The Submissive Symbolism of the Karva Chauth Ritual

Here is the story behind this ritual :-)

The Story revolves around a beautiful princess who gets married to a handsome prince. On the occasion of her first "Karva Chauth" after marriage, she goes to her parents home to observe the fast. Her brothers are alarmed as her strength ebbs during the day and so trick her into abandoning her fast before sunset.
Unfortunately for the princess, she returns home to hear that her beloved has died! The princess is grief stricken and prays to the God Shiva and his wife Parvati for help. The couple appear before her and Parvati grants the prince back his life but tells the princess that he will remain in a comatose condition for a year. In addition his body is pierced with hundreds of painful needles. Parvati asks the princess to remove one needle a day and then when the year is complete to observe the fast again and complete it fully. Only then will the prince be returned to his normal self.

The princess religiously follows the ritual of taking care of her husband's body and each day removes one of the needles from his body. On the day of the fast, she is so excited taking care of all the formalities of the fast that she designates her maid to remove the last needle.

At sunset, before the princess can appear before her husband, the maid removes the last needle and the prince wakes up. He however mistakes the maid to be his wife and his real wife to be the maid. Everybody tries to convince him otherwise, but the prince refuses to believe them. It is as if he is in a trance. The princess is dismayed, but then decides to serve the prince as his maid, since that will keep him closer to her.

A year rolls by and the fast is upon her again. This time the princess does everything right and attends to her prince while also observing the fasting rituals. She prays to Parvati that the trance on the prince  be broken. Miraculously as soon as she breaks her fast, her prince is restored to his normal self, recognizes her and she is reunited in love!

The story symbolically illustrates the following

1) The fast symbolises commitment to your relationship. If you are not committed, how can the relationship flourish? Hence the prince dies
2) Even when you have lapsed, recommitting to a relationship can revive it, but this will take time: The prince is comatose with needles
3) A wife's job is to  serve her husband daily and eliminate physical and emotional distress that may befall him: The needles that the princess removes from his body
4) During the re-commitment, even a small relapse can have enormous consequences: The princess fails to serve her husband for one day and he goes astray and considers her a maid
5) A dutiful wife will eventually triumph over all odds. ( Happily ever after ending!!)

Sigh! I just love HEA endings

I am all decked up today to observe the fast. Almost like a bride :-) Of course a small twist, no bra or panties as per Swami's instructions. My fast has started. I wait for sunset when I can spot today's moon.
Readers, when you see the moon today, remember me! I will be breaking my fast today at that time!

After much searching, I found a Bollywood song that really captures how I feel today. It is from a really old movie from 1965. Both the actor (Sunil Dutt) and actress (Nutan) are dead now, but the song is so beautiful, I wanted to put it here!

Hope you folks enjoy it. I have added subtitles, so remember to turn them on, when you watch it

Hugs and Kisses

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