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Mahaatmya means greatness. There are many Mahaatmya dedicated to many Lunar months, to certain Lunar days, and to each day of the week. All Mahaatmya are supposed to be related orally. They may be told by professionals, Pandits or by devotees. When any Mahaatmya is connected to any vow (Vrat) it is called Vrat Kathaa. A Vrat Kathaa is a class of living story that is told ritually on a sacred day as part of a vow. To read your Vrat Kathaa silently is good, to recite or hear it recited is better, but it is even better to cause others to hear it. Because by doing this you help yourself as well others by propagating it. Even an ordinary Kathaa can be promoted to a Vrat Kathaa when it is recited with devotion, in public or in private,  by a specialist or a lay person, on a holy day or in a holy way. These individual planetary myths may be used remedially for each Planet when recited on the Planet's day. And recitation of the whole tale on Saturday works remedially for all the 9 Planets and particularly for Saturn.

Ritual perfection is much less a requisite for a Vrat Kathaa than it is for a formal Vaidik sacrifice, but faith and devotion are much more necessary. In some extreme cases even a formal vow is not necessary for a Vrat Kathaa to be accepted by the appropriate celestial authorities. One Vrat Kathaa relates the following story --

Mangal Vrat Kathaa - There was an old couple who had no children. They adopted their neighbor's daughter in their old age as their daughter. Because she had worshipped Mangal (Mars) in a previous birth, she was beautiful and talented and created gold from her body daily. Her new family became very rich by this gold. When she came to marriageable age, they married her. When she was on the way to her father-in-law's house, the new couple was captured by robbers. They beat the husband to death and stole everything.

The girl cried and cried but there was nobody who could help her, so she decided to immolate herself on her husband's funeral pyre. Since all this happened on a Tuesday, the girl's decision was considered as a vow. A celestial being then suddenly appeared and stopped her to become immolated. She asked - "Who are you?" That being said - "I am Mangal Dev.  am very pleased with your devotion to your husband, ask me what do you want to ask for?" She said - "Bring my husband to life." Mangal Dev said - "Granted." and immediately her husband got up as if he has woke up from deep sleep. And Mangal Dev disappeared.

Most people make Vrat Kathaa in a more formal way, either fasting completely, or eating only once (avoiding salt) on that day, and trying to observe total purity of mind, speech, and action al day long. After thoroughly cleaning the place where the ritual will be performed (maybe under Peepal or Vat tree), the image of that specific Graha's image is installed. Today people use printed image of the Graha. The devotee invites the Graha to descend to Earth to be worshipped. Once he arrives, he is ritually worshipped and is requested to stay there till the tale is finished. After the worship is over, the final offering is made which is held in the hand or placed near the Graha's image to remain there till the Kathaa is over. The ritual worship tunes the mind of the worshipper to focus more efficiently on the purpose of the event.

The image of the Graha appears in the heart of storyteller and listeners, this will cause them to experience its essence to some degree. After the story is finished, a gift is offered to the storyteller and Prasaad is distributed to all listeners. Prasaad is normally one of the foods ruled by the Graha in question, but the poor people can use whatever they can, including roasted Chanaa or sugar or jaggery. This process is repeated weekly.

Vrat Kathaa stories may be extracted from Ved or Puraan, or they can be folktales handed down within a family, or the combination of the two. Some of the vow's focus has been totally changed, for example, before Friday vows were once done for the Planet Venus, but he seems to have disappeared completely and is replaced by Devee worship (Santoshee Maa Vrat). She was practically unheard about 50 years ago whose cult developed as a result of the dramatic success of a Hindi film dedicated to her.

Friday Vow - Annpoornaa

In Banaaras, Annpoornaa is sometimes worshipped for a Friday vow with the story of Dhananjaya who lived in Banaaras with his pious wife Sulakshanaa. When Sulakshanaa advised her husband to exert himself spiritually, he worshipped Shiv, fasting from food and water for three days. At the end of the three days Shiv whispered into Dhananjaya's ears "Annpoornaa, Annpornaa, Annpoornaa". When the man asked from learned Braahman what this word could mean, the Braahman took its literal meaning "full of food" and told him "You have no food or water for three full days, this is just your hunger speaking, "go home and eat". But Dhananjaya's wife knew that it was not his hunger, but it was a Mantra, so she advised him to resume his worship till he got some answer.

