Purnima

The full-moon tithi that completes every lunar month, kept as a vrat for Vishnu — most commonly through the Satyanarayan katha — and honoured with snan, daan and arghya to the risen moon. The fast runs through the day and is completed only after the full moon has been offered arghya in the evening. Certain purnimas carry names and flavours of their own — Guru Purnima, Sharad's Kojagara night when Lakshmi is said to ask who is awake, Kartik Purnima with its deepdaan — but the base vrat underneath them all is the same.

Next date: 2026-09-26

vidhi

Bathe at sunrise — in a river or teerth where possible, otherwise adding a few drops of Ganga jal to the bathing water — wear clean clothes and take the sankalp of the vrat before Vishnu.,Spread a yellow cloth on a chowki, place a picture of Satyanarayan or a murti of Vishnu on it, and set a kalash of water beside it, topped with mango leaves and a coconut.,Worship with panchamrit, chandan, akshat, yellow flowers, tulsi leaves, dhoop and a ghee lamp.,Keep the fast through the day on fruit and milk — nirjala only if your health allows it comfortably.,In the evening, have the Satyanarayan katha read — all five chapters, without leaving in between — with sheera of wheat flour or sooji, banana and panchamrit kept ready as prasad.,Do the aarti, then take the prasad yourself and give it to everyone present; the katha is treated as incomplete if the prasad is skipped.,When the moon rises, offer arghya from a lota of water mixed with a little raw milk and akshat, look at the full moon, and complete the vrat.,The same evening or the next morning, give daan of white things — rice, sugar, milk, white cloth — to someone in need.

katha

Narada, wandering the earth, saw people worn down by their own troubles and asked Vishnu for one remedy simple enough for anyone. Vishnu gave him the vrat of Satyanarayan — truth itself worshipped as Narayan — and its katha travels through a chain of tellers. A poor Brahmin keeps it, and want leaves his house. A woodcutter hears it at the Brahmin's door, keeps it, and prospers. The merchant Sadhu promises the katha if he is granted a child, then keeps postponing it after his daughter is born; his goods are seized and his fortunes stay sunk until the vow is remembered and kept. His daughter Kalavati, hurrying to meet her returned husband, leaves the prasad untouched — and his boat sinks at the shore. It rises again only when she goes back and takes the prasad first. The katha's point is not fear but order: what is promised to Satyanarayan is kept, and the prasad is never skipped. On purnima the moon — and with it the mana, the mind — is said to be complete, which is why this tithi, of all tithis, is the one for this vrat of kept promises.

mantra

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samagri

A picture of Satyanarayan or a murti of Vishnu, and a chowki with a yellow cloth,A kalash with water, mango leaves and a coconut,Panchamrit — milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar — with tulsi leaves,Chandan, akshat, yellow flowers, dhoop and a ghee lamp,Sheera of wheat flour or sooji with banana for the prasad,The Satyanarayan katha book, and betel leaf with supari for the pooja,A copper lota for the moon arghya, with a little raw milk,Rice, sugar, milk or white cloth set aside for daan

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