122 - Sacred Rites (Vratas)

Brahma said: 

1. I shall now mention the Vrata Masopavasa that lasts for a month and is the most excellent of all Vratas. This fast for a month should be undertaken by an ascetic in his Vanaprastha stage of life or by an elderly lady. 

2. The devotee should inaugurate the fast for a month on the eleventh day in the bright half of the month of Ashvina. 

3-4. He should first pray like this: -"From this day onwards O Vishnu, I shall worship Thee for thirty days without taking food till Utthana Dvadashi" (the day of rising up) in the month of Karttika. May not there be any sin of cutting Vrata if I were to die in the midst of the bright twelfths of Ashvina and Karttika." 

5-7. Taking three baths every day, the devotee shall worship Hari with sweet scents. He should refrain from taking oil bath and not smear his body with sweet scents with in the precincts of the temple. The fasting devotee shall perform the worship on the twelfth day, feed the brahmins and then do the Parana (taking of food). If in the course of Vrata he falls unconscious he can drink milk. This Vrata is not spoiled by drinking milk. He will enjoy worldly pleasures and salvation.