Rūpa-Satra Vrata
A vrata is a sacred vow, usually a fast kept by set rules. The Rūpa-Satra Vrata lasts twelve months. In it, the devotee fasts on each of the twenty-seven nakshatras (lunar mansions) in turn and honours in pūjā the part of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s body that matches that nakshatra. Rūpa means form or beauty.
The ṛshi Atri taught this vrata to Purūravas, king of Madra. Purūravas had a noble character but had been born with an ugly form because of karma from a past life, and the vrata was the remedy for it. The phalaśruti (promised fruit) is beauty and a good rebirth.
How the Vrata Was First Taught
The ṛshi Atri gave the Rūpa-Satra Vrata to Purūravas, king of Madra. Purūravas had been born ugly as the karmic result of taking an abhyaṅga-snāna (oil bath) while fasting on Dvādaśī (the twelfth lunar day) in a past birth.
He practised tapas (austerity) at Atri’s āśrama in the Himālaya, near the source of the Irāvatī river. The āśrama stood beside a wondrous lake where Atri had installed an image of Bhagavān Vishṇu lying on Śesha (the śeshaśayana mūrti). The apsarases (divine dancers of svarga) played in the water nearby, but Purūravas stayed unmoved in contemplation and so passed the test. Then Atri appeared to him, explained the exact wrong in his past life that had caused his condition, and taught him the Rūpa-Satra Vrata as the cure.
How the Vrata Is Kept
The Rūpa-Satra Vrata runs for twelve months, starting in Mārgaśīrsha and completing through Māgha:
- Length: one full year (twelve months)
- Following the nakshatras: the devotee keeps a fast (upavāsa) on each nakshatra as it comes in the monthly cycle
- Pūjā to the parts of the body: each nakshatra matches a particular part of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s divine body, and on that nakshatra day that part is specially honoured in pūjā
- Months covered: from Mārgaśīrsha (Mārga) through Māgha, the whole winter and cold-season cycle
The idea behind this vrata is that Vishṇu’s divine body holds all twenty-seven nakshatras and all the body parts linked with them. By honouring each part of Vishṇu through its nakshatra, the devotee slowly takes in the whole divine form. In this way the karma affecting the matching part of their own body, or their whole form, is dissolved.
The Fruits of the Vrata
The Rūpa-Satra Vrata brings:
- Rūpa (beauty): the main fruit; the devotee gains a radiant, beautiful form in this life or the next
- A good rebirth: completing the vrata leads to birth in a noble family
- Freedom from rūpa-dosha (defects of form): it removes the karmic causes of bodily defects that arise from ritual wrongs in past lives
Purūravas kept the vrata at his capital, Śākala, after coming back from the Himālaya, with Atri himself as his guru. When he finished, he bathed in the divine lake and came out with a radiant new form. He lived the rest of that life, in the Cākshusha manvantara (the age of Manu Cākshusha), in this new form. In the next age, the Vaivasvata manvantara, he was reborn as the famous Purūravas, son of Budha, the king who loved the apsarā Urvaśī and became the founder of the lunar dynasty.
Sources
- Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 155
- Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapters 154–155 (origin of the vrata)
- Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapters 155–156 (Purūravas’s completion of the vrata)