The shore of the salt sea
After the long march from Kishkindha with the vanara-sena, Bhagwan Shri Ram, Lakshman and the army of monkeys stood at last upon the shore of the vast salt sea — the ocean that separated Bharatavarsha from Lanka. Sita was captive beyond that water. Ravana's palaces gleamed as a faint spark upon the horizon at dusk. But between them stretched the samudra, unfathomable, thundering, its waves black as basalt in the moonlight. Vibhishana had already crossed to their side; Sugriva, Hanuman, Angada, Nala, Nila, Jambavan — all the great warriors — stood ready. Only the ocean itself refused to grant a way.
The three-day tapas
Shri Ram sat upon the sand in silent tapas for three days, dhyaan of Varuna, waiting for the ocean-deva to appear and grant passage. On the third dawn no answer had come. Ram rose in a rare wrath, took his bow and set an astra upon the string that could have dried the sea to a plain. Lakshman restrained his elder brother's arm and said, 'Brata, before you strike, hear what a rishi may offer.' At that moment, from the small ashram upon a headland nearby, walked the sage Vakadalbhya, escorted by his disciples, come to the beach as though summoned by Ram's very dilemma.
The counsel of Vakadalbhya
Ram rose and offered pranam. Vakadalbhya said, 'Ramchandra, an army may reach Lanka but Lanka itself is the fortress of a boon-hardened rakshasa. Even Setu-bandha is only the first task; every day of the war beyond is a fresh ocean to cross. There is one vrat that gives victory over any obstacle, no matter how vast — the Vijaya Ekadashi of Phalguna Krishna paksha. It approaches in two days. Observe it with the whole army; the whole sena becomes a single sankalp of jaya. Then cross.'
The vrat of the sena
Ram, Lakshman, Vibhishana and every one of the countless vanaras observed the vrat together. The whole shore was dotted with tulsi-plants that Hanuman himself had gathered and set into little kunds of sand-water. From sunrise no soul among them tasted food. Through the night the vanara-sena kept jagran with Ram-naam — Sugriva's roar leading it, Jambavan's older voice weaving through, Hanuman singing verse after verse of his own composition in praise of his prabhu. Ram himself performed the tulsi-arghya upon a shalagram Vibhishana had brought from Lanka. At Dwadashi dawn the parana was taken from Ganga-tulsi jal that Hanuman had flown at dawn to fetch from the Himalayas.
The bridge and the victory
On that very Dwadashi Nala and Nila began the construction of the Setu. The stones, marked with Ram's name, floated of themselves. The ocean subsided — Varuna appeared and granted safe passage. In days the setu was built, Lanka reached, the war fought, Ravana slain, and Sita restored. Bhagwan Ram himself, on the return journey, told Vibhishana that no victory of his was owed as much to any single act as to the vrat of that Vijaya Ekadashi. Since then the shastra declares: keep this Ekadashi before any great undertaking — a war, a court case, a surgery, a great yajna, a new business — and Vishnu himself carries the vrati's sankalp to jaya.
"Grants victory over any obstacle, however vast. Prescribed by the acharyas of Ayodhya before any difficult undertaking — a court case, a surgery, a business launch, a journey, a great yajna. The vrat that Shri Ram himself kept."