Ravivāra Vrata 2020

Ravivara Vrata (रविवार व्रत) is the Sunday vrata of Surya. The Vratraj gives three Sunday vratas: the Surya Vrata of the Bhavishya Purana, kept every Sunday for a year from Margashirsha; the Ashaditya Vrata of the Skanda Purana, begun on a Sunday of Ashvina; and the Danaphala Vrata of the Skanda Purana, kept every Sunday from the last Sunday of Ashvina Shukla until Magha Shukla Saptami.

How to keep the vrata

• Surya Vrata: rise early, bathe in a river or clean water and offer tarpana. On a copper plate draw a lotus with red sandal water and worship Surya with the sixteen upacharas: a pair of red cloths, red sandal, japa, kadamba and red lotus flowers, and payasa with ghee. Each month Surya is worshipped under his own name, from Mitra in Margashirsha to Divakara in Kartika, with that month's arghya and naivedya. After a year, close with the udyapana: a gold image of Surya on a silver chariot, worship of his twelve names, and twelve Brahmanas fed.
• Ashaditya Vrata: each Sunday make a round mandala of cow dung on the ground and offer arghya of red sandal, flowers and akshata, praying that as the Sun's rays make all the directions (asha) clear, he make all one's hopes (asha) fruitful. It is kept for one year or twelve years and closed with the udyapana: a twelve-petal lotus, a kumbha with a gold image of Bhaskara holding a lotus, and Brahmanas fed with apupa and payasa.
• Danaphala Vrata: meditate on Narayana in the disc of the Sun, worship with the sixteen upacharas and red flowers, and offer twelve arghyas from a copper vessel. On Magha Shukla Saptami, at sunrise, worship the image, offer paramanna with ghee in the fire and give payasa, the image and cloth to a Brahmana. It is kept for five years, giving a different grain each year: rice, wheat, chana, sesame and urad.

When to eat

• Surya Vrata: each month a small prashana is taken in the vrata, from three tulasi leaves in Margashirsha to payasa in Kartika; the Vratraj gives no fasting rule beyond it.
• Ashaditya Vrata: after the worship, nakta: one meal at night, eaten in silence.
• Danaphala Vrata: no oil, nothing sour, no salt and no kshara, and no fruit with many seeds; roots, tubers and fruit are best, or wild rice, grain and curd. Fast on Magha Shukla Shashthi before the closing.

The story of Samba, from the Skanda Purana (Ashaditya Vrata)

The sage Durvasa visited Krishna at Dvaraka; as he left, Krishna's son Samba laughed at him. Durvasa told Narada, who came to Dvaraka, brought Samba among the queens, and when they embraced him with a mother's love, reported it to Krishna as misconduct. Krishna cursed Samba to become a leper. Seeing then that Samba was innocent, Krishna told him to keep this Surya vrata; Samba kept it, was freed of the disease and gained complete success.

The story of the Danaphala Vrata, from the Skanda Purana

Kunti, in her father's house, asked Vyasa for a vrata that gives a husband, sons, food and liberation. Vyasa told how Parvati, sent by Shiva to learn the best vrata from the rishi-wives keeping it on the Yamuna, took with her two women who were childless and parted from their husbands. They reached the Yamuna on a Sunday forenoon, learned this solar vrata and kept it: one found her husband as Damayanti found Nala, one was blessed with a son, and Gauri received a golden fruit which she gave to a Brahmana, whose house then filled with wealth. Vyasa told Kunti to keep it too.