
One day a man from another place came to the palace looking for work. The king said he could stay, on one condition: on Ekadashi he would not be given grain. The man agreed, glad of the job.
When Ekadashi came, he was given fruit and milk like everyone else. By afternoon he was hungry and went to the king, saying that he was a working man and that fruit would not carry him through the day. The king reminded him of the condition, but seeing his face, relented and gave him flour, dal and rice from the stores.
The man took the rations to the riverbank, cooked his meal on a small fire, and then, as was his habit, called out to the Lord to come and eat first. Since he was a simple soul, he called the way one calls a friend. And the Lord came, in yellow garments, sat beside him and ate. The servant thought nothing of it; this was how he had always eaten.
At the next Ekadashi he asked the king for double rations, explaining that the Lord ate with him now and he himself went half hungry. The king could not believe it; he himself had kept so many fasts and had never seen the Lord. He said he would come and watch.
The king hid behind a tree by the river. The servant cooked and called as before, but this time the Lord did not come. He called again and again, and at last, with tears running down his face, he said he would sit without eating until his friend came. Then the Lord appeared, took his hand and ate with him, as warmly as ever. The king came out from behind the tree and fell at the servant's feet. He understood that the fast is a vessel and that the love inside it is what the Lord comes for.
Reading the story calmly
In some homes this tale is told more starkly: the servant threatens to throw himself into the river if the Lord does not come, and at the end the Lord takes him away to his own abode. Both are ways folk stories show the depth of a devotee's longing. Neither is an instruction, and no one is asked to risk themselves for faith. The story is told today for the king's lesson: a rule kept with a sincere heart matters more than a rule kept for show, and the fast should never become a weight on someone who works hard or cannot go without food.
How the katha is heard
On the evening of Dev Uthani Ekadashi, after the feet of the Lord have been drawn and the sugarcane mandap raised, families sit together before the waking. An elder tells the Bali story, often with the servant's tale after it, and then the household wakes the Lord with the conch, the bells and the folk call "Utho Dev". The full order of the evening is on the Dev Uthani Ekadashi puja vidhi page.
What the story carries today
Bali's story is about keeping one's word even at great cost, and about a God who is moved by generosity. The servant's story is about a faith with no pretence. Together they set the mood for a day of joy: the Lord is awake, weddings can begin, and the house fills with sugarcane, lamps and music.
The very next celebration is Tulsi Vivah, the wedding of the tulsi to Vishnu, and the stories behind the other Ekadashis of the year are on the Ekadashi vrat katha page. To choose a time for the evening puja or a family ceremony in the weeks ahead, check the panchang for your city and the muhurat page.