The gandharva and the apsara
In Nandanavan, the pleasure-garden of Indra's swarga, dwelt the gandharva Malyavan, foremost among the singers of the devas, and the apsara Pushpavati, whose dance no eye could turn from. Long had they loved each other in secret — as the shastra tells us love arises even among the beings of higher lokas — but their duty to the sabha of Indra was total, and no distraction was permitted.
The broken rhythm
On a festival day Indra held a great assembly for the seven Prajapatis. Malyavan led the song of the Sama; Pushpavati stood in the front line of the dancers. But as she raised her hand in the first mudra her eyes met his, and love — sudden as lightning — passed between them. His voice trembled and slipped from the beat; her feet lost the tala. The whole sabha faltered. Indra, dishonoured before the Prajapatis, rose in fury and pronounced the shraap: 'You who broke the rhythm of the sabha for love of each other — become pishachas together upon the earth, on a Himalayan peak of ice and stone, until Vishnu himself releases you.'
The Himalayan winter
Their divya forms fell burning through the sky and became, at the moment of landing, hideous pishacha bodies upon a bleak peak of the northern Himalaya. Their memory of Nandanavan remained, which made the punishment sharper. Through months they wandered that peak in torment — starving upon raw flesh they could barely catch, tormented by cold, unable to embrace for their bodies were now revolting to each other. Yet their love did not die; it turned into pity for one another, which is the beginning of wisdom.
The involuntary vrat
One Magha night the cold grew so terrible that even the pishacha bodies could not hunt. They stumbled to the shelter of a lone peepal upon that peak and collapsed at its roots, holding each other for warmth, weeping the same tear. Neither ate; neither slept; neither spoke, save one word which Pushpavati whispered again and again, remembering her mother's aarti of childhood: 'Narayana… Narayana…' Malyavan took up the name with her. That day, unknown to them, was the Magha Shukla Ekadashi called Jaya. The peepal accepted their vrat.
The return to Nandanavan
At the first light of Dwadashi a warm wind moved through the pines. The pishacha bodies fell from them like snakeskin; divya forms even more radiant than before stood in their place. A viman of the devas descended, and upon it stood Indra himself, come to receive them back. 'Malyavan, Pushpavati — the shraap is dissolved. You have won inner jaya by a Vishnu-vrat kept in complete unknowing. Return to Nandanavan.' Since that day the shastra declares: whoever keeps the Jaya Ekadashi is freed from every pishacha and preta yoni, whether of this life or a previous one, and gains inner victory over the fears that torment the mind.
"Grants inner victory and liberation from pishacha, preta, brahma-rakshasa and every lower yoni — whether one is trapped in it oneself or an ancestor is. Prescribed for those tormented by unexplained fear, nightmares, or negative influences upon the home."