Dhananjaya did, this led him to meet a group of celestial damsels who were repeating "Annpoornaa, Annpoornaa". So they explained him the vow of Annpoornaa and Dhananjaya began to perform the same vow and he did so well that he became very prosperous. He was so prosperous that he decided to marry a second wife. But his second wife interrupted his Saadhanaa which created many problems in his life. He then returned to his wise wife and they lived happily after.

Many Vrat Kathaa focus on the getting or keeping of a husband, particularly Monday vows which lasts at least for 16 Mondays. In one account, each time one woman succeeds another asks her how did she do it, and hearing about 16 Mondays she also does the same and succeeds. An alternate Monday version is used for childless women to obtain or to protect a child. The Moon is covered by the modern versions of the Monday vows involving worship of Shiv and Paarvatee.

Mangal (Tuesday) Vow

Tuesday vows are observed for Mangal (Mars), often focus on protection, for Mars causes the accident and rules the fire. A certain woman who got a son in her vary late age, named him Mangaliyaa, because he was born on Mangal (Tuesday). One day Mangal Devtaa came to her in the form of wandering person to test her. When he asked for alms, she said she would give him whatever he asked for. He asked "Are you sure? If I ask something, will you give me?" She agreed. He asked her to bring her son to him, he wanted to cook his food on his back.

Although she was stuck, but since she had promised him, she brought her son to him. She watched as the boy lay down and Mangal Dev put firewood on his back and lit it. After his food was cooked Mangal Dev asked the woman to call her son to eat. She said - "What are you saying? Can such miracle occur? You eat your food and go." He said - "Just call the boy." When she called "Mangaliyaa", the boy got up and came to her as she stammered in amazement.

Budh (Wednesday) Vow

One Wednesday (for Mercury) vow story goes like this - "Once a newly married man Raamoo went to visit his father-in-law to collect his wife after the traditional waiting period. They welcomed Raamoo very well and showed their hospitality. After spending several days he asked his father-in-law permission to go back to his house. His father-in-law said - "Today is Wednesday, Women should not go to their in-law's house today. You may go tomorrow instead." But Raamoo was a stubborn man. Although his father-in-law pleaded him several times but he refused to stay back. Father sent his daughter to her in-law's house with a heavy heart.

After a few hours of journey on the road, Raamoo's wife felt thirsty and asked for some water. Raamoo stopped at the next well to fill a pot for her, but when he was coming back he found another man in the vehicle with his wife. This other man was in his image only and was wearing the same clothes as his own. Since both claimed to be Raamoo an argument arose and a crowd  gathered around. Everybody asked the girl "who is your husband?", but the girl could not answer as she could not identify who was her husband.

The then the King's soldiers arrived there but they also could not identify the real Raamoo so they decided to arrest real Raamoo who was still carrying the water pot. Raamoo got frightened seeing this and he started praying God. Suddenly there came a voice from the sky - "This is all Budh's (Mercury) illusion. This mix up occurred because this man insisted upon traveling with his wife on Wednesday. So worship Budh now for relief." Raamoo promptly prayed Budh and the imposter disappeared. After that both Raamoo and his wife observed Budh's day.

Brihaspati (Thursday) Vow - Golden Barley and Golden Basket
Another Story of Brihaspati Jee

This Thursday story illustrates how important is to strictly follow a vow's conditions if you hope to change your fate: There lived a Braahman who was miserably poor because his wife had very dirty habits of eating leftovers first thing in the morning and only then worshipping God. After many years of remaining childless, the couple somehow got a daughter who used to worship Vishnu every day and Brihaspati every Thursday since she was very young. Her devotion gave her the ability that she would scatter barley on the road in the morning, during the day it would turn into gold and when she came back from her school in the evening, she would collect it.

