सनातन पुस्तकालय Sanatan Cultural Library

The vrat of Santoshi Mata is kept on Fridays. Take the vow with a wish in your heart — usually for sixteen Fridays, or until the wish is fulfilled. Do not abandon it midway; if a Friday is missed for some reason, keep one more Friday later in its place. On Friday, bathe early and place the Mother's picture in a clean spot at home; set a water-filled kalash before her and on it a bowl of jaggery and roasted gram. Light a ghee lamp and worship the Mother. Hold jaggery and roasted gram in your hand while hearing or telling the katha; after it, perform the aarti, feed the gur-chana to a cow, give prasad to all, sprinkle the kalash water through the house and pour what remains at the tulsi plant. Eat only once in the day. The vrat's strictest rule is that on that day neither the devotee nor anyone in the family eats or serves anything sour — tamarind, lemon, curd, pickle, sour fruit. When the wish is fulfilled, perform the udyapan: cook kheer, puris and a chickpea dish and feed eight boys. If possible invite boys of the family; if none are available, Brahmin or neighbourhood boys. Do not give them money as dakshina — give fruit or some article instead, so that no one buys sour food with the coins. Nothing sour should be cooked in the house that day.

In a village lived an old woman who had seven sons. Six sons worked hard and earned, but the youngest, the seventh, earned nothing and stayed at home. The old woman lovingly served food to the six, and whatever was left over on their plates she gathered and fed to the seventh. He was simple-hearted and never noticed. One day the youngest son said to his wife: “See how much my mother loves me.” His wife said softly: “Why would she not love you? She feeds you everyone's leftovers.” The son did not believe it. He said: “Until I see it with my own eyes, I will not accept it.” His wife laughed and said: “When you see it, you will believe.” A few days later a festival came to the house. All kinds of dishes and laddus were made. The youngest son, pretending a headache, lay down in the kitchen itself under a thin cloth and watched everything through it. The six brothers came to eat. The mother seated them on fine mats and served them the best laddus and dishes, coaxing them to eat more. When they rose, she picked the broken bits of laddu from their plates and pressed them into one laddu. Then, clearing away the leavings, she called the youngest: “Son, get up — your brothers have eaten; now you eat too.” The son rose and said: “Mother, I will not eat. I am going to a foreign land.” The mother said: “If you are going tomorrow, go today.” The son said: “Yes, Mother, I will go today,” and he walked out of the house.

As he was leaving, he remembered his wife. She was in the cowshed, patting out dung cakes. He went there and said: “I am going to a foreign land; I will return after some time. Live with patience and keep to your dharma.” Her eyes filled with tears. She said: “Go without worry. Only leave me some token.” The husband took off his ring, gave it to her and said: “You give me a token too.” The wife said: “What do I have to give?” and she pressed the print of her dung-smeared hand on her husband's back. Carrying that token, he set off. Travelling on, he reached a city in a distant land. There a moneylender had a large shop. He went to the shop and said: “Sethji, take me into your employ.” The moneylender needed a man just then. He asked: “What wage will you take?” The young man said: “Give me what you think fair once you see my work.” The moneylender took him on. He worked with full heart from seven in the morning until night — trading, accounts, dealing with customers; he learnt it all quickly. Seeing his honesty and devotion, the moneylender made him a partner in half the profits within just three months. In a few years he himself became a great merchant of the city, and the moneylender, leaving all his business to him, was at ease.

Meanwhile, as soon as her husband left, her parents-in-law and sisters-in-law began to torment the youngest daughter-in-law. They made her do all the housework and sent her to the forest for firewood. For food she got bread made of husks, and water was given to her in a broken coconut shell. She bore it all silently and watched the road for her husband. One day, returning from the forest with wood, she saw many women seated together on the way, performing worship. She stopped and asked: “Sisters, which deity's vrat is this, and what fruit does keeping it bring? Teach me its method too.” One woman lovingly explained: “This is the vrat of Santoshi Mata. Keeping it destroys poverty and want, brings Lakshmi, removes the heart's worries and keeps peace and happiness in the home. The childless are given a son, an unmarried girl finds the husband of her heart, and a husband gone abroad soon returns home.” Then she told the method: “As your means allow, take jaggery and gram worth a quarter-and-a-bit anna or a quarter-and-a-bit rupee. Every Friday stay hungry and hear the Mother's katha. If you find no one to listen, light a ghee lamp and tell it before that, or place a vessel of water before you and tell it — but never break the rule of the katha. Keep the vrat until your purpose is achieved; when it is, perform the udyapan. For the udyapan make kheer, puris and a chickpea dish and feed eight boys. That day let no one in the house eat anything sour.” The daughter-in-law fixed this method in her mind. With the money from selling her bundle of wood she bought jaggery and gram, went to the Mother's temple and prayed weeping: “Mother, I am ignorant; I know nothing of the rules of the vrat. You are compassionate — remove my sorrow; I have come to your refuge.” From that Friday she began to keep the vrat with devotion.

