Observed for 16 consecutive Fridays by devout seekers, the Santoshi Mata Vrat requires offering jaggery and roasted gram, reciting the miraculous sacred katha, strictly refraining from sour food, and concluding with a lavish Udhyapan feeding eight young boys.
Rise at dawn on the first Friday. Bathe, wear clean festive garments, and spread a red cloth upon a wooden chowki. Install the sacred image of Maa Santoshi. Take water and akshat in hand and resolve to observe the vrat for 16 consecutive Fridays.
Place a water-filled Kalash before Maa Santoshi and cover it with a small bowl filled with roasted chana and pieces of jaggery. Anoint the Kalash with red roli and akshat, and light the sacred ghee lamp.
Hold a small piece of jaggery and a few grains of roasted gram in your right hand. Attentively read or listen to the sacred tale of the youngest daughter-in-law's tribulations and Maa Santoshi's miraculous grace. After completing the story, place the hand-held prasad into the Kalash bowl and sing 'Jai Santoshi Mata' Aarti.
Throughout the fasting day, you must neither consume nor serve any sour item (such as lemon, tamarind, curd, amchur, vinegar, or sour fruits) to anyone in the household or outside. Anger, deceit, and arrogance must also be avoided.
Upon completing the 16th Friday, organize the Udhyapan. Prepare sweet rice kheer, puris, and roasted gram halwa. Invite 8 young boys (or Brahmin youths), wash their feet, serve them the sweet meal with reverence, and offer them fruits, school notebooks, and sweet dakshina. Never give them money to buy sour sweets.
