With religious believe, fasting on Ekadashi is a normal practice. Fasting signifies to the spiritual awakening and purification of souls. Our bodily functions are majorly influenced by the moon and its magnetic pull. Fasting on Ekadashi helps to maintain a natural flow of fluids in the body and helps to maintain good health and a peaceful mind. Medical sciences, In modern days, also appreciate fasting as good for health.
According to Lunar calendar, ekadashi means the eleventh day as the lunar manifestation of calendar where a month is composed of two fortnights, waxing and waning moon.
The Ekadashi dedicated to Bhimsen, the war hero of Mahabharat is one holy occasion for the devotees that falls on the eleventh day after waxing moon in January or early February. Bhimsen, one of the five Kunti Putras (Pandavas), took fast with the specific wish during ancient Mahabharata era turned to Ekadashi to be known as Bhima Ekadashi. Garuda Purana states that the ancestors of Pandavas obtained salvation after Bhima observed the fast according to the ritual. Bhima ekadashi is believed to wash out from all sort of sins and guide devotees towards the gravity of righteousness and truth.
To atone for the heinous sin of cannibalism, Bhimsen underwent austere religious fasting on ekadasi day, the eleventh of the bright fortnight in January or early February, a severe sacrifice, considering his penchant for food. This day is now called Bhimsen’s ekadasi, when Nepalese people, especially those of the merchant classes, abstain from nourishment for twenty-four hours, as they believe Bhimsen himself is doing. On one occasion Draupadi and his four brothers became amused when this man of strength and mighty appetite grew faint and irritable from fasting. To test his will and determination they loosed wild animals – lion, snake and tiger – to test his power. When the creatures approached, the surly Bhimsen easily pinned them under his arms and legs, proving to his wife and brothers once more that he was the great Bhimsen.
For the Newars, Bhimsen is Bhimdyo – meaning god of good things – whether the War Hero of Mahabharat is the same or different. Thus, the god is the Patron deity for the Newar merchants, tradesmen and the entire community.
People of Kathmandu Valley thank Bhimsen for the brisk commerce which developed in ages past with Tibet and India, and today with countries across the sea. Throughout Nepal, wherever the merchant classes have settled, usually in villages along the old trade routes, temples of Bhimsen are found where his festivals are the greatest event in the year. Bhimphedi village, just over the foothills on the old route to India, bears his name.
Legend says that Bhimsen, his idol and cult, were brought into the valley in ancient times by a princess from Dolkha village, some 128 km by road to the east from Kathmandu – a daughter of the old Thakuri kings who married a prince from Kathmandu. In her retinue was a farm worker of unusual height and massive build who sported an aggressively long moustache. His brawn proved of little worth, however, for he idled his days away at the inn. Finally, a Prince upbraided him, pointed out his enormous food consumption and lack of productivity. With a wave of his hand the farmer informed-the Prince that he could finish all the field work in a single day, provided he were furnished with an ample basket of food.
Next evening, when the servant-farmer reported his work complete, the Prince upon investigation found the entire field tilled, flooded, hoed and planted with rice seedlings – the work of a hundreds of labours. Then and there the Prince realized no mortal was capable of such a miracle; that the farmer was the mighty God Bhimsen. As the Prince fell at the large man’s feet, the farmer turned to stone, a statue of Bhimsen. Around him the Prince erected a temple which still stands at Bhimsenthan near the Hanumandhoka Durbar Square, on the south-western edge of old Kathmandu town. Thereafter the Prince was the farmer’s keeper and worshipped him as Bhimsen, and the people believe their offerings to this idol actually go to the Prince, who shares his wealth with the farmer.
It seems in the old days that when people went before this towering, moustached image of the fierce Bhimsen, many died soon thereafter, a phenomenon which, incidentally, is today attributed to idols of the God of Wrath, Bhairava. To pacify Bhimsen and avert further calamity, the people installed at his side an image of his beloved wife Draupadi. And when her presence failed to lessen the number of deaths, an idol of the noble warrior brother, Arjun of benign and gentle nature, was set beside Draupadi.
On the twelfth day of the waxing moon in January or early February, after the merchant classes have completed their Bhimsenekadasi fast of the preceding day, lavish offerings are distributed between the two idols of the Pandava brothers, but with careful discrimination. Great trays of flowers, fruits, sweetmeats, eggs, coins and lengths of cloth are offered to the gentle Arjun in accordance with ancient Vedic worship. But the fiercely moustached, scarlet-faced Bhimsen, who towers to the low ceiling, is drenched in blood from sacrifices of innumerable buffaloes, goats, ducks and chickens as required in Tantric rites, the same as those needed to pacify the bloodthirsty Bhairava.
In settlements all over the valley, and outside, where the Newar merchants have made their homes, Bhimsen’s annual festivals, held at various times throughout the year, are occasions of tumultuous merrymaking.
Bhimsen Temple in Dolkha
In Lalitpur, near Kathmandu, on the ninth day of the dark half of September, two days after Lord Krishna’s birthday, Bhimsen is taken from his temple and carried triumphantly through the streets with a fanfare of music and a parade of celebrating devotees.
On the first day of the waning moon in January, the day after full moon, Bhimsen and his wife Draupadi, eachin a decorated, canopied palanquin, arc honoured with a chaotic ride around the lanes of Bhaktapur city, eight miles to the east. In many of Bhimsen’s festivals, following ancient tradition, ceremonies are delayed until the arrival of a headman of the Newari Thako-juju clan whose patron deity is Bhimsen, for these people are considered to be descendants of the old Thakuri kings of Dolkha from whence – Bhimsen originated.
For centuries the tradesmen of Kathmandu have believed that Bhimsen every twelfth year makes a journey to Lhasa, where he visits and gives his blessings to Newar merchants who have long maintained residence in this capital city of Tibet, conducting trade with their counterparts from Nepal. For this journey, a farmer is chosen to represent Bhimsen and sent on his way by a great gathering of rejoicing devotees. When he reaches his destination, they say, he is warmly and reverently received by the Nepalese of Lhasa, who return him to their countrymen laden with riches and presents. This practice may be an enactment of the ancient story when the five Pandava brothers were suffering drastic reversals in their struggles against the cousins.
