Saṃvatsara Mantra
Saṃvatsara Mantra, “the mantra of the year”
The Saṃvatsara Mantra is the Vedic mantra the vratī says to the image of Saṃvatsara, the year, on the first day of the year in the Tilaka-vrata. Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches it to Yudhishṭhira in the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa, and says Bhagavān Śaṅkara taught him this vrata long ago.
The setting
On the śukla pratipadā of Caitra, a woman or man bathes at a river, pond or at home and offers tarpaṇa to the devatās and pitṛs. At home he makes an image of Saṃvatsara in the form of a man from flour and worships it with candana, flowers, dhūpa, dīpa and naivedya, bowing and naming the ṛtus and the months. Then he says this mantra and wraps the image in cloth.
The mantra
The mantra begins saṃvatsaro’si parivatsaro’si idāvatsaro’si idvatsaro’si vatsaro’si, “you are the saṃvatsara, the parivatsara, the idāvatsara, the idvatsara, the vatsara”, naming the year in its five forms, and asks that the dawns, the days and nights, the half-months, the months, the ṛtus and the year be well ordered for it.
After it, the vratī offers fruit, flowers and modakas, and with joined hands prays: “Saṃvatsara, by your grace may my year pass happily.” He gives dakshiṇā to a brāhmaṇa, and from that day adorns his forehead with a tilaka of candana every day.
The phala
By this vrata a woman or man gains excellent fruit: bhūtas, pretas, piśācas, grahas, ḍākinīs and enemies flee on seeing the tilaka on the forehead. Queen Citralekhā, wife of King Śatruñjaya, was the first to keep it; by its power she bore a son, and when the king and the boy died, the Yamadūtas who came for them turned back at the sight of her tilaka, and both were restored. One who keeps this vrata with bhakti enjoys the joy of the world for a long time and at the end reaches Brahmaloka.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 8
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 8