Shitala Satam 1968

From the Skanda Purana

Satam is the Gujarati word for Saptami, the seventh day of the moon, and Shitala means "the cool one".

The Shitalashtaka, a hymn that ends with the words "thus in the Skanda Purana", is spoken by Lord Shiva in praise of the goddess Shitala. He pictures her riding on a donkey, digambara (clothed only by the sky), with a broom and a water pot in her hands and a winnowing basket on her head.

Shiva calls her the remover of every illness and every fear. When someone burning with fever cries out "Shitala, Shitala", the terror of visphotaka, the burning pox, quickly leaves them. For a person burning with fever or who has lost their sight, she is the medicine that brings back life. She dwells in the heart, fine as a lotus thread, and whoever meditates on her there does not meet death. Shiva promises that the fear of the pox will not enter a home where this hymn is said, and that the children of a house where her donkey's names are recited before her will be kept safe from her disease.

Another story

This is the katha traditionally told by those who keep Shitala Satam; no Purana source was found for it.

An old woman, a devotee of Shitala Mata, lived with her two daughters-in-law, each of whom had just had a baby. On Shitala Satam, the old woman ate the food cooked the day before and told her daughters-in-law to do the same.

The young mothers were afraid that stale food would make their babies ill. So they secretly cooked fresh food for themselves, and when the old woman asked, they made excuses. Shitala Mata was displeased, and both babies died.

When the old woman learned the truth, she drove the two young women out of the house. Carrying their dead children, they sat down to rest under a banyan tree. There they met two sisters, Ori and Shitala, who were suffering from lice in their hair. Feeling sorry for them, the young mothers picked the lice from their hair and gave them relief. The sisters blessed them that their laps would be filled with children again.

Then the young women understood that this was Shitala Mata herself. They fell at her feet and begged forgiveness. Moved by their repentance, the goddess brought their children back to life. The two mothers went home rejoicing and told everyone what had happened, and from that day the whole village worshipped Shitala Mata with devotion.