Skandapurana 2.5.12: adhyāyaḥ 12

Devaśarman said:

“Such an inclination of mind has arisen in you suddenly toward Keśava,

because of which my own sin, arisen from a hundred past lives, has departed.

Without vows, without sacred fords, you are freed from crores of sins.

Through hospitality to me and through devotion, the abode of Hari is attained by you.

By the power of that merit, such a thought has arisen in you.

Having meditated and reflected within my mind, your past deeds are known to me.

In your previous birth you were a brahmin in Avantī, devoted to righteousness,

ever inclined to sacred study, virtuous, and always observing vows.

Yet one Dvādaśī dedicated to Viṣṇu was observed [by you] overlapping with a Daśamī.

By the effect of that sin, all your accumulated merit was lost.

All of it became fruitless, just like a twice-born man married to a śūdra woman.

Torments of hell were suffered by you for many thousands of years.

Because in this manner that wicked deed was performed by you formerly for a long time,

namely that the lunar day of high-souled Viṣṇu was observed mixed with a Daśamī,

thereby you became a śūdra, and your mind was likewise bent on sin;

your heart, corrupted by the overlap with the Daśamī, took no delight in righteousness.

O child, in the city of Vidarbha you have a daughter's son.

The vow of Hari’s Ekādaśī was observed by him according to prescribed rules.

The merit of that unbroken Ekādaśī vow was transferred by him [to you];

thus your mind became set upon righteousness, and the destruction of your sin occurred.

By the power of that merit, and through the vow of the Ekādaśī,

the sin born of the overlap with the Daśamī was wiped away by Yama.

Whatever sin was committed in this birth, and those committed in ten thousand births,

all your sins have now been wiped away by Yama himself.”

While the two were conversing in this manner, Viṣvaksena arrived:

“O low-born one, welcome to you! I, Janārdana, am pleased with you.

Because of your hospitality to the brahmin, the destruction of your sin has occurred.

Through the merit given by another, and through the vow of the Ekādaśī,

your sin born of the overlap with the Daśamī has dissolved, O śūdra.

Your daughter's son performed the vow and gave the merit; thereby you have been delivered.

Mount the son of Vinatā [Garuḍa] together with your wife, O noble one!”

Having spoken thus, he was then placed in an aerial chariot by the God of gods.

Then, along with his wife, despite his śūdra status, [he went] to heaven, O best of kings.

The brahmin Devaśarman, however, went again to the king of sacred fords.

All this has been related to you, which was asked by you:

that through the merit of the Akhaṇḍaikādaśī, obtained because of hospitality [offered to him],

[he obtained] a wife devoted to Viṣṇu and a kingdom rid of all thorns.

The king said:

O brahmin, teach properly the rule for the Akhaṇḍaikādaśī;

you ought to show favour for the sake of pleasing Viṣṇu.

The seer said:

Listen, O tiger among kings, to the auspicious rule for Ekādaśī,

which formerly the blessed Lord Viṣṇu told to Nārada.

I shall declare that to you, [and] the auspicious rule of formal conclusion,

on the twelfth days in the months beginning with Mārgaśīrṣa, O best of men.

This auspicious vow, the Akhaṇḍaikādaśī vow, should be performed:

a single night meal on the tenth, fasting on the eleventh,

and a single meal on the twelfth; [this] is called 'the unbroken' [vow].

In the eighth portion of the day, when the sun has grown weak,

one should know that to be the night meal (nakta); the night meal is not eating at night.

Bell-metal, meat, lentils, chickpeas, and kodrava grains,

greens, honey, another’s food, eating a second time, and sexual intercourse—

a man devoted to Viṣṇu should avoid these ten on the tenth day.

This rule of the tenth has been told; now hear likewise that of the eleventh:

drinking water repeatedly, violence, [excessive] cleansing, untruthfulness,

betel, a tooth-stick, sleeping by day, sexual intercourse,

gambling, sports, sleeping at night, [and] talking with the fallen—

one devoted to Viṣṇu should avoid these ten on the eleventh.

"Today I have no pleasure of women, no food, O Keśava;

for your satisfaction, O Lord of gods, my observance is by day and night.

Whatever lapse of sleeping senses [there may be] in food or sexual intercourse,

[or] food adhering between the teeth—forgive it, O Highest Spirit!"

Turning away from sins, dwelling together with virtues:

that is to be understood as fasting (upavāsa), not emaciating the body.

The previously mentioned ten, as well as another’s food and honey,

on the twelfth day one devoted to Viṣṇu should indeed avoid, [and also] massage and the like.

"Today is my sacred twelfth day, pure and destroying sins;

I shall break my fast: be pleased, O Garuḍa-bannered Lord!

Whatever observance was made by me for the satisfaction of Viṣṇu,

today, by your grace, I shall feed an excellent twice-born."

According to this rule he should perform it until a year is completed.

