Goddess Santoshi Maa

Goddess Santoshi Maa satisfies everybody’s desires and pleas.

Santoshi Maa is the daughter of Lord Ganesh as far as the Indian stories are concerned. Lord Ganesh who is the favourite son of Goddess Parvathi Devi has a sister whose name was Manasa. On the day of Raksha Bandhan when she was tying Rakhi to him, his sons were so happy to watch this and asked their father that they too want to have a sister. Lord Ganesh rejected this and they pleaded a lot. His wives also pleased him so much that he had to give them a sweet little sister.

Lord Ganesh, His wives and his sons were so happy with this and they named her as Santoshi Maa and all of them were so fond of her. She is the Goddess of Happiness and Satisfaction. Women are very much fond of her and do fasting prayers to get her mercy on them to lead a happy and contented life. Santoshi Maa became famous after a Hindi film in 1960s. The Hindi film made her so popular. People of North India and Nepal worship Santoshi Maa with complete conviction.

In India every God and Goddess can be worshipped without hesitation. The Hindus Worship many Gods and Goddesses. They welcome every new Avatar of God. That is the reason why Indians have many Gods around to worship.

Santoshi Maa is not a new Goddess. But another form of Goddess Durga says some devotees. Friday is liked by her devotees and they offer special prayers and fast to impress the goddess. After doing the fasting Prayers everybody should read her story of seven sons and their mother. This is the story where the compassion of Santoshi Maa is depicted very clearly.

In early days, Women used to do fasting Prayers and offerings to Goddesses and get all the happiness in their homes. The Goddess likes sweet rather than the sour items. People offer sweets while they pray to her. On all the Fridays of three successive months’ ladies should follow the steps in a careful manner without disturbing the rules of the puja and offerings. Faith is the driving force in any attempt. Having a strong belief in the God one can attain anything without hesitation. One’s own trust on one’s self makes him great in every walk of their lives. Believe you can or believe you cannot, both the ways you are right. Believing super natural powers increase your strength since you feel something is saving you from the calamities.

The story of Santoshi Maa is very famous in her devotees. Once there was an old woman who had seven sons. Six of her sons were working hard to gain a living. But the youngest of them was lazy and not used to work. All of them were married and having wives too. The old woman used to feed all the six sons at a time and after all of them have finished eating the leftover food is being given to the youngest son. His wife saw this this and told to her husband about it. As usual, he did not believe. She asked him to see for himself and then believe. He went in to the kitchen before his mother fed his elder brothers and hid somewhere so that the rest of them cannot find him.

His mother made sweet Laddus and served his six sons with the food. They ate until their stomachs were full and after they left the place she made another sweet by the leftovers from his brothers and called him to eat. He was astonished and said that he was not feeling hungry and told his mother that he wants to go abroad. She asked him to leave on the same day and so he left.

He met his wife while he was leaving. She was in the stable of the cows making cakes of dung. He told her that he was leaving for another country. She said fine and asked something as his remembrance. He gave him his ring. He asked the same but she has nothing to give her and had given a stamp of her hand on his shirt at the back. He left happily. When he was roaming he went to another city and he asked a merchant to give him a job. He made him his assistant and very soon he shined with intelligence. The merchant was very impressed and made him his partner with 50% share. The business ran very successfully and the merchant left for another country leaving all the business to him. He was happy and was making lot of money out of his business.

His wife is still there with her mother-in-law and was suffering so much. She takes care of all the household things. She cooks for all of them and goes to the forest to get the wood too. She was vexed and was waiting for her husband to come and rescue her out of this. Twelve years are passed. On one fine day, there were some women talking about Santoshi Maa and she listened and enquired how one should do the worship of Goddess and the items that should be cooked as offerings. She returned home after all these. On the way, she had come across the temple of Santoshi Maa and asked her compassion on her. She followed Fridays with lot of care.

Soon after she finished some Fridays her husband returned to her. Santoshi Maa came into his dream and drove him to her. His wife was so happy on this and decided to offer Udyapan on the fulfilment of her desire. On this day the aspirant has to make sweets and to serve seven boys either of relatives or of neighbours.

Her husband agreed and she prepared everything and called her brother-in-laws’ sons. They had come to eat and asked sour food. Sour food is not to be taken by any of the family members since it is not liked by Santoshi Maa. They took money from her and bought tamarind and ate that instead. The Goddess was angry on this and her husband was taken by the soldiers. Again she went and prayed to the Goddess. She asked her to do the same again on the next Friday and she followed that in a success.
Then after completing the last Friday, everything was fine and they could lead a happy life and the daughter-in-law of the old woman delivered a beautiful baby boy and every one were happy in their family.

Those who read this story also become prosperous according to the belief of the devotees. Jai Santoshi Maa.