One day when she was separating the barley from the husk, her father said - "To winnow the barley you need a golden basket." Next Thursday she said to God - "If my vow is true, give me a golden winnowing basket." and when she came back home in the evening, she found a golden basket.

Next day that country's Prince saw her winnowing from a golden basket. He became enchanted seeing her. He came back to his palace and excused himself for illness. His mother got worried hearing about his illness, so she asked - "What medicine can cure you?" He told her the story of the girl he saw and told her that he wanted to marry her. The King sent for that girl and married her to the Prince.

After the girl went away, the Braahman became poor as before. Finally he approached his daughter for her help. She said - "If you send mother here, I will tell her what to do." So her father sent her mother to her. She said to her mother - "Mother, If you will perform ritual worship every morning paying careful attention to purity, all will be well." But her mother did not listen to her and did as usual eating leftovers first thing in the morning.

Then the girl asked her father to shut her up in a room overnight. The next morning, the girl had her mother bathed and made her perform her worship before having any breakfast. This procedure so much improved her mother's power of discrimination that she began to observe Brihaspati's vow. Later they became rich and lived happily.

Ravi (Sun) Vow - The Guilty Neighbor

This particular story is useful for blinds and lepers. A woman's devotion to Sooya Dev inadvertently helped her out both for herself and the King : There was an old woman who used to observe Sunday vow through which she became very prosperous. She used to smear her house with fresh cow dung, cook food, offer it to Bhagavaan Soorya Dev and then ate it herself. Seeing her rich, her neighbor got very envious. She thought that her prosperity was due to using her cow's dung, so she tied her cow inside her house so that the old woman could not take her cow's dung. Next Sunday when she could not collect any cow dung, she could not worship Soorya Dev properly, because she could not plaster her floor with fresh cow dung, and she could not cook fresh food and thus could not offer anything to Soorya Dev. And when she did not offer anything to Devtaa, she herself also could not eat anything the whole day. That night she went to bed stricken by hunger and thirst and sick with worry.

In the dream she saw Bhagavaan Soorya Dev asked her the cause of her misery. She said "I am sorry for this interruption of the worship. I could not get fresh cow dung, so I could not cook food, so I could not offer you food, and me too, I am also hungry." Hearing this Soorya Dev gave her a cow. He said that he was very happy with her devotion and the way she was observing the vow and promised her that her descendants will always be rich and never feel the shortage of money. Next morning when she arose she found a cow tied in her courtyard and recalled the dream. She fulfilled all her needs. When the neighbor saw the cow outside her house, she was very surprised to see the cow in that old woman's courtyard and she was struck dumb when she saw the cow lifting her tail and giving gold from her bowels instead of cow dung. So the neighbor exchanged her own cow dung with the old woman's gold and the old woman could not even know about it.

When Soorya Dev saw that old woman was still poor, he thought "What is this? How it can be that my cow is not giving her gold?" and he understood the situation. He created a terrible wind storm that fell old trees on the ground. Seeing this the old woman took her cow inside and tied her there, and next morning the cow presented with some gold cow dung. Seeing this the woman got very happy and she kept the cow inside all the time.

Now the neighbor could not steal the golden dung because of the old woman's carefulness, her greed compelled her to take it by hook or crook. So she went to the King and said to him - "O King, My old neighbor has a gold-shitting cow. If Your Majesty can take it for himself, it will be useful for all the people of the country." The King also got greedy so he ordered his soldiers to bring that cow to him. They brought the cow to the King, and the King gave it to a cowherd and warned him not to remove her dung.

That night the King could not sleep well. Next day when he went to the cow to collect gold, he found nothing other than the normal cow dung. Seeing this the King filled with rage and he sent for the old woman. He asked her - "Doesn't your cow give golden dung? That is why I got her here, then why she is not giving that?" The old woman told him the whole story. He got convinced and said - "Forgive me, O Mother. I stole the cow out of ignorance. Your neighbor is guilty, she will be punished." Then he ordered the whole country to perform the Sunday vow and as a result of that he conquered his enemies in all directions.