01What Mokshada Ekadashi is
Mokshada Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the bright half of Margashirsha, kept in late November or in December, in the cool, dry weeks of early winter. Moksha is release, and Mokshada means the one who gives release; the tradition holds the day in the highest regard and, like Indira Ekadashi, offers its merit to the ancestors. In many years Gita Jayanti falls on the same day: the tradition dates Krishna's teaching of the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna, at Kurukshetra, to the bright Ekadashi of Margashirsha.
It is the Margashirsha Shukla Ekadashi in both ways of naming the lunar months.
02The story told of it
Krishna tells Yudhishthira of King Vaikhanasa of Champaka, who saw his father in a dream, distressed and unable to rise to a higher world. Troubled, the king asked the brahmins of his court, who sent him to the sage Parvata. Parvata, seeing with his inner sight, explained that the father bore the result of an old wrong, and told the king to keep the Ekadashi of Margashirsha's bright half and offer its merit to his father. Vaikhanasa did so with his household, and the account says his father was released.
03How the fast is kept
The fast is the ordinary one, from sunrise to the next day's parana. Where Gita Jayanti falls on the day, the Bhagavad Gita is read or recited whole, often in temples and at Kurukshetra, and the book itself is worshipped. Many families offer the day's merit to the ancestors, as the account describes. In many South Indian temples, the Shukla Ekadashi in the solar month of Dhanu, Margazhi in Tamil, is Vaikuntha Ekadashi, when the northern gate, Vaikuntha Dvara, is opened at dawn; depending on the year that is Mokshada or Pausha Putrada.
What is eaten on the fast
Commonly eaten- Fruit
- Milk, curd and paneer
- Nuts and dry fruit
- Sabudana
- Kuttu and singhara flour
- Potato and sweet potato
- Sendha namak (rock salt)
Commonly left out- Rice
- Wheat and other grains
- Dal and beans
- Onion and garlic
- Ordinary salt, in many homes
Families choose the strictness that suits them. Anyone who is unwell, pregnant or elderly keeps a lighter form.
04When to break the fast
The fast is broken on the morning after, the Dwadashi, and the tradition sets three limits on when. It must be after sunrise. It must not fall in Hari Vasara, the first quarter of Dwadashi. And it must be inside Dwadashi itself, ideally in Pratahkal, the first fifth of the daylight, and not in Madhyahna, the middle fifth. This time Hari Vasara ends at 1:36 AM on 21 December, before sunrise, so parana runs from sunrise at 7:09 AM to the end of Pratahkal at 9:13 AM on 21 December.
- Sunrise7:09 AM on 21 Dec
- Hari Vasara ends1:36 AM on 21 December
- Parana window7:09 – 9:13 AM
- Dwadashi ends5:37 PM on 21 December
05Why 20 December
- In Delhi: It is kept on 20 December because the Ekadashi tithi is current at sunrise that morning (7:09 AM).
Two things move an Ekadashi. The first is your city: the day is decided by sunrise, and sunrise in India differs by more than an hour from Kolkata to Ahmedabad, so a city can keep an Ekadashi a day apart from another when the tithi changes near dawn. Change the city above to see yours. The second is the tradition: the dates here are the Smarta ones most households follow. Vaishnava calendars, ISKCON's among them, judge the day from arunodaya, about an hour and a half before sunrise, and sometimes keep the fast a day later.
06Mokshada Ekadashi in other years
- 2026Sunday, 20 December · parana 7:09 – 9:13 AM
- 2027Thursday, 9 December · parana 1:16 – 3:20 PM
- 2028Monday, 27 November · parana 8:47 – 9:00 AM
