Nirjala Ekadashi

Nirjala Ekadashi is popularly called Bhimseni or Pandava Ekadashi because of its connection with Bhima. The traditional account says that Yudhishthira, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva, Kunti and Draupadi regularly observed Ekadashi, but Bhima struggled to fast because of his powerful appetite. Wanting the spiritual benefit without pretending that he could manage twenty-four fasts a year, he asked Sage Vyasa for guidance. Vyasa advised him to observe the Jyeshtha Shukla Ekadashi with exceptional strictness, traditionally without food or water, and explained that this single vrata was regarded as carrying the merit of the year's Ekadashis when performed sincerely. Bhima accepted the demanding discipline, giving the festival its familiar names. The story makes Nirjala Ekadashi a lesson in honest self-knowledge and determined devotion. Because the fast is unusually rigorous, many devotees adapt it according to health and capacity while maintaining prayer, Vishnu worship and Dwadashi parana.

The hardest of the twenty-four: no water, from sunrise to the next day's parana. Bhima could not keep the other twenty-three and was told this one would stand for all of them, which is why it is also called Bhimseni. Kept in Jyeshtha, the hottest month, which is the point.

Nirjala is without water. Nothing at all from sunrise to the parana the next morning, which in Jeth means the hottest day of the year. It is the one ekadashi people keep who keep no others, and it is also the one most often kept partially - water taken, or the fast broken at dusk - which nobody pretends is the full vrat. Water is given away on this day more than on any other.