Satyanarayan Vrat & Katha श्री सत्यनारायण
The Purnima vrat of Shri Satyanarayan Bhagwan — fast till the evening katha and prasad.
Vrat mantra
ॐ श्री सत्यनारायणाय नमः
Om Shri Satyanarayanaya Namah
What you can eat — and what to avoid
✓ You can have
- Through the day: fruits and milk (light phalahar)
- After katha: panchamrit/charanamrit and panjiri or sheera prasad, then the meal
- Fruits and fresh fruit juices
- Milk, curd, paneer, butter, ghee
- Sabudana — khichdi, kheer or vada
- Kuttu (buckwheat) and singhara flour rotis / puris
- Samak (barnyard millet) rice
- Makhana, dry fruits and nuts
- Potato, sweet potato, arbi — cooked with sendha namak
- Sendha namak (rock salt) only
- Tea, coffee or coconut water in moderation
✗ Avoid
- All grains — wheat, rice, semolina (sooji), besan, oats
- Pulses and legumes — dal, chana, rajma, soy
- Regular table / sea salt (use only sendha namak)
- Onion and garlic
- Non-vegetarian food and eggs
- Alcohol and tobacco
- Heavy spices — keep to jeera, kali mirch, green chilli
Step-by-step vrat vidhi
Sankalpa — the vrat morning
Wake early, bathe and wear clean clothes. With water, akshat and a flower in the right palm, state your name, the vrat (Satyanarayan Vrat & Katha), its count if it is a series, and your prayer — then release the water.
Morning puja
Bathe, take the sankalpa (wish or thanksgiving), keep the day light on fruits and milk, and prepare the chowki — banana-stem canopy, kalash, and Satyanarayan murti or photo.
Keep the fast through the day
Keep the fast as prescribed — light fast till the evening katha & prasad. Spend free moments in japa of "Om Shri Satyanarayanaya Namah", and keep the mind sattvik: no anger, gossip or harsh speech.
Katha & evening puja
In the evening (best in Pradosh kala), do the Satyanarayan puja with tulsi and yellow flowers, hear all five chapters of the katha with family, offer the sava-measure panjiri/sheera bhog, and sing the aarti.
Paran — breaking the fast
After the evening katha, aarti and the sava-measure panjiri/sheera prasad with charanamrit — then the family meal.
Daan & prasad
Share the prasad with everyone present and give some daan (food, fruit or dakshina) as per capacity — the vrat is completed by giving.
Special rules for this vrat
- Hearing the full katha — all five chapters — is the essence of this vrat; leaving midway is traditionally cautioned against in the katha itself.
- The prasad is distributed to all present and is never refused.
- Invite family and neighbours — the vrat's fruit grows when the katha is shared.
Family and regional traditions (parampara) vary — where yours differs, follow your parampara. Children, the elderly, pregnant women, and anyone unwell or on medication should keep a softened vrat (fruit and milk) or skip it — a vrat is bhakti and restraint, never hardship to the body.
Choose another vrat
What is a Vrat Vidhi?
A vrat vidhi is the procedure for keeping a sacred fast — from the morning sankalpa (vow), the deity's puja, the discipline of the fast through the day, the katha (vrat story) and aarti, to the paran (breaking of the fast) at its proper time. Each vrat has its own food rules: most allow phalahar (fruits, milk, sabudana, kuttu and singhara flour, samak rice, with sendha namak only), some are kept nirjala (without even water, like Karwa Chauth), and a few carry one defining rule — no grains on Ekadashi, nothing sour on the Santoshi Mata vrat, no salt on the Ravivar vrat.
Pick a Dev or Devi to see the complete vidhi of their vrat — the day, the fast type, what you can eat and what to avoid, the paran rule, mantra, katha and aarti — and use the linked samagri checklist where one exists. A vrat is bhakti and self-restraint, never hardship: children, the elderly, pregnant women and the unwell should keep a softened form, and family traditions (parampara) always come first.