By the second Friday her husband's letter had come, and on the third Friday the money he sent arrived as well. Seeing this, the sisters-in-law burned with envy and began to taunt her: “Now money has started coming to her; now she will think herself grand.” The children too jeered: “Aunty gets letters and rupees now.” With a simple heart the daughter-in-law went to the Mother's temple, fell at her feet and said: “Mother, when did I ask you for money? What use is money to me? I want my husband. I ask for the sight of my lord and the chance to serve him.” The Mother, pleased, said: “Go, daughter, your husband will come.” That very night Santoshi Mata appeared in a dream to her husband in the foreign land and said: “Son, your wife is suffering greatly at home; why do you not care for her?” The husband said: “Mother, I worry for her too, but my business is spread wide here and my dealings are scattered — how can I leave it all and go?” The Mother said: “In the morning, after bathing, light a ghee lamp in my name, bow full-length and sit down at your shop. Before your eyes all your dealings will be settled, your goods will be sold, and by evening you will have a heap of wealth.” In the morning he told his companions about the dream. They laughed: “Do dreams ever come true?” But an old man said: “Brother, true or false, what harm is there in doing as the Mother said and seeing?” He bathed, lit a ghee lamp before the Mother, bowed and sat at his shop. Within a short time debtors began to come of their own accord to repay, creditors came to settle, and the goods in his warehouses began to sell for cash. By evening all his business was wound up and a great heap of wealth lay before him. Thanking the Mother in his heart, he bought jewellery, clothes and goods for home and set out for his village.

Meanwhile the daughter-in-law was returning from the forest with wood as on every day. Tired, she stopped to rest at the Mother's temple. The Mother asked: “Daughter, why is so much dust rising?” She said: “Mother, I do not know.” The Mother said: “Your husband is coming. Now listen carefully to what I say. Make three bundles of wood. Leave one on the riverbank, one at my temple, and carry the third on your head to the house. When you reach home, throw it down in the courtyard and call out loudly three times: ‘Here, mother-in-law, take the bundle of wood; give me my husk bread; give me water in the coconut shell. Who is the guest who has come today?’” She did exactly that. Meanwhile her husband reached the riverbank and sat to rest a while. His eye fell on the bundle of wood, and then on the bundle at the Mother's temple. He was greatly surprised — who in the village leaves wood like this? After refreshing himself he went on toward home. As soon as he reached the house he heard his wife's very call in the courtyard. His mother came out and said: “Daughter-in-law, why do you say such things? Your husband has come — come, eat sweet rice, put on fine clothes and jewellery.” But the husband had seen it all with his own eyes. He saw on his wife's hand the ring he had given her, and he understood everything. He asked his mother: “Mother, who is this?” She said: “Son, this is your wife. Ever since you left she wanders about all day, does no work at all, and just comes and eats four times a day.” The son said: “Very well, Mother — I have seen her and I have seen you. Now give me the key to the other house; I will live there.” The mother gave him the key. Husband and wife set up their things in the separate house, and within a few days it was filled with plenty and adorned like a palace. Now the daughter-in-law lived in happiness, and every Friday she kept the Mother's vrat with devotion.

