The thirteenth tithi at twilight — the hour and a half around sunset when Śiva, having drunk the poison of the churned ocean, danced between the horns of Nandī for the joy of the gods. Worship in this window is held to please him swiftly; a Monday (Soma) or Saturday (Śani) Pradoṣa is prized most.
When the hālāhala poison rose from the churned ocean and scorched the worlds, the gods fled to Kailāsa. Śiva, in compassion, gathered the poison in his palm and drank it; Pārvatī pressed his throat, and it stayed there, turning it blue — Nīlakaṇṭha. The Skanda Purāṇa tells that on the thirteenth, at dusk, he danced in gladness while the gods stood round in worship, and relates how a destitute widow’s son and an orphaned prince, taught the Pradoṣa vow by the sage Śāṇḍilya, regained a kingdom by it.
🌙The vrata
A fast from sunrise, broken after the twilight worship; kept on both thirteenths of the month.
🔥Pūjā and havan
In the pradoṣa window: abhiṣeka of the liṅga with milk and water, bilva leaves, lamp and incense; Nandī is worshipped first and the liṅga viewed between his horns; the pradakṣiṇā is done in the half-circle Soma-sūtra manner; the Śiva-pradoṣa-stotra and Rudram are recited.
ॐMantras and japa 2
ॐ नमः शिवाय ॥
oṃ namaḥ śivāya ||
Meaning: Salutation to Śiva, the auspicious one.
Benefit: The five-syllable mantra at the heart of the Yajurveda — purifies the five elements of the body and steadies the mind in Śiva.
Meaning: We worship the three-eyed Lord, fragrant, the nourisher of all; as a ripe gourd is freed from its stalk, may he free us from death, not from immortality.
Benefit: The great death-conquering mantra — japa of 108 for health, long life, recovery from illness and fearlessness.
Ṛgveda 7.59.12 (Vasiṣṭha); Śukla Yajurveda 3.60
📖Scriptural references 2
Skanda Purāṇa, Brahmottara-khaṇḍa 6–7
Bhāgavata Purāṇa 8.7
3Fri
Friday, 3 May 2019
Caitra · dark fortnight (kṛṣṇa) Caturdaśī · Revatī
☀About the day
Lunar month
Caitra
Tithi at sunrise
dark fortnight (kṛṣṇa) Caturdaśī · until 04:04 (next day)
The monthly night of Śiva, the fourteenth of the dark half, when the waning moon — the mind — is almost still. Those who keep all twelve through the year complete the vow on Mahā Śivarātri.
🔥Pūjā and havan
Evening or midnight worship of the liṅga with water, milk and bilva; a fast through the day; japa of the pañcākṣarī.
ॐMantras and japa 1
ॐ नमः शिवाय ॥
oṃ namaḥ śivāya ||
Meaning: Salutation to Śiva, the auspicious one.
Benefit: The five-syllable mantra at the heart of the Yajurveda — purifies the five elements of the body and steadies the mind in Śiva.
The new moon, when Sun and Moon dwell together — the day that belongs to the ancestors. Offerings of water and sesame made today reach them directly, and their blessing is sought for the family’s welfare. A new moon on a Monday (Somavatī) is especially sacred for married women, who circle the pīpal tree 108 times; on a Saturday (Śanaiścarī) Śani is propitiated with sesame oil; on a Tuesday (Bhaumavatī) debts are said to be cleared by ancestral rites.
📜The story from the scriptures
Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana-parva 87–92; Matsya Purāṇa 14 (Acchodā and the Pitṛs)
The Matsya Purāṇa tells of Acchodā, mind-born daughter of the Pitṛs, who through a moment’s wavering fell from heaven. The Pitṛs, in compassion, told her that the day of her fall would be named Amāvasyā, dear to them above all days, and that whatever is offered to the ancestors on it would be imperishable. Bhīṣma teaches Yudhiṣṭhira that of all tithis the new moon is foremost for the śrāddha.
