Adhyaya 39

Chapter PP.6.39 teaches the Mokṣadā/Mokṣā Ekādaśī observed in the bright fortnight of Mārgaśīrṣa. It prescribes worship of Lord Dāmodara with tulasī, incense, and lamps, together with fasting discipline and a night vigil filled with song and praise. Hearing or reciting this account is praised as highly sin-destroying and equal in merit to great Vedic sacrifices. A Purāṇic exemplum follows: King Vaikhānasa dreams of his ancestors suffering in hell. Directed by the brāhmaṇas of Campaka, he approaches Sage Parvata, who explains that their fall arose from a specific sin in a former life. Parvata instructs the king to observe Mokṣā Ekādaśī and dedicate its merit to his father; upon completion, celestial signs appear and the father, along with the Pitṛs, attains liberation, establishing the vrata’s power for ancestral release and one’s own mokṣa.