Anant Chaturdashi 2108

From the Bhavishya Purana

Yudhishthira asked Sri Krishna who this Ananta was. Krishna answered, "Ananta is my own name. I am Time itself, come down to lighten the burden of the earth. Know me as Ananta, as Vishnu, as Shiva, as Brahma, the Sun and Shesha, the one who is everywhere." Then he told this story.

Long ago, in the Krita Yuga, there lived a Brahmin named Sumantu of the Vasishtha gotra. His wife Diksha, a daughter of the sage Bhrigu, bore him a daughter named Shila, who was truly good-natured, so she was called Sushila. In time her mother fell ill and died. Sumantu married again, and his new wife Karkasha was harsh and always quarrelling. Sushila grew up devoted to worship in her father's house, decorating the walls, pillars and doorways of her father's house with auspicious designs.

When she came of age, her father gave her in marriage to the sage Kaundinya. After the wedding Sumantu asked Karkasha to give the son-in-law some small gift. She grew angry, pulled down the wedding canopy, shut the door, and sent them off with only leftover flour for the journey.

The couple travelled slowly in a bullock cart. At midday they stopped on a river bank to eat. There Sushila saw a group of women in red clothes, worshipping a god with devotion. She went to them and asked what vow this was. "It is called Ananta," they said, and they taught her how to keep it and how to tie a strong thread with fourteen knots. Sushila kept the vrata there, tied the thread, gave part of her food to a Brahmin and ate the rest.

By the grace of Ananta, when they reached home their hermitage was full of cattle, grain and wealth, and guests were honoured there. Sushila shone with jewels.

One day Kaundinya, sitting near her, saw the thread on her wrist. In anger he snapped it. From that moment their fortune left them. Thieves took the cattle, fire burnt the house, whatever came into the home was lost, and friends and family stopped speaking to them.

In despair, Kaundinya went into the deep forest, fasting and calling on Hari, longing to see Ananta. He met a great fruit tree, a cow with her calf, a bull, two lovely lotus ponds, a donkey and an elephant. He asked each one, "Have you seen Ananta?" and each said, "No." At last he sank to the ground.

Then Ananta, in his mercy, appeared as an old Brahmin. He took Kaundinya by the right hand, led him into his home, and showed himself seated on a throne with conch, discus, sword, mace and Garuda. Kaundinya cried, "I am a sinner. Protect me, lotus-eyed Lord." Ananta explained what he had seen: the tree had been a learned man, proud of his learning, who never taught his students; the two ponds stood for dharma and adharma; the donkey was anger; and the old Brahmin was Ananta himself.

Ananta told him to keep the vrata for fourteen years, and promised him a high place among the stars, a life of plenty with children and grandchildren, and at last liberation. Kaundinya went home and kept the vrata with Sushila. After a happy life he went to heaven and shines still as the star Punarvasu.

Another story

This is the fuller katha traditionally read by families who keep this vrata; a Sanskrit version of it is quoted in the encyclopedia Shabdakalpadruma.

In this telling, Kaundinya sees the thread and angrily asks Sushila what it is. She tells him it is the sacred thread of Ananta, by whose grace they enjoy their wealth. He says he has never heard of such a god, pulls the thread from her arm and throws it into the fire. Sushila cries out, runs, takes the thread from the flames and puts it into milk. The rest of the story follows the Purana.