WHEN: Magh (January/ February)

This fast is observed on the Chauth/4th day of Krishna Paksh in the month of Magh. Women keep this fast for the long life and health of their husband and sons.

On the day previous to the fast, women apply mehendi on their hands.

HOW: Preparation for the puja

• Aasan, pata (low wooden stool)
• White til with jaggery is mixed and slightly pounded
• Chawal
• Few grains of wheat
• Some water in a small kalash
• For Baayna and katori with tilkutta and some money.
• If a married sister/daughter lives in the same city, Baayna is sent to her house the previous day.
• Put the kalash with water and Baayna katori on the pata.
• Draw a swastik with roli and also put 13 tikkis on the kalash.
• Keep a little tilkutta and a few grains of wheat in your hand and listen to the katha of Mai Chauth. After the katha, put the tilkutta from the hand in the kalash water and keep the grains of wheat aside in a small packet for giving arag in the night to the moon.
• Keeping some tilkutta in the hand, listen to the katha of Bindaayakji (Shri Ganesh).
• In a katori put tilkutta and some money. Sprinkle roli & chawal on the Baayna. Then apply tikka to yourself. Covering your folded hands with saree pallu/odni rotate them over the Baayna katori four times. Then get up and give it to your mother-in-law by touching her feet.
• Baayna could also be given to your elder sister-in-law, nanad (husband’s sister) or any woman elder to you.
• If you are alone in the house, you can keep the Baayna in the puja room and later either give it to a Brahmin or it can be sent to the temple.

Evening Puja / Giving Arag to the Moon

After sighting the moon, pour the water towards the moon from the kalash containing the puja water slowly. While pouring the water, keep the wheat grain in the left hand (which had been kept aside while listening to the katha). After this, standing in the same place, go around four times. Touch the water offered to the moon from the floor to your eyes as blessings for good luck.

Distributing til laddoos and eating til laddoos has special significance on this day.

Note: Pregnant women may not observe this fast. The expecting mother takes a sankalp and asks a Brahmini to observe a fast on her behalf.

Udyaapan

If you just had a son or in the year after the son gets married, Udyaapan of Mai Chauth is performed.

1-1/4 kg white til and 1-1/4 kg jaggery is mixed together to make tilkutta. In one thali this tilkutta is placed in 13 piles. Two sarees, blouse pieces and some money is kept on this. Cover your hands with the pallu of your saree or odni and rotate them over the offered items four times. This is then given to the mother-in-law or any woman elder to you in the family seeking their blessings. Brahminis are offered food, halwa and dakshina.

After this Mai Chauth ki katha is read.

A Sahukaar and his wife did not have any children. They did not do any puja or observe any vrat. One day a neighbour’s wife was listening to the katha of Mai Chauth. The Sahukaar’s wife enquired as to why she was performing this puja. The neighbour said that today being Mai Chauth, she was keeping the vrat for Chauth Mata. This vrat was the giver of wealth and long life for one’s husband and sons. The Sahukaar’s wife took a vow that if she was in the family way, she will offer 1.25 kg of tilkutta to Chauth Mata. With Mata’s blessings, she conceived. 

Then she promised that if she had a son, she would offer 2.5 kgs of tilkutta. She was blessed with a son. Again she took vow of offering 5 kgs of tilkutta at the time of the son’s wedding. The son’s wedding was fixed. Meanwhile Chauth Mata was annoyed with Sahukaar’s wife’s repeated vows not being fulfilled. Mata decided to set a precedent for others by teaching Sahukaar’s wife a lesson for not fulfilling her vows.

The wedding rituals began. The Sahukaar’s son took three pheras. Just then Chauth Mata came and took away the bridegroom and put him on top of a peepal tree. Everyone searched for the bridegroom but could not find him.

Days passed. Then, when the girl who was to marry the Sahukaar’s son went outside the village to collect some tender grass for worshipping Gangaur Mata, she would hear a voice from the peepal tree telling her, “Come my half-married bride”. Out of fear, she kept losing weight.

When her mother asked her the reason for her loss of weight, she narrated the incident about how a man dressed as a bridegroom sitting on a peepal tree would keep calling her his half-married bride and asked her to go to him. The mother went near the tree from where the voice was coming from. The groom sitting on top of the tree told how his mother had made many promises to Chauth Mata and had not fulfilled them.

