Kamika Ekadashi
What it is
Kamika Ekadashi comes on the dark eleventh after Devshayani — Ashadh Vad Agiyaras by the Gujarati calendar (Shravan Krishna paksha in the northern reckoning) — the first Ekadashi to fall within Chaturmas, while the Lord rests in yoga-nidra. Its glory was told by Brahmaji to Naradji, and by Shri Krishna to Yudhishthira.
Its katha is stark: a landowner, hot-tempered, struck a Brahmin in a quarrel and the man died. Repentant, he sought to atone through rites, but the learned turned him away — no yajna could touch such a sin. A sage then taught him the vrat of Kamika Ekadashi. He kept it with a burning heart, slept near Shri Hari's murti, and the Lord appeared, forgave him wholly, and freed him.
The mahatmya sings above all of Tulsiji: a single tulsi leaf offered to Shri Hari on this day is dearer to Him than gems, gold and pearls. Worship of the Lord bearing shankha, chakra, gada and padma, deepdaan, and night vigil are said to yield the merit of a Vajapeya yajna and of bathing at all the tirthas.
Why we observe it
Kamika is the Ekadashi of grace reaching where ritual cannot. The landowner's sin had no prescribed atonement left — every door of karma-kanda was shut — and still the Lord forgave, because the vrat was kept with a true heart. That is a deeply pushti truth: it is never our sadhan that purifies, it is His krupa. We fast not to bargain but to stand empty-handed before the One who forgives.
For the Vaishnav, the day's sweetest seva is Tulsiji. In Pushtimarg homes tulsi is cherished as beloved of Prabhu, and Kamika is the day to water her, tend her, and offer her leaves to Shri Thakorji with the bhav that this smallest gift outweighs treasuries. Falling in the first days of Chaturmas, with the monsoon washing the earth, Kamika washes the inner ground: anger — the very sin of the katha — is the weed to pull this day. Keep the fast, light a ghee lamp before Prabhu, stay near Him through the evening, and let the name Kamika fulfil the only kamana worth having: that He be pleased.