Parsva Ekadashi (22 September): Vrat Vidhi, Parana Timing and the Turning of Vishnu
Tuesday, 22 September 2026 is Parsva Ekadashi — the exact midpoint of Vishnu's four-month sleep, the day he is said to turn from one side to the other. Vrat vidhi, parana timing and the Bali katha.
Tuesday, 22 September 2026 is Parsva Ekadashi — the Ekadashi of Bhadrapada Shukla Paksha, and one of the few vrats named after a bodily movement. It carries four names in common use: Parsva (side), Parivartini (the turning), Vamana, and Jayanti Ekadashi. All four point at the same idea.
Why "the turning"
Vishnu is held to have entered yoga nidra on Devshayani Ekadashi in Ashadha, and to sleep on Shesha in the ocean of milk for four months — the Chaturmas. He wakes on Devuthani Ekadashi in Kartik. Parsva Ekadashi sits at the exact midpoint of that sleep, and tradition says this is the night he turns from one side (parsva) to the other. Nothing else happens; he does not wake. It is a small, almost domestic image, and it is the whole reason the day is kept — the sleeping god shifts, and the year turns with him.
Practically, it is also the marker that the Chaturmas is half over, which is why the day carries a quiet sense of turning a corner.
Timings for 22 and 23 September
The Ekadashi tithi runs from 15:30 on 21 September to 17:13 on 22 September. The fast is kept through the whole of the 22nd. Sunrise is 06:10 and sunset 18:17; Rahu Kaal falls 15:15 to 16:46, so keep the main Vishnu puja to the morning. The nakshatra is Uttara Ashadha.
Parana — breaking the fast — is done on the morning of Wednesday 23 September, after sunrise (06:10) and within the earlier part of the day, and it must fall on Dwadashi. Breaking an Ekadashi fast outside the parana window is held to cancel the merit of the vrat, so if you keep this fast seriously, check the exact parana window for your own city on our panchang page on the day rather than relying on a national figure — parana timings shift meaningfully with longitude.
Vrat vidhi
- Bathe at dawn on the 22nd and take the sankalp before a Vishnu image or a shaligram.
- Keep the fast free of rice and all grains. Most keep phalahar — fruit, milk, and water; the stricter version is nirjala.
- Offer tulsi leaves, yellow flowers, sandalwood, a ghee lamp and panchamrit. Tulsi is not optional here; a Vishnu puja without it is considered incomplete.
- Chant "Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya" or read the Vishnu Sahasranama.
- Read or hear the Parivartini vrat katha, and keep a night vigil if the household observes one.
- Do parana on the morning of the 23rd, after feeding a brahmin or giving food in daan, then eat.
The katha — Bali and the three steps
The story attached to this Ekadashi is the Vamana avatar, which is why one of its names is Vamana Ekadashi. Yudhishthira asks Krishna what the Ekadashi of Bhadrapada Shukla yields, and Krishna tells him of King Bali — a demon king, but generous and devoted, who had taken the three worlds. Vishnu came to his sacrifice as Vamana, a small brahmin boy, and asked for as much ground as he could cover in three steps. Bali agreed despite his guru Shukracharya's warning. Vamana grew, covered the earth in one step and the heavens in the second, and asked where to place the third. Bali offered his own head. Vishnu pressed him down to Patala, but gave him rulership there and stood as his doorkeeper — the surrender being valued above the loss.
The point the katha is making is not that Bali was defeated. It is that he gave the third step knowing what it cost, and that is what the day asks its observers to sit with.