Shukravara Vrata 2026

Shukravara Vrata (शुक्रवार व्रत), the Friday vrata of the Vratraj, is the Varalakshmi Vrata of Mahalakshmi from the Bhavishyottara Purana. It is begun on a Friday of the Shukla paksha of Shravana, while the Sun is in Karka, on the bank of a river such as at the meeting of the Ganga and Yamuna or the Tungabhadra. The text names no particular Friday.

How to keep the vrata

• Decorate the house with a torana and rangoli. In the east, best in the north-east, spread a measure of rice in the shape of a lotus and set on it a kalasha of tirtha water with fruit, gold and five leaves, covered with cloth. Place a four-armed gold image of Lakshmi on it.
• Bathe the image with panchamrita and do abhisheka with the Devi Sukta. Worship with the sixteen upacharas: ashtagandha, 21 leaves each of ashvattha, vata, bilva, mango, malati and pomegranate, malati and other flowers, the mangalasutra and the saubhagya items (turmeric, kumkuma, sindura, kajal). Offer payasa, many dishes and 21 apupas.
• Tie the sacred doraka thread, praying: श्रियं देहि यशो देहि सौभाग्यं देहि मे शुभे.
• Give five vayanas: bamboo vessels with fruit, grain, dakshina and 21 sweets of sugar and ghee, one each to a Brahmana, a yati, the Devi, a brahmachari and a suvasini. Wave five aratis in silence, and listen to the katha.
• The test: chew an areca nut with a betel leaf, without lime, tie it in a cloth and look at it in the morning. If it has turned red, keep this excellent vrata; if not, one who wants prosperity should not keep it.

When to eat

• The Vratraj gives no fasting or food rule for this vrata.

The story of Chitranemi, from the Bhavishyottara Purana

On Kailasa, Shiva and Parvati were playing dice and each claimed the game. The gana Chitranemi, asked to judge, spoke falsely for Shiva, and Parvati cursed him to become a leper. When Shiva pleaded for him, Parvati softened: the curse would end when he saw heavenly women keeping a pure vrata at a lovely lake.

Living as a leper by that lake, Chitranemi saw the apsaras worshipping and asked them what it was; they taught him the Varalakshmi Vrata. Just by watching their puja to the end, breathing its incense and seeing its ghee lamp, his leprosy left him and he shone like gold. He made a gold image, did the puja, gave the five vayanas, did the betel test and, when it turned red, kept the vrata.

He returned to Kailasa, where Parvati took him as her own son and Shiva granted him the joys of Kailasa and later Vaikuntha. Parvati herself kept this vrata and was blessed with Shanmukha; Nanda and Vikramaditya won kingdoms by it, and Nanda's wife, keeping it for a son, bore a son able to sustain the three worlds.