Mohini Ekadashi is the bright-fortnight Ekadashi of Vaishakha, in the first heat of summer. The name recalls Mohini, the enchanting female form that Vishnu is said to take in the stories of the churning of the ocean, and the day is kept for freedom from attachment and confusion, the pull of illusion called moha.
Mohini Ekadashi falls in the Shukla paksha, the waxing fortnight, of Vaishakha. The amanta and purnimanta calendars name the bright half of a month alike, so the label for Mohini Ekadashi does not change between north and south.
The katha
Stories of the kind told for Mohini Ekadashi are attributed by the tradition to the Padma Purana and the Bhavishyottara Purana, usually as a talk between Krishna and Yudhishthira, though the speakers vary by telling. The usual katha tells of a family in the city of Bhadravati.
In Bhadravati lived a merchant, Dhanapala, who was wealthy and devout. He built wells, planted trees and gave food to the hungry. He had five sons, and the youngest, Dhrishtabuddhi, was a trouble to the family. He spent money on gambling and bad company, and nothing his father said had any effect.
At last Dhanapala, in despair, turned him out. Dhrishtabuddhi had no money and no friends, and soon he was hungry and wandering. By chance he reached the hermitage of the sage Kaundinya by the Ganga, and in sorrow he asked the sage how he could set his life right.
Kaundinya told him to keep the Mohini Ekadashi of the bright half of Vaishakha, and Dhrishtabuddhi did so with sincerity. The tradition says that his mind cleared and that he changed his ways, and that at the end of his life he found a high place with Vishnu. The story is told to say that a person who has gone astray is not beyond help.
How the fast is kept
The vrat follows the usual pattern. Because of the connection with the Mohini form, some devotees recall the story from the Bhagavata Purana of the churning of the ocean and the distribution of nectar, but the central worship is of Vishnu.
The day is also treated as a day for looking honestly at one’s attachments and the habits that cloud judgement, and for taking a small step to change one.
The table above applies the Smarta rule to Mohini Ekadashi: the fast is kept on the civil day when Ekadashi is in force at sunrise. Many Vaishnava traditions use a stricter test and may keep Mohini Ekadashi a day later, so a household that follows one should use its own sampradaya’s calendar. The parana after Mohini Ekadashi is on the next morning, after sunrise, while Dwadashi is running and outside its first quarter (Hari Vasara), and the Timing column gives that window. Mohini Ekadashi asks for attention more than hunger. Where a full fast does not suit you, because of pregnancy, age, illness or medicine, fruit, milk and prayer are enough, and a doctor is the right person to ask about anything more.
Where it sits in the year
In the round of the year, Varuthini Ekadashi comes before Mohini Ekadashi and Apara Ekadashi after it. Every Ekadashi of the year is listed on the Ekadashi page; the steps of worship for Mohini Ekadashi are in the Ekadashi vrat vidhi, and the tithi itself is explained on the Ekadashi tithi page.