The mother went to the groom’s house and related the incident to the Sahukaar’s wife. The Sahukaar’s wife remembered her vows and immediately offered 12.5 kgs of tilkutta to Chauth Mata on the safe arrival of her son.

The bride’s family also made the same promise. Chauth Mata was happy and returned the Sahukaar’s son. The bride and the groom got married and both sides kept their promises of offering 12.5 kgs of tilkutta. The Sahukaar’s wife took a vow to observe Mai Chauth Vrat throughout her life. She told the importance of the vrat of Mai Chauth to everyone in the village and asked them to observe the fast.

Chauth Mata, as you were kind to the Sahukaar’s wife by blessing her with a son and later getting him married, so also bless the narrator of the katha, listener and the followers of the katha along with their families.

Bindaayakji /Ganeshji ki Katha is read after one reads the festival katha. A few grains of rice are kept in the hand while listening to the katha. After completion of the katha, the rice grains are left in the water of the kalash, kept for puja. 

Bindaayakji /Ganeshji ki Katha 1

There was a blind old woman who had a son and a daughter-in-law. The old woman used to worship Ganeshji everyday and everytime Ganeshji would encourage her to seek a boon. Everyday she would say “I don’t know how to ask” and Ganeshji would respond “Take advice from your son and daughter-in-law”.

The old woman asked her son as to what she should ask from Ganeshji. The son advised her to ask for lots of wealth. Not satisfied with this, she went to her daughter-in-law. The daughter-in-law requested her to ask for a grandson. Still not satisfied, she went to her neighbour. The neighbour told her that she should request Ganeshji for good health. The old woman was still not completely satisfied. She wanted to please everyone. Next day Ganeshji again told her to ask for a boon. The old woman said, “I should be able to see my grandson drinking milk from a cup made of gold”. Ganeshji said, “You are a very wise woman. In one wish you have asked for everything.” Saying this Ganeshji disappeared and the old woman got wealth for her son, a child for her daughter-in-law and eye-sight and good health for herself.

Bindaayakji, as you have blessed the old woman, so also bless the narrator of the katha, the listeners of the katha and the followers of the katha along with their families.

Bindaayakji /Ganeshji ki Katha 2

A young boy had a fight with his family and left his home saying he will return only after meeting Ganeshji. As the boy reached a dense forest, Ganeshji thought to himself that the boy has left home taking his name, so no wild animal should harm him. Ganeshji took the form of an old Brahmin and went to the boy. He asked the boy as to where he was going? The boy replied that he was going to meet Ganeshji.

The Brahmin told the boy that he was Ganeshji and told him to ask for one boon.

The boy thought for a while and then said, “I would like to have lots of wealth and sumptuous food served to me by a girl who is as beautiful as a rose flower”. Ganeshji said, “You will get whatever you have desired”. On reaching home, to his delight, the boy found a beautiful young girl in a palatial home waiting for him with sumptuous food. The boy told his parents that he got all this wealth with the blessings of Ganeshji.

Bindaayakji , as you blessed the boy, so also bless the narrator of the katha, the listeners of the katha and the followers of the katha along with their families.

Bindaayakji /Ganeshji ki Katha 3

Bindaayakji, in the guise of a man, went around with a few grains of rice and a spoonful of milk requesting one and all to make kheer for him. Everyone laughed at him and said it was not possible to make kheer with such little quantity. Finally, one old woman agreed to make the kheer. She got a very small vessel to cook.

Bindaayakji asked her to bring a large vessel. The old woman got a big kadhai. As soon as she put the kadhai on fire and poured the spoonful of milk with rice in it, the kadhai became full. Bindaayakji told the old woman to make kheer and keep it ready till he came back.

The kheer was ready but there was no sign of Bindaayakji. The old woman got tempted to eat the kheer. She took out a bowlful of kheer, cooled it. She hid behind the door, saying, offered it as prasad to Bindaayakji and ate it.

When Bindaayakji came back, the old woman offered the kheer to Him. Bindaayakji said that He had already eaten the kheer when she had offered it to Him as prasad. Bindaayakji blessed the old woman with lots of wealth that would last her for her seven generations.

Bindaayakji, as you have blessed the old woman, so also bless the narrator of the katha, the listeners of the katha and the followers of the katha along with their families.