🔥Pūjā and havan
Tarpaṇa with water and black sesame facing south; feeding of crows, cows and the needy; a lamp of sesame oil under the pīpal at dusk; on Somavatī, circumambulation of the pīpal with thread, and a vow of silence at the bath.
Akṣaya means “that which never diminishes”. Whatever is given, offered into the fire or recited today is held to bear fruit that does not decay, and the whole day is a self-standing muhūrta — beginnings need no further election. It is kept as the birthday of Paraśurāma, the opening of the Tretā-yuga, and the day the Badarīnātha shrine reopens and the Ratha Yātrā chariots begin to be built at Purī.
📜The story from the scriptures
Matsya Purāṇa 65; Mahābhārata, Vana-parva 3
The Matsya Purāṇa teaches that on the third of bright Vaiśākha, gifts, homa and japa become imperishable, and that one who fasts and worships Viṣṇu with unbroken rice (akṣata) gains the fruit of every tīrtha. The Mahābhārata tells how, at the start of the forest exile, Yudhiṣṭhira prayed to the Sun and received the Akṣaya-pātra — a copper vessel that gave inexhaustible food each day until Draupadī herself had eaten — so that no guest of the Pāṇḍavas went hungry for twelve years.
🪔Regional traditions and folklore
Tradition places Sudāmā’s visit to Kṛṣṇa with a handful of beaten rice on this day, along with the descent of Gaṅgā to earth and Vyāsa’s beginning the dictation of the Mahābhārata to Gaṇeśa. In Vṛndāvana the feet of Bāṅke Bihārī are shown only today; in Odisha farmers begin sowing with Akhi Muṭhi Anukūla; gold bought today is believed to grow.
🔥Pūjā and havan
Bath at dawn, worship of Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa with akṣata, tulasī and sandal paste (candana-yātrā begins in Vaiṣṇava temples). Gifts of water pots, barley, saktu, curd-rice, fans, sandals and umbrellas are made for the summer; tarpaṇa is offered to the ancestors; a homa with barley and ghee is performed.
ॐMantras and japa 2
ॐ नमो नारायणाय ॥
oṃ namo nārāyaṇāya ||
Meaning: Salutation to Nārāyaṇa, the refuge of all beings.
Benefit: The eight-syllable mantra — the Upaniṣad says one who recites it attains full life, prosperity and the abode of Viṣṇu.
The eleventh tithi of each fortnight, dearest of all days to Viṣṇu. Eleven stands for the ten senses and the mind; on this day they are turned from food toward the Lord. The Padma Purāṇa gives each of the year’s Ekādaśīs its own name, story and fruit.
📜The story from the scriptures
Padma Purāṇa, Uttara-khaṇḍa 38 — the birth of Ekādaśī
In the Kṛta age the asura Mura drove the gods from heaven. Viṣṇu fought him for a thousand divine years and then withdrew to rest in the cave Hemavatī at Badarikāśrama. Mura followed, meaning to slay the sleeping Lord — when from Viṣṇu’s own body sprang a radiant maiden, armed, who met the asura in battle and reduced him to ashes with a sound. Waking, the Lord asked who had done this; she answered that she was born of him, on the eleventh day. Pleased, he named her Ekādaśī and granted her wish: that whoever fasts on her day be freed from wrong and come to his abode.
🌙The vrata
A light single meal on Daśamī; on Ekādaśī a full fast, or fruit and milk, with all grains and beans set aside; a night vigil with the names of Hari; and pāraṇa on Dvādaśī morning after sunrise, within the Dvādaśī, after feeding another.
🔥Pūjā and havan
Viṣṇu is worshipped with tulasī leaves, sandal, flowers, lamp and fruit; the Viṣṇu-sahasranāma, the Gītā and the Ekādaśī-māhātmya of the day are read; lamps are lit before the tulasī at dusk.
ॐMantras and japa 2
ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
oṃ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya ||
Meaning: Salutation to the blessed Lord Vāsudeva.
