ગુરુવારનું વ્રત (ગુરુવાર): બુદ્ધિ, લગ્ન અને ગુરુની કૃપા માટે

Frequently asked

Common questions

• Can an unmarried girl keep the Thursday fast for marriage?+

  Yes, and this is the oldest and most common reason the fast is kept. In Vedic astrology Jupiter is the karaka of the husband in a woman's chart, so Guruvar vrat has long been the observance of unmarried women asking for a good marriage. The form is gentle. Yellow clothes, yellow foods through the day, one light meal in the evening after the pooja, and Om Brihaspataye Namah recited 108 times. Where the prayer is a serious one, families keep Solah Guruvar, sixteen consecutive Thursdays closed with an udyapan. Keep it if it steadies you and gives the week a shape. It is a prayer and a discipline, and no vrat is a substitute for the ordinary human work of meeting people and choosing carefully.

• What is Guruvar and why is Thursday called that?+

  Guruvar is the Sanskrit and Hindi name for Thursday. Guru means teacher, and Guru is also the name of Jupiter, so Guruvar is Jupiter's day. The other name in common use is Brihaspativar, Brihaspati being the older name for the same planet and for the preceptor of the gods. The Thursday fast is dedicated to Jupiter, Brihaspati and Vishnu together, since Brihaspati is the planetary regent and Vishnu the presiding deity of dharma.

• Which planet rules Thursday?+

  Jupiter, called Guru or Brihaspati. Jupiter is the most benefic of the nine graha and signifies wisdom, dharma, prosperity, children, teachers and spiritual learning, and in a woman's chart it stands for the husband. If you have seen Brihaspati and wondered which English day it means, it is Thursday.

• Who keeps the Thursday fast, and what is it for?+

  Four groups traditionally. Unmarried women asking for a good husband, since Jupiter is the husband significator. Married women asking for children, since Jupiter is also the significator of progeny. Students and seekers, for wisdom, exam success and spiritual progress. And anyone whose birth chart carries a weak Jupiter, meaning Jupiter debilitated, combust, or placed in the sixth, eighth or twelfth house, for whom the classical prescription is a weekly Thursday vrat kept for years and sometimes for life.

• What can you eat on a Thursday fast?+

  The usual form is phalahar, kept from sunrise to evening with one light meal after the evening pooja. The theme is yellow, because yellow is Jupiter's colour: banana, chana or moong dal, milk with turmeric, and mango when it is in season. Many people also wear yellow and offer yellow flowers, which is the same idea carried through the day. Practice varies by household. Some keep only fruit and milk, others eat a full yellow meal in the evening, and older or unwell members of a family often keep the yellow food and the pooja without the fasting hours at all.

• What is the 16 Thursday fast, Solah Guruvar?+

  Sixteen consecutive Thursdays kept as a full vrat and closed with an udyapan, the concluding ceremony. It is the form used when the prayer is a large one, most often marriage or a child, and it is the Jupiter counterpart of Solah Somwar kept for Shiva. The weekly practice is the same as any other Thursday. What changes is the commitment, because the count is meant to run unbroken, so most people begin it when they know the next four months are settled enough to keep it.

• Can students keep the Thursday fast?+

  Yes. Jupiter governs higher learning, teaching and clear judgement, so students are one of the four traditional groups for this vrat. The version that suits a student is the light one: something yellow to wear, yellow food through the day, a ghee lamp and 108 repetitions of Om Brihaspataye Namah in the morning, and a simple meal in the evening. Do not fast hard on an exam day. The purpose of the practice is a steady mind, and a hungry one is not that.

• Can a married woman keep the Thursday fast?+

  Yes. In the traditional profile married women keep it for children, since Jupiter is the significator of progeny, and for the family as a whole, since Jupiter also governs family wealth and lineage. Many keep it with no particular petition at all, simply as a weekly Jupiter practice. The results the classical texts name for this vrat are relief from marriage delay, steadier family bonds, clearer judgement on questions of dharma, and success in study.