My mother-in-law is insisting that I should observe this vrat but I stopped doing it years ago before marriage, and after coming to The Mother. As a child, I used to follow these things because my mother would ask me to without really understanding why.
My mother-in-law says that once you start doing this vrat, you cannot stop doing it; it is something you have to continue throughout your life.
Also, why are so many traditions and fasts centred around the husband’s well-being? Why is the husband often given the position of “pati parmeshwar,” while the wife isn’t given the same place? I genuinely don’t want to do this vrat.
Yes, all these things have been added much later and have no authority in the main Scriptures. It is a story added in some of the Puranas, mainly I suppose to enforce rules of hygiene for women during the menstrual period. This was one of the ways to instil certain hygiene practices through fear. It has no meaning now. Most of the fasts are primarily to keep the body healthy based on certain ideas and beliefs. Saptarishis, for whom the fast is held, are not swayed by fasts nor punish those who do not keep fasts.
Besides, once one turns to a spiritual Master, one follows only what is given by the Guru as part of the teachings. Sri Aurobindo and The Mother never gave these rules. In fact they liberated us from all these outer rules and gave us only one golden rule. That rule is to remember the Divine Mother always and live with the idea of Her Presence until it becomes a living fact. All the rest is contained in it. An inner remembrance of the Mother is indeed the supreme security. Nothing else is needed for one who has faith in the Divine and remembers the Divine Name.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