Benefit: The dvādaśākṣara — by this mantra the child Dhruva saw the Lord within six months; recited for devotion, protection and liberation.
Bhāgavata Purāṇa 4.8.54 — the twelve-syllable mantra Nārada gives to Dhruva
ॐ नमो नारायणाय ॥
oṃ namo nārāyaṇāya ||
Meaning: Salutation to Nārāyaṇa, the refuge of all beings.
Benefit: The eight-syllable mantra — the Upaniṣad says one who recites it attains full life, prosperity and the abode of Viṣṇu.
The thirteenth tithi at twilight — the hour and a half around sunset when Śiva, having drunk the poison of the churned ocean, danced between the horns of Nandī for the joy of the gods. Worship in this window is held to please him swiftly; a Monday (Soma) or Saturday (Śani) Pradoṣa is prized most.
When the hālāhala poison rose from the churned ocean and scorched the worlds, the gods fled to Kailāsa. Śiva, in compassion, gathered the poison in his palm and drank it; Pārvatī pressed his throat, and it stayed there, turning it blue — Nīlakaṇṭha. The Skanda Purāṇa tells that on the thirteenth, at dusk, he danced in gladness while the gods stood round in worship, and relates how a destitute widow’s son and an orphaned prince, taught the Pradoṣa vow by the sage Śāṇḍilya, regained a kingdom by it.
🌙The vrata
A fast from sunrise, broken after the twilight worship; kept on both thirteenths of the month.
🔥Pūjā and havan
In the pradoṣa window: abhiṣeka of the liṅga with milk and water, bilva leaves, lamp and incense; Nandī is worshipped first and the liṅga viewed between his horns; the pradakṣiṇā is done in the half-circle Soma-sūtra manner; the Śiva-pradoṣa-stotra and Rudram are recited.
ॐMantras and japa 2
ॐ नमः शिवाय ॥
oṃ namaḥ śivāya ||
Meaning: Salutation to Śiva, the auspicious one.
Benefit: The five-syllable mantra at the heart of the Yajurveda — purifies the five elements of the body and steadies the mind in Śiva.
Meaning: We worship the three-eyed Lord, fragrant, the nourisher of all; as a ripe gourd is freed from its stalk, may he free us from death, not from immortality.
Benefit: The great death-conquering mantra — japa of 108 for health, long life, recovery from illness and fearlessness.
The full moon — the day of fullness, when the mind’s own planet is complete. It is the customary day for the Satyanārāyaṇa vrata, for charity, for honouring the guru and for a bath in sacred waters; each month’s full moon carries its own festival.
Nārada, grieved by the sufferings of people in the Kali age, asked Viṣṇu for a simple remedy, and the Lord taught him the worship of Satya-Nārāyaṇa — Truth itself as God. The kathā’s five chapters tell of a poor brāhmaṇa of Kāśī, a woodcutter, the merchant Sādhu and his daughter Kalāvatī, and King Tuṅgadhvaja: each prospered by keeping the vow and honouring its prasāda, and each stumbled on forgetting a promise made to the Lord — for truthfulness is the vow’s real offering.
🔥Pūjā and havan
In the evening: a kalaśa and an image or picture of Viṣṇu under a canopy of plantain stems; offerings of tulasī, fruit and the prasāda of roasted wheat flour, sugar, ghee, milk and banana (sapāda-bhakṣya); the five-chapter kathā is read aloud and the prasāda shared with all. Arghya is offered to the risen moon.
ॐMantras and japa 2
ॐ नमो नारायणाय ॥
oṃ namo nārāyaṇāya ||
Meaning: Salutation to Nārāyaṇa, the refuge of all beings.
Benefit: The eight-syllable mantra — the Upaniṣad says one who recites it attains full life, prosperity and the abode of Viṣṇu.
Nārāyaṇa Upaniṣad (Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda)
ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
oṃ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya ||
Meaning: Salutation to the blessed Lord Vāsudeva.
Benefit: The dvādaśākṣara — by this mantra the child Dhruva saw the Lord within six months; recited for devotion, protection and liberation.
