Shattila Ekadashi Puja Vidhi:
- Wake up early and take a sacred bath.
- Clean your home and the place where you’ll set up the prayer space.
- Place idols of Lord Vishnu and Shri Yantra.
- Light a lamp with clarified butter, apply tilak, offer Tulsi leaves, and decorate the idols.
- Have a bowl of sesame seeds (Til) ready.
- Narrate Shattila Vrat Katha.
- Spend your day chanting the Vishnu Maha Mantra.
- In the evening, offer prayers and perform aarti.
- If you can’t fast all day, you can have fruit and milk products.
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Shattila Ekadashi Vrat Katha:
In ancient times, a Brahmin woman lived on earth. She used to fast all the time. Once she kept fasting for a month. Due to this, her body became very weak. Although she was very intelligent, she had never donated food or money for the gods or Brahmins. Due to this, I thought that the Brahmin woman has purified her body by fasting etc., now she will get Vishnulok, but she has never donated food, due to which it will be difficult for her to get satisfied.
God further said- Thinking so, I went to that Brahmin woman in the guise of a beggar in the earth and asked for alms from her. That Brahmin woman said- Maharaj, why have you come? I said- I want alms. On this, she put a lump of mud in my alms bowl. I took it and returned to heaven. After some time, that Brahmin woman also left her body and came to heaven. By donating mud, that Brahmin woman got a beautiful palace in heaven, but she found her house empty of all the materials like food etc.
Panicked, she came to me and said, “O Lord, I have worshipped you with many fasts etc. but still my house is empty of food and other things. What is the reason for this?” To this I said, “First you go to your house. The goddesses will come to see you. First listen to them about the virtue and method of Shattila Ekadashi, then open the door.” Hearing such words of mine, she went to her house. When the goddesses came and asked me to open the door, the Brahmini said, “If you have come to see me, then tell me the significance of Shattila Ekadashi.”
One of the goddesses said, “I will tell you.” When Brahmini heard the significance of Shattila Ekadashi, she opened the door. The goddesses saw that she was neither a Gandharvi nor an Asuri, but a human like before. The Brahmini observed the fast of Shattila Ekadashi as per their advice. As a result of this, she became beautiful and graceful, and her house was filled with all food and other items.
Therefore, people should give up foolishness and observe the fast of Shattila Ekadashi and donate Tilaadi without greed. This will remove misfortune, poverty and many types of suffering and lead to salvation.
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