According to the Panchang, every year the festival of Anant Chaturdashi (Anant Chaturdashi 2024) is celebrated with great enthusiasm on the Chaturdashi of Shukla Paksha of Bhadrapada month. On this day, it is customary to worship Lord Vishnu. It is believed that by not observing the fast on this day, the seeker does not get auspicious results. In such a situation, let us read the story of Anant Chaturdashi Vrat  (Anant Chaturdashi 2024 Vrat Katha).  

Anant Chaturdashi fasting story

According to the mythological tale, Yudhishthira was once organising a Rajsuya Yagya. The yagya pavilion looked like land in water and water in land. Many precautions were taken during the yagya, but still many people were deceived by seeing the pavilion. Once Duryodhan reached near the pavilion. He fell in the pond mistaking it to be land. Seeing this, Draupadi laughed. She called Duryodhan the son of blind people. Seeing Draupadi laughing, Duryodhan got angry. In such a situation, he thought of taking revenge from the Pandavas. In this hatred, he defeated the Pandavas in gambling.

The Pandavas had to face exile

Due to this, the Pandavas had to spend twelve years in exile after losing. During this time, they faced many problems. There came a time when Lord Krishna went to meet them. Then Yudhishthira told Krishna about his sorrow and asked for a solution to get rid of the problem. In such a situation, the Lord asked him to observe a fast of Lord Anant. He said that by observing this fast, all sorrows will go away. In this context, Krishna ji narrated a story to Yudhishthira, which is as follows-

Sushila was married to sage Koundinayya

In ancient times, there was an ascetic Brahmin named Sumant. His daughter was a very beautiful, religious and luminous girl. After some time, the Brahmin's wife Diksha died. In such a situation, he got married again and got his daughter Sushila married to sage Koundinayya. After this, Koundinayya took Sushila with him to his ashram.

Sage Koundinayya insulted Lord Ananta

It was night by the time they reached the ashram and they both stopped on the river bank. During this time Sushila saw some women in beautiful clothes and they were worshiping some god. When Sushila asked the women about this, they told her about the importance of Anant Vrat. Sushila also worshipped at the same place. She tied a string with fourteen knots in her hand and came to her husband Rishi Koundinayya. When Koundinayya asked about the string, Sushila told him about the fast, but the sage broke it and burnt it in the fire. By doing this, Lord Anant was insulted. Because of this, Rishi Koundinayya became very sad. Everything he had was destroyed. He asked his wife what was the reason for this poverty. Then Sushila reminded him about burning the string.

Sage Koundinayya realised his mistake

He realized his mistake and stayed there for many days to get that thread, but he did not succeed. After wandering for a long time, he fell on the ground. Then Lord Anant appeared. He told Rishi Koundinayya that you have insulted me. That is why you are facing such troubles. You go back and do Anant Vrat with a true heart. After 14 years all the sorrows will go away. The sage followed the words of Lord Anant. By the order of Lord Krishna, Yudhishthira also observed the fast of Lord Anant according to the rules. Due to the virtue of this fast, the Pandavas won the war of Mahabharata and ruled for a long time.