Bhāgavata Purāṇa 4.8.54 — the twelve-syllable mantra Nārada gives to Dhruva
📖Scriptural references 1
Skanda Purāṇa, Revā-khaṇḍa (Satyanārāyaṇa-kathā)
19Sun
Sunday, 19 May 2019
Vaiśākha · dark fortnight (kṛṣṇa) Pratipadā · Anurādhā
☀About the day
Lunar month
Vaiśākha
Tithi at sunrise
dark fortnight (kṛṣṇa) Pratipadā · until 01:43 (next day)
The fourth of the dark fortnight, Gaṇeśa’s monthly vow: saṅkaṣṭa-hara, “the remover of hardships”. The fast is kept until the moon rises. When it falls on a Tuesday it is Aṅgārakī, the most prized of all.
📜The story from the scriptures
Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Upāsanā-khaṇḍa; Mudgala Purāṇa
The Gaṇeśa Purāṇa tells that Aṅgāraka (Mars), son of the Earth and the sage Bharadvāja, worshipped Gaṇeśa with long austerity; the Lord appeared to him on a dark fourth that fell on a Tuesday and granted that the day bear his name, and that whoever keeps the vow on it have every obstacle removed. Each month’s Caturthī has its own form of Gaṇeśa and its own story, told at moonrise.
🌙The vrata
A day-long fast, fruit and roots permitted; at moonrise Gaṇeśa is worshipped, arghya is given to the Moon, the kathā is heard and the fast is broken.
🔥Pūjā and havan
Twenty-one dūrvā blades, red flowers, modaka or sesame laḍḍū; the Saṅkaṣṭa-nāśana Gaṇeśa-stotra from the Nārada Purāṇa and the Atharvaśīrṣa are recited.
ॐMantras and japa 1
ॐ गं गणपतये नमः ॥
oṃ gaṃ gaṇapataye namaḥ ||
Meaning: Salutation to Gaṇapati, lord of the hosts.
Benefit: Recited before every beginning — removes obstacles and grants success, learning and a steady intellect.
Gaṇapati Atharvaśīrṣa Upaniṣad 7
📖Scriptural references 2
Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Upāsanā-khaṇḍa
Nārada Purāṇa (Saṅkaṣṭa-nāśana-stotra)
23Thu
Thursday, 23 May 2019
Vaiśākha · dark fortnight (kṛṣṇa) Pañcamī · Uttara Aṣāḍhā
☀About the day
Lunar month
Vaiśākha
Tithi at sunrise
dark fortnight (kṛṣṇa) Pañcamī · until 04:19 (next day)
The eleventh tithi of each fortnight, dearest of all days to Viṣṇu. Eleven stands for the ten senses and the mind; on this day they are turned from food toward the Lord. The Padma Purāṇa gives each of the year’s Ekādaśīs its own name, story and fruit.
📜The story from the scriptures
Padma Purāṇa, Uttara-khaṇḍa 38 — the birth of Ekādaśī
In the Kṛta age the asura Mura drove the gods from heaven. Viṣṇu fought him for a thousand divine years and then withdrew to rest in the cave Hemavatī at Badarikāśrama. Mura followed, meaning to slay the sleeping Lord — when from Viṣṇu’s own body sprang a radiant maiden, armed, who met the asura in battle and reduced him to ashes with a sound. Waking, the Lord asked who had done this; she answered that she was born of him, on the eleventh day. Pleased, he named her Ekādaśī and granted her wish: that whoever fasts on her day be freed from wrong and come to his abode.
🌙The vrata
A light single meal on Daśamī; on Ekādaśī a full fast, or fruit and milk, with all grains and beans set aside; a night vigil with the names of Hari; and pāraṇa on Dvādaśī morning after sunrise, within the Dvādaśī, after feeding another.
🔥Pūjā and havan
Viṣṇu is worshipped with tulasī leaves, sandal, flowers, lamp and fruit; the Viṣṇu-sahasranāma, the Gītā and the Ekādaśī-māhātmya of the day are read; lamps are lit before the tulasī at dusk.