One day the daughter-in-law said to her husband: “I must perform the udyapan of Santoshi Mata's vrat.” He said gladly: “Surely, do it.” She busied herself with the preparations and went to invite the sons of her sisters-in-law to the meal. The sisters-in-law accepted, but envy was in their hearts. They had already taught their boys: “Listen — at the meal, ask for something sour, so that her udyapan is not completed.” On Friday the boys came. They ate their fill of kheer, puris and the chickpea dish. As soon as they had eaten they said: “Give us something sour; we don't like eating kheer — our stomachs feel heavy.” She said: “Brothers, no one gets anything sour today; this is Santoshi Mata's prasad.” The boys stood up and said: “Then give us money.” The innocent daughter-in-law suspected nothing and gave them money. The boys went straight to the market, bought tamarind and ate it, and came home laughing. As soon as the vrat's rule was broken, Santoshi Mata was displeased. At that very moment the king's soldiers came and took her husband away. Some tellings say he was charged with not paying his taxes. Her brothers-in-law and their wives began to taunt: “He brought back wealth by plunder — now he will learn; he will taste prison.” She could not bear it. Weeping, she went to the Mother's temple and said: “Mother, what have you done? Having made me laugh, why do you make me weep?” The Mother said: “Daughter, by your udyapan you broke my vrat. You gave the boys money and they ate sour food.” She said: “Mother, what was my fault? I gave the money in error. Forgive me — I will perform your udyapan again.” The Mother said: “Do not make the mistake again.” She said: “There will be no mistake now. But tell me, how will my husband return?” The Mother said: “Go — you will meet your husband coming on the way.” As she set off for home she truly met her husband coming along the road. He told her that the king had examined his accounts, found his taxes paid, and released him with honour.

The next Friday the daughter-in-law prepared the udyapan again. Instead of inviting her sisters-in-law's sons, she called eight Brahmin boys. The sisters-in-law again taught their sons to ask for something sour first thing — but this time their boys had not even been invited. She lovingly fed the Brahmin boys kheer, puris and the chickpea dish. Instead of giving money as dakshina, she gave each boy a fruit. The boys went away happy, giving their blessings. Thus the udyapan was completed without any mistake, and Santoshi Mata was greatly pleased. By the Mother's grace, in the ninth month the daughter-in-law gave birth to a son as beautiful as the moon. Having received a son, she began to take him every day to the Mother's temple, bowing her head at the Mother's feet in gratitude.

One day Santoshi Mata thought to herself: “This devotee of mine comes to me every day; today let me go to her house and see.” The Mother took on a fearsome form — her face smeared with jaggery and gram, lips long like a trunk, and flies buzzing all around. In this dreadful form the Mother set out for her house. As soon as she set foot on the threshold, the mother-in-law screamed: “Look, some witch is coming! Get the children away or she will eat them!” The boys fled in fear, and everyone began shutting the windows and doors. The youngest daughter-in-law peeped from a window, and her heart filled with joy. She cried out: “Today my Mother has come to my house!” and, leaving off nursing her child, she ran. The mother-in-law said angrily: “Mad girl, why are you so eager at the sight of her? Where are you running, dropping your child like that?” Just then, by the Mother's power, children appeared everywhere around. The daughter-in-law folded her hands and said: “Mother-in-law, this is the very Santoshi Mata whose vrat I keep. By her grace my husband came back, wealth came to the house and my lap was filled.” Saying this she opened all the windows and doors and fell at the Mother's feet. Hearing this, everyone's eyes were opened. Mother-in-law, father-in-law, brothers-in-law and their wives all fell at the Mother's feet saying: “Mother, we are foolish, ignorant and sinful. We did not know the method of your vrat; we committed a great wrong by having it broken. Forgive us.” The Mother's form became calm and gentle. She forgave them all and gave her blessing. The daughter-in-law offered the Mother jaggery and gram. From that day the whole family kept Santoshi Mata's vrat with devotion, and happiness, contentment and love dwelt in that house forever.

O Santoshi Mata! Just as you showed grace to that daughter-in-law, took away her sorrow, brought back her husband and filled her lap, so show grace to all devotees who tell and hear this katha. Whoever keeps the Friday vrat with faith, hears the katha by rule and gives up sour food, from that house poverty departs, quarrels are stilled, illnesses fade and the heart's right wishes are fulfilled. But the katha also teaches that even a small carelessness at the udyapan breaks the vrat — so on the udyapan day give the boys fruit or an article rather than money, and let no one in the house eat anything sour. Contentment is the greatest wealth; envy and bitterness turn it sour. Say: Glory to Santoshi Mata!