When the year is complete, the wise man should perform the formal conclusion.

At the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, the formal conclusion of the vow is prescribed;

he who does not perform the formal conclusion becomes a leper and blind.

Therefore one should perform the formal conclusion according to the extent of one's wealth.

It is performed in the bright fortnight in the auspicious month of Mārgaśira,

having invited twelve brahmins skilled in the rites,

and a thirteenth, the preceptor, accompanied by his wife, skilled in the rites.

The patron of the sacrifice, pure, having bathed, endowed with faith, having conquered his senses,

should then worship the preceptor and the others with foot-washing, half-cloths, and other gifts.

The preceptor then, having made a maṇḍala with auspicious colored powders,

a sarvatobhadra circle-lotus, wrapped with white cloth,

[and] a pot filled with water, supplied with the five gems,

furnished with the five kinds of sprouts, scented with camphor and aloe,

wrapped with a red cloth, accompanied by a copper vessel,

entwined with flower garlands, should place it upon the maṇḍala.

Upon it he should install the god Lakṣmīnārāyaṇa, O king.

A golden image should be made, measuring one karṣa,

equipped with mount and weapons, measuring four finger-breadths;

or he should make it according to his means, avoiding stinginess with wealth.

Then he should establish twelve images on the maṇḍala;

the lord of the months is to be worshipped for the sake of the unbroken vow.

To the east of the maṇḍala he should place an auspicious conch.

“You were born of old from the ocean, held in the hand by Viṣṇu,

fashioned by all the gods—O Pāñcajanya, salutations to you!”

Then an altar should be prepared to the north of the maṇḍala.

Having made the ritual resolve, one should perform the fire oblation with Vaiṣṇava mantras proclaimed in the Veda.

He should install Viṣṇu in his own place, and install Hari opposite;

he should worship [him] with the Puruṣasūkta and auspicious purāṇic mantras.

For the food offering, numerous sweetmeats should indeed be prepared.

Having offered incense, lamps, and gifts, and then performed the waving of lights,

having worshipped with yakṣakardama paste, he should then perform circumambulation.

Then, O king, [he should offer] obeisance through brahmins reciting words of blessing.

Then recitation should be performed by the brahmins in the sequence [taught by] the teacher:

recitation of the Pāvamānī hymns, the Maṇḍalabrāhmaṇa, the Madhu hymn,

“You are splendor” (tejo ’si), the Śukraja utterance, after that the Brahmasāman,

the [hymn] possessing purification, of the Sun, and the Saṃhitā in Viṣṇu's glory.

At the end of the recitation, he should place Viṣṇu along with his subsidiary deities atop the water jar.

And at daybreak, he should perform the fire oblation in due order.

Having first set down the vessel and worshipped [it] according to rule,

there should be praise, and then the fire oblation preceded by the sacrificial porridge must be performed.

Devoted to the sacrificial fire rites according to the rule declared in his own Gṛhyasūtra,

he should prepare two kinds of porridge: milk-rice porridge and a Vaiṣṇava porridge.

With the Puruṣasūkta he should offer sixteen oblations of the porridge,

and likewise an excellent oblation accompanied by ghee, taken four times.

Firewood sticks of the palāśa tree, a span long and soaked in ghee,

must be offered into the fire with the mantra “idaṃ viṣṇuḥ…” for the success of the rite.

One should offer one hundred [oblations of wood], and twice that number of sesame oblations.

When the Vaiṣṇava fire oblation is completed, he should undertake the sacrifice to the planets,

with firewood sticks, an oblation of porridge, and an oblation of sesame, in due order.

The auspicious invocation must be uttered for both, and then he should perform the worship.

And then he should give to the officiating priests sacrificial gifts for the planets, such as a milch cow.

For the satisfaction of the god, he should give to the brahmin according to rule.

He should give a cow yielding milk and a very handsome bull;

then he should give thirteen gifts to the brahmins.

He should gratify the preceptor along with his wife with garments;

having gratified him with great gifts, he should present it with its provisions.

And twenty-five water pitchers, filled with water and wrapped in cloth,

he should then give to the brahmins after performing the breaking of the fast at night.

Abundant gifts should be given, and desired food offered to relatives.

Then he should give a full vessel to the preceptor along with a sacrificial fee.

By donating a full vessel, the undertaking becomes complete,

and the fast observance, the ritual ablution, and the fruit of the sacred ford come to pass.

When spoken of favorably by the brahmins, that fruit of his becomes complete.

If there is no financial capacity in the home, yet the Ekādaśī vow has been observed,

the concluding rites and the like should be performed according to one's own means.

This unbroken Ekādaśī vow has been entirely told to you.

Thus ends the twelfth chapter, called “The Narration of the Akhaṇḍaikādaśī Vow,” in the Glorification of the Month of Mārgaśīrṣa, in the dialogue between Brahmā and Viṣṇu, in the second section, the Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.