ॐMantras and japa 2
ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
oṃ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya ||
Meaning: Salutation to the blessed Lord Vāsudeva.
Benefit: The dvādaśākṣara — by this mantra the child Dhruva saw the Lord within six months; recited for devotion, protection and liberation.
Bhāgavata Purāṇa 4.8.54 — the twelve-syllable mantra Nārada gives to Dhruva
ॐ नमो नारायणाय ॥
oṃ namo nārāyaṇāya ||
Meaning: Salutation to Nārāyaṇa, the refuge of all beings.
Benefit: The eight-syllable mantra — the Upaniṣad says one who recites it attains full life, prosperity and the abode of Viṣṇu.
Nārāyaṇa Upaniṣad (Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda)
📖Scriptural references 1
Padma Purāṇa, Uttara-khaṇḍa 36–63
31Fri
Friday, 31 May 2019
Vaiśākha · dark fortnight (kṛṣṇa) Dvādaśī · Aśvinī
The thirteenth tithi at twilight — the hour and a half around sunset when Śiva, having drunk the poison of the churned ocean, danced between the horns of Nandī for the joy of the gods. Worship in this window is held to please him swiftly; a Monday (Soma) or Saturday (Śani) Pradoṣa is prized most.
When the hālāhala poison rose from the churned ocean and scorched the worlds, the gods fled to Kailāsa. Śiva, in compassion, gathered the poison in his palm and drank it; Pārvatī pressed his throat, and it stayed there, turning it blue — Nīlakaṇṭha. The Skanda Purāṇa tells that on the thirteenth, at dusk, he danced in gladness while the gods stood round in worship, and relates how a destitute widow’s son and an orphaned prince, taught the Pradoṣa vow by the sage Śāṇḍilya, regained a kingdom by it.
🌙The vrata
A fast from sunrise, broken after the twilight worship; kept on both thirteenths of the month.
🔥Pūjā and havan
In the pradoṣa window: abhiṣeka of the liṅga with milk and water, bilva leaves, lamp and incense; Nandī is worshipped first and the liṅga viewed between his horns; the pradakṣiṇā is done in the half-circle Soma-sūtra manner; the Śiva-pradoṣa-stotra and Rudram are recited.
ॐMantras and japa 2
ॐ नमः शिवाय ॥
oṃ namaḥ śivāya ||
Meaning: Salutation to Śiva, the auspicious one.
Benefit: The five-syllable mantra at the heart of the Yajurveda — purifies the five elements of the body and steadies the mind in Śiva.
Meaning: We worship the three-eyed Lord, fragrant, the nourisher of all; as a ripe gourd is freed from its stalk, may he free us from death, not from immortality.
Benefit: The great death-conquering mantra — japa of 108 for health, long life, recovery from illness and fearlessness.
Ṛgveda 7.59.12 (Vasiṣṭha); Śukla Yajurveda 3.60
📖Scriptural references 2
Skanda Purāṇa, Brahmottara-khaṇḍa 6–7
Bhāgavata Purāṇa 8.7
Reference shelf
◐The twenty-six Ekādaśīs 26
The year of twenty-four Ekādaśīs — outer ring bright fortnight, inner ring dark; the centre holds the two of the intercalary month
The Padma Purāṇa, Uttara-khaṇḍa, adhyāyas 38–63, tells the glory of each Ekādaśī as Śrī Kṛṣṇa told it to Yudhiṣṭhira. The cards give the amānta month; the Purāṇa speaks in the pūrṇimānta reckoning of North India, which writes each dark fortnight under the following month’s name — so a verse may say “Pauṣa” where the card says Mārgaśīrṣa. The day is the same. Each card opens onto its chapter in the Library.
On the Dvādaśī the pavitrāropaṇa — the offering of the sacred thread — to Vāsudeva is taught, with threads of gold, silver, copper, linen, silk and lotus-fibre.
