Nirjala Ekadashi 2028: Date, Parana Time & Vrat Vidhi

Parana is done the next day within Dwadashi tithi, after local sunrise and after Hari Vasara (the first one-quarter of Dwadashi) has passed, and before Dwadashi ends. If Dwadashi ends before that window can open, parana is done immediately after sunrise.

Parana (breaking the fast) is on Sunday, 4 June 2028, from 5:23 AM to 8:09 AM (New Delhi).

Break with water and tulsi, then fruit, then a light non-grain meal; a full meal after.

Ekadashi — the eleventh tithi of each fortnight — is the pre-eminent Vaishnava fasting day, kept for Vishnu twice a lunar month. Grains, beans and certain vegetables are avoided; the observance ranges from a single meal to a full nirjala (waterless) fast.

Nirjala Ekadashi is the strictest of the year: no water is taken. Its reward, as told in the Brahma-vaivarta Purana, is the combined fruit of all twenty-four Ekadashis — which is why householders who cannot fast every fortnight keep at least this one.

It falls in Jyeshtha, the hottest part of the North Indian summer, which is precisely why the waterless form is considered so demanding and so meritorious.

The Ekadashi vrat is systematised in the Purana literature of the first millennium CE — the Padma, Skanda, Bhavishya and Brahma-vaivarta Puranas each give the twenty-four named Ekadashis, their kathas and their phala, and the medieval nibandha works (Hemadri's Chaturvarga-chintamani, 13th c.; the Nirnaya Sindhu, 17th c.) fix the day-assignment and parana rules still used today.

The Smarta vs Vaishnava distinction — whether the tithi at sunrise decides the day (Smarta) or the fast is pushed to the next day when the tithi is 'viddha' by Dashami (Vaishnava) — is a standing point of tradition, resolved differently by different sampradayas; this site computes and links both.

• Hemadri, Chaturvarga-chintamani (Vrata Khanda), 13th c.
• Kamalakara Bhatta, Nirnaya Sindhu, 1612 CE
• Padma Purana, Uttara Khanda, ch. on the Ekadashi vratas

1. A sankalpa is taken at sunrise; from then no food and no water are taken until the parana the next morning.
2. The day is spent in Vishnu worship — Vishnu Sahasranama, the Ekadashi katha, and 'Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya'; many keep a night vigil (jagran).
3. Water, sherbet, hand-fans, an earthen pot and summer fruit are given in daan — a form specific to this fast because of the Jyeshtha heat.
4. The fast is broken (parana) the next day within Dwadashi, after sunrise and after the Hari Vasara has passed.

Phala: The combined merit of all twenty-four Ekadashis of the year (Brahma-vaivarta Purana).

Bhima, strongest of the Pandavas, could not bear hunger and so could not keep the fortnightly Ekadashi fasts, though his mother, brothers and Draupadi all did. Troubled that he alone was failing in dharma, he went to the sage Vyasa.

Vyasa told him that if he could not fast twenty-four times a year, he should keep one fast with complete sincerity: the Shukla Ekadashi of Jyeshtha, taken nirjala — without even water — from sunrise until sunrise the next day.

Bhima kept it, fainted from the effort, and was revived; Vyasa assured him that this single fast would grant him the merit of all the Ekadashis he had missed. From him the day is also called Bhima or Pandava Ekadashi.

Source: Brahma-vaivarta Purana; Padma Purana, Uttara Khanda

1. Sankalpa at sunrise. Bathe, and before the sun is well up take the vow facing east or north: “I shall keep the Nirjala Ekadashi vrat for the pleasure of Bhagavan Vishnu, without food or water until the parana.” Name the tithi, paksha and month.
2. Abstain. No food and no water for the whole fasting period. No grains, beans, honey, or masur dal even in intent; no anger, no untruth, no daytime sleep.
3. Vishnu puja. Worship a Vishnu / Shaligram / Krishna image with tulsi, sandal, a ghee lamp and yellow flowers; read or hear the Nirjala Ekadashi (Bhima) katha; recite Vishnu Sahasranama and “Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya”.
4. Night vigil (optional). Many keep jagran with bhajan and the Bhagavata; it is not required but is traditional for this fast.
5. Daan. Give water, sherbet, an earthen water-pot (kalash), a hand-fan, an umbrella, summer fruit and dakshina to a Brahmin or to those in need — the gift-form specific to this Jyeshtha fast.
6. Parana. The next morning, after sunrise and after Hari Vasara, and before Dwadashi ends, take water and tulsi, then fruit, then a light non-grain meal; a full meal after. See the parana window above for your city.

• Vishnu / Shaligram / Krishna image or picture
• Tulsi leaves, yellow flowers, sandalwood paste, akshata (rice), roli
• Ghee lamp, incense, camphor, a bell
• Panchamrit (milk, curd, ghee, honey, sugar) — for the abhishek, not for the faster
• A kalash (earthen pot) with water, a hand-fan and an umbrella — for daan
• Seasonal fruit and dakshina for daan and for the parana
• The Nirjala Ekadashi Vrat Katha (Bhima Ekadashi)

• No food and no water for the fasting period (the defining rule of this vrat).
• No grains, pulses or honey — not in food and not offered to others by the faster.
• No anger, harsh speech or untruth; no gambling; no daytime sleep.
• Brahmacharya for the day; simple white or yellow clothing.
• Keep to Vishnu-smarana — japa, the katha, the Sahasranama — through the day.

Who should not keep this fast: Pregnant and nursing women, the ill, the elderly, children, and anyone with diabetes, kidney disease, or a condition a waterless fast would endanger should keep a phalahar (fruit-and-milk) Ekadashi or none, and consult a doctor. The shastra explicitly permits substitution — it does not ask for harm.

• North India (UP, Bihar, MP, Rajasthan). Kept widely by householders as the one Ekadashi of the year; large melas at Vishnu temples and river ghats.
• Gujarat, Maharashtra. Bhimseni Ekadashi; water-and-fruit daan and the Bhima katha are emphasised.
• ISKCON / Gaudiya Vaishnava. Observed as Pandava Nirjala Ekadashi; the Vaishnava (Dashami-viddha) day-assignment is followed and the parana window is published separately.

• Nothing during the vrat — Nirjala means no food and no water for the fasting period.
• Parana: fruit, then a light grain meal — The fast is broken with water and fruit, then a simple sattvic meal after the parana window opens.

Nirjala Ekadashi is kept on the day when Ekadashi of Jyeshtha Shukla paksha prevails at sunrise. That day is Saturday, 3 June 2028. Ekadashi holds at sunrise only on this day.

at sunrise

Ekadashi is the eleventh tithi — the Moon 120°–132° ahead of the Sun in ecliptic longitude (sidereal, Lahiri). The Shukla Ekadashi of Jyeshtha is identified, then the day-assignment rule is applied: the Smarta form keeps the day on which Ekadashi prevails at sunrise; the Vaishnava form defers to the next day if the sunrise tithi is 'viddha' (overlapped) by Dashami. Parana must fall within the following Dwadashi and after Hari Vasara (its first quarter). The Gregorian date drifts ~11 days earlier each year and jumps ~19 days later in an adhika-month year.

A lunar date: Ekadashi of the bright half of Jyeshtha drifts about 11 days earlier each solar year, then jumps back ~19 days when a leap (Adhika) month is inserted.