रविवार व्रत कथा (प्रत्येक रविवार) · Ravivar Vrat Katha (Every Sunday)

The Sunday vow is dedicated to Surya Dev. On this day one should bathe early in the morning, wear clean clothing, and remain disciplined through the day with a calm mind fixed on God. As far as possible, one should eat only fruit, and that too before sunset, avoiding salty and oily food — if the fast is unintentionally broken past sunset, one should eat only after offering food to God following the next day's sunrise. This vow is considered especially effective for increasing one's respect and standing, overcoming enemies, and curing ailments of the eyes.

In a village there lived an old woman who kept an extremely disciplined weekly vow every Sunday — bathing early in the morning, plastering her courtyard with dung fetched from her neighbor's cow, cooking food and offering it to God before eating it herself. Through this discipline her household remained ever filled with happiness and prosperity. One Sunday, her neighbor, out of jealousy, tied up her cow in such a way that the old woman could not fetch the dung, so her regular worship could not be completed that day, and she was forced into an unplanned fast. Pleased by her unwavering devotion, God appeared to her that very night in a dream, and, learning the reason for her fast, promised to give her a divine cow whose dung would be laced with flecks of gold, and which would grant wealth to the poor, children to the childless, and, in the end, liberation. On waking the next morning, the old woman found this divine cow tied in her courtyard along with its calf.

When the neighbor saw that this cow's dung contained flecks of gold, she began repeatedly stealing it in secret and replacing it with ordinary dung. This went on for some time, until God sent a fierce storm that forced the old woman to keep the cow tied indoors, making further theft impossible. Unable to steal any longer, the neighbor spitefully reported to the local king that the old woman possessed a divine cow whose dung was like gold, suggesting that the king alone deserved to own such a creature.

The king's soldiers came and forcibly took the cow away. Heartbroken, the old woman fasted and wept in grief. That very night, the walls of the royal palace were mysteriously found smeared all over with dung, and God appeared in the king's dream, revealing the divine cow's whole story and the identity of its rightful owner. Hearing this, the king recognized his error, and at once returned the cow and its calf to the old woman with full honors, rewarding her further with wealth, and punished the jealous neighbor. After this, the king ordered the entire city, and in time the whole kingdom, to observe the Sunday vow, by which the people were blessed with happiness and prosperity and freed from illness and calamity. Whoever observes the Sunday vow with devotion has, by Surya Dev's grace, a life of lasting happiness.