Vaikunta Ekadashi: dates, muhurat and meaning.

What is Vaikunta Ekadashi?

The observance rests on the Padma Purana's account of Vishnu slaying the demon Mura through a shakti born of his own being — Ekadashi herself. Pleased, Vishnu granted that those who honour this day reach Vaikunta: hence the door, and the name. The fast kept on it is held equal to the merit of all twenty-four Ekadashis of the year.

In the Telugu country the day is also Mukkoti Ekadashi — 'three crores' — for the hosts of devas said to descend with Vishnu to witness the door open. Because the southern temples anchor the day to the solar month of Dhanus (Margazhi in Tamil), it always falls in the December–January weeks, whatever the lunar calendar is doing around it.

It is the same eleventh day observed in the north as Mokshada Ekadashi and commemorated as Gita Jayanti — one tithi carrying three observances, which in some years share a single civil date and in others sit a day apart by convention.

Muhurat on Vaikunta Ekadashi

Ekadashi is a day of restraint rather than new undertakings, and Vaikunta Ekadashi belongs to darshan and vigil more than to any election. The Abhijit Muhurat above is the day's universally auspicious window if something must be begun; for major undertakings, pick a date from the muhurat lists instead.