Somasharma

There used to be a brahmana named Somasharma. (This is obviously not the Somasharma who was Shivasharma’s son.)
Somasharma lived in a tirtha named vamanatirtha on the banks of the river Reva. His wife was Sumana. Somasharma and Sumana were poor. Nor did they have any sons. This made Somasharma very unhappy. Sumana advised her husband to go and meet the sage Vashishtha.

Perhaps the sage might be able to tell them how they could have a son.

Somasharma went to Vashishtha’s hermitage. “Why am I poor and why don’t I have any sons?” he asked the sage.
“Your are poor because of the sins you committed in your earlier life,” replied the sage. “Let me tell you your history.”

In his earlier life, Somasharma had been born as a shudra. (Shudras constitute the last of the four classes.) He had spent his life in agriculture and animal husbandry and had accumulated a lot of wealth. But he had never donated any alms. Nor had he ever bothered to listen to the shastras or to visit places of pilgrimage. He had been obsessed with the accumulation of wealth. It was because of these sins that Somasharma had been born poor in this life.

“But if all I ever committed were sins, how came I to be born as a brahmana in this life?” asked Somasharma. “Should I not have been born as a shudra again?”

“You were born as a brahmana because you did perform some good deeds in your earlier life,” replied Vashishtha. “Let me tell you about them.”

When Somasharma had been born as a shudra, a learned brahmana, devoted to Vishnu, had come to visit him. Somasharma had welcomed the brahmana as a honoured guest. Shuklapaksha is the lunar fortnight during which the moon waxes and ekadashi titthi is the eleventh lunar day. The next day had happened to be ekadashi tithi in shuklapaksha and the brahmana had observed a urata (religious rite) earmarked for such a day. On seeing the brahmana observe the rite, Somasharma had also observed the vrata. This act of piety had ensured that Somasharma would be born as a brahmana in his next life.