This festival comes on Shukla Paksha Dwadasi, in the month of Karthik. This happens to be the last day of chatur maasa . On Uthana Dwadasi day Lord Vishnu is supposed to get up from sleep. It is said that a year in a humans life is one day to the gods. On Uthana Dwadasi day Lord Vishnu is stirring from his sleep. There are some stories connected to this too.
On this day, Saligrama puja is important and Tulasi puja.
In most houses Saligrama puja is performed and brahmin couples are given festival food and Tulasi Vivah is performed in the evening. After food, this couple are given thamboola and a minimum of blouse piece if not sari and shelya is presented along with Kheer Dhana ( along with the cup made of pithal or whatever is available)
For the evening naividya, 4/5 different kind of laddus and sweets are made, and also a flavored milk boiled well with sugar saffron and cardomom added. Koshambari is also made.
An arathi is prepared as follows. On a plain silver or pithal plate draw a rangoli design with honey using a matchstick or a new toothpick. Over this sprinkle some GUSGUSA all over and then gently tap out the extra gusgusa. You will now have a beautiful decoration on the plate.
Over this arrange 5 amlas and wicks soaked in ghee over the amlas.
In the Tulasi vrindavan a small branch of amla is kept, a few amlas have also to be in the branches.
Decorate the front of the house with mango leaves and rangoli.
Decorate the tulasi vrindavan , draw rangoli in front of the vrindavan. If there no place in the back yard for this , one may keep the pot or a small vrindvan with a tulasi plant near the god, for the puja.
Keep a small idol of Krishna in the Vrindavan, next to the plant and perform puja.
Light as many lamps as possible.
You will need to get ready the naividya, the arathi, sweet smelling flowers, a pair small garlands.
Decorate the tulasi and put a few abharana( jewels, like we would decorate a bride]. Sing songs and stotras to tulasi and krishna and lakshmi. and perform the puja. (If a purohith comes he will conduct the puja like he would a real wedding.)
After the puja and before the various arathis , offer to the Lord and Tulsi, a sari and blouse and pair of dhotis , offer haldhi kumkum and on to plate do the vonti bharna for Tulasi, then the naividya and the arathis. Puja is to performed with haldhi kumkum etc as , we perform Lakshmi puja.
The second half of Ashwija maasa and Kartic maasa are the darkest months of the year. Before the times of kerosene lamps and electric lights, it would have been very difficult to sight a village. When lamps are lit and kept in front of the houses in the evenings and early mornings the travellers could easily sight the village.
Amlas are given importance, as the coming months are cold with fog, which will cause cold etc. Eating amlas gives a person vitamin C,(nowadays it is given in tablet form) a preventive for these winter ailments. Amlas contain lot of vitamin C and iron.
In places where a Amla tree is there people go there and worship the tree. It is said that every house must have an Amla tree, a parijatha flower tree and a tulasi plant. Some even say that a house without a tulasi plant, is equal to cemetery.
Growing a tulasi plant is not at all difficult only it needs to be watered every day.The plant has also be planted in a fairly big pot or brindhvan, so the plant will space for the roots to spread.
Any plant for that matter is like child. take care of it and it will grow well. The plant also needs to kept in sunny place. In summer when it is very hot, it can be watered twice or shifted to a shade.
Do grow a tulasi plant where ever you are.
FOR THE AMLAS IN THE ARATHI PLATE TO BALANCE THE AMLAS ,MAKE A DOUGH WITH HALDHI POWDER AND WATER, MAKE EQUAL SIZE BALLS AND PLACE THIS ON THE ARATHI PLATE, ON THIS PLACE THE AMLA AND ON THA PUT A WICK SOAKED IN OIL.
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