Varalakshmi Vratam Date: When is Varalakshmi Vratam 2009?
2009 Varalakshmi Vratam is on 31st of July i.e on Friday (Month of Ashada on the last Friday of the bright fortnight).

Decorated house, rangolis, mango leaves, air bathed with rain, incense, flowers and holy hymns praising goddess Lakshmi….Can you guess what is up? Yes! It is Varalakshmi Vratam or Puja. This year it is on 31st July.

Varalakshmi Vratam is one of the important festivals of South India which is celebrated in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and few parts of Orissa and Maharastra. It is performed on Friday before the full moon day in the month of Sravana. Those who are unable to do it on that day can do it on any Friday of that particular month.

The puja is performed by the women for the reason that Varalakshmi is a woman. ‘Vara’ means boons and Lakshmi is consort of Lord Vishnu, the Supreme Lord. There are eight Lakshmis called Asta-Lakshmi and Vishnu is the asylum for the eight Lakshmis or Forces. A person’s health, wealth and prosperity depend on these forces. Worship of Lakshmi invokes these forces and attracts blessings on them. Thus Vratam is performed by women. She prays for well-being and prosperity of her husband, children and home.

First Varalakshmi Vratam:
Long ago there lives a Brahmin woman called Charumathi in a town named Kundina. She was chaste, humble and gentle. She served her husband with love and devotion and treated all her in-laws as her own kith and kin. Pleased with her peity, Goddess Mahalakshmi appeared in her dream and asked to worship Varalakshmi, who is known for her boon-granting power, and seek to fulfil her desires. Goddess Mahalakshmi prescribed her to perform the Vratam on Friday of Sravana month preceding the full moon day.

Charumathi told her dream to her husband and family and found them encouraging. She told this to her friends and the word spread whole town. One the prescribed day Charumathi and her friends performed Vratam with great devotion and reverence. Goddess Varalakshmi appeared and grant them all their wishes and they could see themselves decked with jewels and diamonds and their homes filled with food grains, gold and riches. Since then women started performing the puja every year. It is said that those women who perform this puja and read this story will get all their desires fulfilled and their homes will be full of riches and happiness.