Ritual Guides · Festive Pujans
DHARMA · 4/5 · PURANICSharad Purnima
The Bhagavata places the rasa on an autumn full-moon night, and this is that night. What the household keeps is the moon, the kheer and the staying awake and the night runs from the Sunday evening, not the Monday.
25 October 2026 · Ashwin Purnima · Delhi-NCR
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Core Practice
The rasa of the Bhagavata is set on an autumn full-moon night, which is the night this observance keeps.
DHARMA · 4/5 · PURANICBhagavata Purana 10.29.1–3
This guide: 1 core practice · 1 scriptural element · 10 regional customs · 3 corrections
Sharad Purnima 2026
Chaturdashi begins
Sat 24 Oct
1:37 PM
Chaturdashi ends
Sun 25 Oct
11:56 AM
Sunrise
Sun 25 Oct
6:27 AM
Sunset
Sun 25 Oct
5:42 PM
Abhijit muhurat
Sun 25 Oct
11:43 AM–12:28 PM
Brahma Muhurat
Sun 25 Oct
4:46–5:37 AM
Rahu Kaal
Sun 25 Oct
4:17–5:42 PM
★ The night is the 25th. Purnima is running from late Sunday morning until Monday mid-morning, so the only full-moon night inside the tithi is Sunday. Several calendars list the 26th because the tithi is still running at sunrise that day, which is the rule for a daytime observance and not for this one.
Opening
The autumn moon is the one people actually look at. The air has cleared after the rains, the nights are not yet cold, and the moon comes up early enough that a household can be outside with it.
What is kept on this night is a pot of kheer, a lamp, and a decision not to go to bed.
Origin - an autumn night, and a question
The strongest thing written about this night is in the Bhagavata Purana, and it is not an instruction. At the opening of the five chapters that carry the rasa, Krishna looks on the autumn nights, scented with blossoming jasmine, and turns his mind to the dance. The moon rises in the east. The disk of it is unbroken, the kumuda open in the water, and the flute begins.
That is a description of a season and a night rather than a rule for a household, and it is worth being exact about the difference. The Bhagavata names the autumn and the full moon. It does not name Ashvin Purnima, and it does not tell anyone to cook anything or stay awake. Identifying the rasa night with this particular tithi is the tradition’s own reading of it, and it is a reasonable one, and it is a reading.
Regional Practices
The tradition also has its own account, and this is the one the night is usually named for. Lakshmi is said to move through the night asking who is awake- ko jagarti and to stay where someone answers. The name Kojagari comes from that question, and in Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Mithila it is the name of the night. No named text located.
What has grown on top of both is regional and specific: masala milk in Maharashtra, makhana and paan passed round through the night in Mithila, dice played until morning, and in Mithila a whole observance for newly married couples that has very little to do with either the rasa or Lakshmi. None of it is prescribed anywhere and all of it is real.
DHARMA · 4/5Bhagavata Purana 10.29.1–3 on rasa and night
Sankalp
Say this — or your own words
Spoken with water in the right hand, then poured out
मम सकुटुम्बस्य सपरिवारस्य क्षेमस्थैर्यायुरारोग्यैश्वर्याभिवृद्ध्यर्थं, शरद पूर्णिमा निमित्तं प्रीत्यर्थं व्रतं च करिष्ये।
Mama sakutumbasya saparivarasya kshema-sthairya-ayur-arogya-aishwarya-abhivriddhy-artham Sharad Purnima nimittam [Mahalakshmi / Shri Krishna / Chandradev] preety-artham poojanam/vratam cha karishye
“I (your name) from (gotra) keep the Sharad Purnima vrat on (date) at (place) for (purpose)”
WHO
Your name, and your gotra if your family uses one.
WHEN AND WHERE
Ashvin Purnima, at home, before the evening puja.
FOR WHAT
The vrat and the night, and the form you are keeping, the full jagaran or part of it. State what you can actually complete.
Listen to the sankalp · EN
0:00 / 0:00
Say it in whatever language you think in. The Sanskrit is given because people ask for it.
Samagri
Samagri8 items
- Milk, rice and sugarFor the kheer. Full-fat milk is what most households use.
- A vessel for the kheerSilver where a family keeps it, steel otherwise. The material is practice.
- A thin cloth or fine meshTo cover the kheer while it stands outside.
- Diya and gheeLit for the evening puja and kept through the night where there is a jagaran.
- White flowersWhere your family keeps a colour for this night.
- Lakshmi image or a kalashWhichever the household keeps. A kalash is a complete seat - see our article Puja Without a Murti.
- Akshat, roli and kumkumFor the puja thali.
- Makhana, batasha and paanMithila, where these are passed round through the night. Omit outside that practice.
