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The person who performs fasting on this day must first follow the rules of Brahmacharya Vrat. She/He should avoid the company and wicked influence of bad people. The worship rituals of this fast is as follows:
1. One day prior to fasting, one should consume food only one time.
2. On the day of fast, after bathing in the morning and taking a firm resolution of fasting, one should worship the God.
3. During the fast, one must not have food made from oil, accept any offering of food, honey, gram, lentils from another person and should not eat in a bronze pot. The person who is fasting must only eat once.
4. One must pray to god and perform jagrans during the night, and open the fast on next day on Dwadashi.
On the day of fast, one must ruminate and perform bhajan-kirtan. One should also avoid lying or getting angry.
This Vrat is known to be very beneficial. There is a religious belief which states that the Varuthini Ekadashi Vrat is more fruitful than donating alms to Brahmins, meditating for million years and attaining the blessings from Kanya Dan. By fasting on this day, Lord Madhusudan gets pleased. All the sufferings ends and good fortune increases.
Onetime Arjun urged Lord Shri Krishna to tell the story and importance of Varuthini Ekadashi Vrat, which is as follows:
During ancient times, there was a king named Mandhata who ruled on the banks of river Narmada. He was a very charitable and priestly king. One time when he was meditating in a forest, a wild bear came and started chewing his feet. The bear dragged him to the forest. This made the King anxious, but while abiding the sacred rules of tapasya dharm, he did not get angry and prayed to Lord Vishnu.
Answering his prayers, Lord Vishnu came and killed the bear with his Chakra. But till then, the bear has chewed King’s one leg, which made King Mandhata very upset. Seeing this, Lord Vishnu said - When you’ll go back to Mathura, worship my idol in Varaha Avatar and do the Varuthini Ekadashi Vrat. With its effect, the leg that has been eaten by the bear will get healed. This damage to your leg is the result of your crimes in the past life. With Lord Vishnu’s guidance, the king fasted on Varuthini Ekadashi devotedly and his leg became healthy again.