Ekadashi: the eleventh day, twice a month

Ekadashi falls on the eleventh day of each lunar fortnight — twenty-four times a year, twenty-six in an adhik maas. It is the most widely kept vrath in Bharat and the most misunderstood.

Grains and pulses are set aside; fruit, milk and certain flours are allowed. The traditional reasoning is devotional. The practical reasoning, which grandmothers state more often, is that the body benefits from two predictable rest days a month, placed at the points of the lunar cycle when digestion is weakest.

Begin with one Ekadashi, not with a vow of twenty-four. A fast you break in guilt teaches nothing.