Sawan Somwar Vrat
Every Monday of Shravan, the month held dearest to Shiv. The vrat runs from sunrise, the Shivling is bathed with water and raw milk, bel patra is offered, and Om Namah Shivaya is chanted through the day. Unmarried girls traditionally keep it for a good husband and married women for the wellbeing of the household, but it is open to anyone.
Deity: Shiv
vidhi
Rise before sunrise, bathe, wear clean light-coloured clothes and take the sankalp to keep the vrat for the day.,Do jalabhishek on the Shivling — clean water or Gangajal first, then raw unboiled milk, then water again to close. Pour in a slow, unbroken stream while chanting Om Namah Shivaya.,Offer bel patra with the smooth side laid against the ling, along with white flowers, dhatura, chandan and a little bhasma.,Light a ghee lamp and dhoop, offer akshat, and place fruit or a white milk sweet as bhog.,Chant Om Namah Shivaya one hundred and eight times on a rudraksha mala, seated facing east or north.,Read or listen to the Shiv katha, then do the aarti and the pradakshina — going up to the jaladhari channel and back, never stepping across it.,Keep the day on fruit, milk and water, take one sattvik meal after the evening puja, and distribute the prasad before you eat.katha
The month belongs to Shiv because of the Samudra Manthan. When the devas and asuras churned the ocean, the first thing to rise from it was not amrit but halahal, a poison whose fumes alone were enough to end the worlds. No one would take it. Shiv drank it, and Parvati held his throat so that it would go no further; it stopped there and turned the throat blue, and he has been Neelkanth since. The burning did not leave him, and the devas poured pot after pot of Ganga water over him to cool it. That is the origin of the jalabhishek, and it is why Shravan, the month in which it happened, is given to him.
The second reason is Parvati. Having resolved on Shiv and on no one else, she kept an austerity through this month that broke every ordinary limit, and it was in Shravan that he accepted her. Because of that, the Mondays of Shravan are held to be the most favourable days of the year to ask for a good marriage, or for the long life and wellbeing of a husband.
Tradition adds a third reason: during Chaturmas, which begins with Devshayani Ekadashi in Ashadha, Vishnu withdraws into yoga nidra and the care of the worlds rests with Shiv. So Shravan is the month he is most directly present — and the practice prescribed for it is deliberately the plainest in all of Hindu worship. A lota of water, one bel leaf, five syllables. Nothing in the katha suggests that more is required.samagri
Gangajal or clean water in a lota, and raw unboiled milk for the abhishek,Bel patra — three-leaved, whole and untorn,White flowers, dhatura and, where available, aak (madar) flowers,Chandan, bhasma and akshat (unbroken rice),Ghee lamp with a cotton wick, dhoop and camphor for the aarti,Fruit or a white milk sweet for bhog, and a rudraksha mala for the japa
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