Kamala (Adhik Maas) Ekadashi
What it is
Roughly every third year the lunar calendar adds an extra month — Adhik Maas — and Shri Krishna has claimed that month as His own, giving it His own name: Purushottam Maas. In such a year two extra Ekadashis appear, and the calendar knows them both as Kamala. The bright-fortnight one (Adhik Sud Agiyaras) is Padmini Ekadashi; the dark-fortnight one (Adhik Vad Agiyaras) is Parama Ekadashi. Together they raise the year's count from twenty-four Ekadashis to a rare twenty-six.
Padmini's katha: Queen Padmini and her husband King Kritavirya remained childless despite long tapasya, until Sati Anusuya revealed the secret — the Ekadashi of Purushottam Maas, most dear to Shri Vishnu. The royal couple kept it with full faith and were blessed with a mighty and glorious son.
Parama's katha: In the city of Kampilya lived the poor brahmin Sumedha with his devoted wife Pavitra, whose poverty no effort would lift. The rishi Kaundinya taught them the Parama Ekadashi vrat; keeping it with faith, their want dissolved, and in the end they attained Prabhu's dham. The Puranas place the phal of these two vrats above even the great yajnas.
Why we observe it
There is a beautiful bhav hidden in this month. The 'extra' month was once considered surplus — impure, unwanted, with no festivals of its own — until it took refuge in Shri Hari, and He gave it His highest name, Purushottam, declaring that whatever is done in it for Him bears extraordinary fruit. What the world calls adhik — leftover — Prabhu makes shreshtha, supreme. Every pushti-jiva can recognise itself in that month: worth is not earned, it is bestowed by His acceptance.
So the two Kamala Ekadashis are not burdens added to the year but gifts added to it — two more days that belong wholly to Prabhu. In Pushtimarg homes, Purushottam Maas is a season of heightened seva, smaran and kirtan, and these Ekadashis are its jewels. The two kathas cover the whole range of human longing: Padmini for those who ache for fulfilment, Parama for those pressed by want — and both resolve the same way, not by striving harder but by placing the longing itself in Prabhu's hands.
Keep the vrat with gratitude: an unexpected extra day of upvas, kirtan and seva is Prabhu's own gift of nearness.