English rendering by Horā — the edition on file carries a Hindi commentary only.
In the chapter: King Mahījit and the sage Lomaśa; the pavitrāropaṇa follows on the Dvādaśī
देवता निर्जिताः सर्वाः स्वर्गभ्रष्टाः कृताः प्रभो ।
अत्युग्रेण हि दैत्येन मुरनाम्ना महौजसा ।
इंद्रस्य वचनं श्रुत्वा विष्णुर्वचनमब्रवीत् ॥ 65 ॥
All the gods have been defeated and cast out of heaven, O Lord, by the exceedingly fierce and mighty daitya named Mura. Hearing Indra’s words, Viṣṇu spoke.
English rendering by Horā — the edition on file carries a Hindi commentary only.
In the chapter: the daitya Mura of Candrāvatī, who drives the gods from heaven — the chapter of Ekādaśī’s own origin
… for so many thousand years he is honoured in heaven. Bathing with sesame, rubbing the body with sesame, offering sesame into the fire, sesame in water —
English rendering by Horā — the edition on file carries a Hindi commentary only.
Nārada asked the lotus-seated Brahmā: “The one in the dark fortnight of Phālguna, Vijayā by name — tell me her merit, O best of the twice-born, by your grace.”
English rendering by Horā — the edition on file carries a Hindi commentary only.
In the chapter: Rāma at the ocean and the sage Dālbhya
अमा वा यदि वा पूर्णा संपूर्णा जायते तदा ।
भूत्वा वै नाडिकाषष्ठिर्जायते प्रतिपद्दिने ।
अश्वमेधायुतैस्तुल्या सा भवेत्पक्षवर्द्धिनी ॥ 2 ॥
When the Amāvāsyā or the Pūrṇimā runs complete — a full sixty nāḍikās — and continues into the Pratipad day, that is Pakṣavardhinī, equal to ten thousand horse-sacrifices.
English rendering by Horā — the edition on file carries a Hindi commentary only.
3
Jayā and Vijayā — named by the star
A bright Ekādaśī under Punarvasu is Jayā; a bright Dvādaśī under Śravaṇa is Vijayā. The chapter goes on to Jayantī and Pāpanāśinī in the same way.
On the Dvādaśī the pavitrāropaṇa — the offering of the sacred thread — to Vāsudeva is taught, with threads of gold, silver, copper, linen, silk and lotus-fibre.
English rendering by Horā — the edition on file carries a Hindi commentary only.
What the text asks of the day
Read together, the chapters ask for the same few things: the fast on the Ekādaśī (waterless, on Nirjalā); worship of Viṣṇu under the name the chapter gives — Dāmodara, Hṛṣīkeśa, Padmanābha; an offering that suits the day — fruits on Saphalā, sesame on Ṣaṭtilā, tulasī on Kāmikā; the vigil through the night with song and hymn; and worship again on the Dvādaśī before the fast is broken. The japa of the day is the dvādaśākṣarī, oṃ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, with the Viṣṇu-sahasranāma.
🌘Eclipses (grahaṇa)
Varāhamihira gives both accounts side by side. First the story: the severed head that tasted the nectar and became a graha. Then the science: the Moon enters the earth’s shadow, and at a solar eclipse the Moon covers the Sun — “Rāhu is not the cause”. And then why the rite continues: by Brahmā’s boon Rāhu has a share of the oblation offered at an eclipse.
Some say that this head, though severed from the demon (asura) on account of a taste of the nectar of immortality, was not abandoned by the vital breaths, and thus attained the status of a planet (graha).
The truth is: in its own eclipse, the Moon enters the earth’s shadow; in the Sun’s eclipse, the Moon obscures the Sun. Hence the eclipse begins, for the Moon, from the hindward part, and for the Sun, not from the forward part.
Thus has the true cause of an eclipse been stated by the teachers of divine sight (the astronomer-sages); and it has been said that Rahu is not the true, physical cause in this -- such is the real purport of the science.