Reflections
Jaya Ekadashi: The Day Yugal Kishor Juu Appeared
On the meaning of Jaya Ekadashi, and why this Ekadashi of the month of Magh is the greatest day of the year at the temple.
Jaya Ekadashi falls on the eleventh day of the bright fortnight of Magh. The scriptures promise that one who keeps this Ekadashi with faith is freed from the heaviest burdens of the past. At our temple it is more than that: it is the day Shri Yugal Kishor Juu came to us.
On this very tithi in Samvat 1620, Swami Shri Hari Ram Ji Vyas drew Thakur Ji from the well at Kishor Van, after a dream in which he had asked to be lifted out and served. So Jaya Ekadashi is kept here as the Prakatya Utsav, the festival of his appearance, with abhishek in the morning, samaj gayan through the day and a courtyard of lamps at night.
Fasting on Ekadashi is not an act of self-denial. It is a way of making room. When the body is light and the day is kept simple, there is space for remembrance, for kirtan, and for the quiet joy of being near Yugal Kishor Juu.
Devotees are welcome to join the morning kirtan and the evening katha. Those who cannot fast completely may take fruit and milk; the real fast is of the mind.
