Shukravar Vrat Katha (Santoshi Mata)

Shukravar Vrat Katha (Santoshi Mata)

How the vrat is kept
On Friday morning, bathe, wear clean clothes and remember Santoshi Mata.
Place a kalash of water before her picture, light a ghee lamp and offer jaggery and roasted chana.
Read or hear the katha, do the aarti and share the jaggery and chana as prasad.
By tradition, no one in the house eats anything sour that day. After sixteen Fridays, the vrat is closed (udyapan) by feeding eight boys kheer, puri and chana.

The katha
An old woman had seven sons. Six earned a living, but the youngest did no work. She lovingly fed the six and gave the leftovers from their plates to the seventh son. The simple-hearted son never noticed.

One day his wife told him this, but he said, "I will not believe it without seeing it myself." On a festival day he pretended to have a headache and lay in the kitchen with a cloth over him. He watched his mother feed his six brothers with love. Then she pressed the leftover pieces from their plates into one laddoo and called him: "Get up, son. Now you eat too."

Hurt, he said, "Mother, I will not eat. I am going away to a far land." In anger she said, "If you are going tomorrow, go today." On his way out he went to his wife, who was making cow-dung cakes in the cowshed. He gave her his ring as a keepsake and asked her for one too. She said, "All I have are hands full of cow dung," and she pressed the print of her hand on his back.

In a far country he began working at a moneylender's shop. Working hard, he soon handled all the accounts. The moneylender made him a partner in half the profit, and in a few years he became a well-known merchant.

At home, his parents made his wife do all the housework and then sent her to the forest to gather wood. For food she got a roti made of bran husk, and water in a broken coconut shell.

One day, on her way to the forest, she saw some women keeping the vrat of Santoshi Mata and listening to the katha. She asked, "Sisters, whose vrat is this, and how is it kept?" One woman told her it was the vrat of Santoshi Mata. Every Friday jaggery and chana are offered and the katha is heard. The routine is not broken, the vrat is closed with an udyapan when the wish is fulfilled, and on that day no one in the house is given anything sour.

On her way back she sold the wood, bought jaggery and chana, and at a temple of Santoshi Mata on the road she fell at the Mother's feet: "Maa, I know nothing. I am very unhappy. Please take me under your care." From then on she kept the vrat every Friday.

On the second Friday a letter came from her husband, and on the third the money he had sent. Her husband's elder brother and his wife grew jealous, and their children taunted her. She wept at the temple, "Maa, I never asked for money. All I want is to see my husband." The Mother said, "Go, daughter, your husband will come."

Then Santoshi Mata said to her husband in a dream in the far land, "Your wife is suffering. Go and care for her." He said, "Maa, my dealings here are unsettled. How can I go?" She said, "In the morning, bathe, take my name, light a ghee lamp and sit at your shop." He did so. By evening all his dues were settled and his goods were sold. He set out for home with clothes and jewellery.

Every day, coming back with wood, his wife rested at the Mother's temple. One day, as dust rose in the distance, the Mother said, "Your husband is coming. Make three bundles of wood. Leave one by the river and one at my temple, carry the third home on your head, drop it in the courtyard and call out loudly: 'Mother-in-law, take this bundle of wood, give me my bran roti, give me water in the coconut shell. Who is the guest today?'"

The husband saw the dry wood by the river, stopped, cooked a meal and then reached home. Just then his wife came into the courtyard and called out those very words. Her mother-in-law tried to cover up: "Why do you talk like that, bahu? Your husband has come. Come, eat sweet rice." Hearing her voice, the husband came out, saw his ring on her hand and understood everything. He said to his mother, "I have seen her and I have seen you. Give me the key to the other house." He began to live happily there with his wife.

One Friday the wife held the udyapan and invited the children of her husband's elder brother. Taught by their mother, they ate the kheer and then demanded something sour. When she refused, they asked for money. The simple-hearted wife gave them some, and they bought tamarind and ate it. So the rule of the vrat was broken. At that very moment the king's soldiers took her husband away.

Weeping, she reached the temple. The Mother said, "Daughter, you broke the rule at the udyapan." She folded her hands, asked forgiveness and promised to do the udyapan again. The Mother said, "Go. You will meet your husband on the way." And she did. The king had asked for tax on his earnings, and he had gone to pay it.

The next Friday she held the udyapan again. Once more the children asked for something sour, so she plainly said no, fed Brahmin boys with love and, instead of money, gave each a fruit as dakshina. Santoshi Mata was pleased. In time a son, beautiful as the moon, was born to her, and she took him to the Mother's temple every day.

One day the Mother came to her house in a frightening form, with jaggery and chana on her face and flies buzzing around her. The mother-in-law screamed in fear and everyone began shutting the windows, but the young wife cried with joy, "Today my Santoshi Mata has come to my home!" She threw the doors open. Everyone fell at the Mother's feet and asked forgiveness. The Mother forgave them all, and from that day the whole family lived with love and kept the Friday vrat with faith.

O Santoshi Mata, just as you heard that young wife's prayer, keep your grace on everyone.
Bolo Santoshi Mata ki Jai!