Page:Hindu Feasts Fasts and Ceremonies.djvu/74

58 heavens. The pilgrimage to the holy waters and sacred places is recommended only to those who have not understood the sanctity of the Ekadasi. All the hard penances of a rigid anchorite are prompted by utter stupidity inasmuch as he could easily avoid them if he would observe but one Ekadasi strictly. He who observes the Ekadasi attains all his ends and he who does not observe it is the worst of sinners.’

This is the description given in the Bhavishyottara-purana of the sanctity of the Ekadasi. Every orthodox Hindu, be he Smarta, Vaishnava or Madhva, has to observe this fast rigidly. Some of the Vaishnavas and the Madhvas have such a great regard for the Ekadasi fasting that they give up on this day the performance of the annual ceremonies to satisfy the manes of their departed forefathers if the ceremonies happen to fall on this day. The Smartas and some of the Vaishnavas will consider this as amounting to giving up the ceremonies, inasinuch as they are not performed on the day on which they fall. But those Vaishnavas and the Madhvas who give up the ceremonies have their own arguments