VidhiShowHide
1
Take the sankalp
Take the sankalp before the evening puja, if your family keeps one.
2
Clean the house and set the puja space in the evening
White flowers where you have them.
3
Keep the Lakshmi puja at nightfall
dominant in the east and in Maharashtra, and not prescribed for this tithi in any text located. Where a household keeps Krishna on this night instead, that follows the rasa reading and is equally old.
4
Cook the kheer in the evening.
Milk, rice, sugar; a silver or steel vessel if your family uses one.
5
At moonrise, around five in the evening, look at the moon
This is the part of the night everything else is arranged around.
6
Set the kheer where the moonlight reaches it, covered with a thin cloth or a fine mesh.
the most widely kept element of the day and named in nothing. Cover it — the cloth is for the obvious reason, and it does not stop the moonlight any more than the moonlight needs stopping.
7
Stay up.
The nishita puja is kept around midnight where a household keeps one, roughly 11:40 pm to 12:30 am.
8
Take & share prasad
In the morning, the kheer is taken as prasad and shared.
Mantra
The mantra
ओम श्रीं महा लक्ष्म्यै नमः
Om Shreem Mahalakshmyai Namah
"Om, I bow down to the great Goddess Mahalakshmi, the source of all wealth and abundance."
Japa count: 108 · also kept at 11, 21, 51
The mantra
ओम सोम सोमाय नमः
Om Som Somaya Namah
"Om, I bow down to the Moon God (Soma), who is the source of peace, nourishment, and emotions."
Japa count: 108 · also kept at 11, 21, 51
The mantra
ओम नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
"• Meaning: "I bow down to / salute Lord Vasudeva (Vishnu/Krishna)." • Number of Syllables/Letters: This mantra contains 12 letters, which is why it is called the 'Dvadashakshari Mantra' (Twelve-Syllable Mantra). • Source: This mantra is primarily associated with the Shrimad Bhagavatam (found in the story of Dhruv and other episodes)."
Japa count: 108 · also kept at 11, 21, 51
Fasting
No mandatory fast
This observance is celebratory. Nothing in the tradition asks you to go without food for it.
Fear-free note. Some households keep a vrat through the day and break it after the moon has been viewed and the puja kept. Many keep no fast at all and only the night. Neither is prescribed in a text I can locate, and both are kept widely. Where a fast is kept it is usually phalahar rather than nirjala. A fast adapted to your health is a complete vrat.
Katha
Read or told after the moon has been viewed, before the nishita puja.
Vrat Katha — the sacred story
Frame
This is the night the Bhagavata describes, and the description is the katha. It is read or told after the moon has been seen.
Phala-shruti
The Bhagavata does not attach a result to hearing this. What it offers is the account of the night, and the reason it is read on this night is that it is the same night. Where a household is keeping Lakshmi rather than Krishna, the story it tells is the other one — the goddess moving through the dark asking who is awake, and staying where someone answers.
Recite the katha during the puja. Read it aloud or have it read while you listen.
DHARMA · 4/5Bhagavata Purana 10.29.1–3 · Puranic
Dharma vs Pratha
Named in text
- The rasa set on an autumn full-moon night. The moon rising in the east, the unbroken disk of it, the kumuda opening, and the flute that begins the dance.
DHARMA · 4/5 · PURANIC
Bhagavata Purana 10.29.1–3, opening the Rasa Panchadhyayi at 10.29–33
Scored out of five on how directly the text states it
Cultural, not text
- Identifying the rasa night with Ashvin Purnima. The Kojagari account of Lakshmi asking who is awake. The jagaran. The kheer set out where the moonlight reaches it. Lakshmi puja on this tithi. Masala milk in place of kheer. Makhana, batasha and paan through the night. Dice played until morning. The silver vessel. All real, all widely kept, and none of them prescribed.
PRATHA
Scored out of five on how widely it is attested — real and valid, and not scripture
TAPA INTELLIGENCE LAYEREvery claim on this page, classified and scoredExpand the full Dharma / Pratha / Bhranti table ›
| ELEMENT | TAG | SOURCE | SCORE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core practice (this guide) | DHARMA · 4/5 | Bhagavata Purana 10.29.1–3 | 4/5 |
| Origin - an autumn night, and a question | DHARMA · 4/5 | Bhagavata Purana 10.29.1–3 on rasa and night | 4/5 |
| Section 10 | DHARMA · 4/5 | Bhagavata Purana 10.29.1–3 · Puranic | 4/5 |
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Sharad Purnima25 October 2026 · Ashwin PurnimaPujan Samagri
Everything on the samagri list, in one box.
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Purohit
Opens soon. This vrat needs no purohit to be valid.
Tapa Circle
Opens soon. Reminders on WhatsApp, the evening before.
You do not need any of these. The guide is complete on its own.