Chath Puja is one of the most spiritually potent and deeply revered festivals dedicated to Lord Surya (Sun God) and Chhathi Maiya (the divine consort of Surya Dev). Celebrated predominantly in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Nepal, Chhath Puja is gaining global recognition among the Indian diaspora, including cities like Dallas, USA.
The festival honors the sun's life-giving force, expressing gratitude for health, prosperity, and overall well-being. Unlike many Hindu festivals, Chhath Puja is characterized by strict discipline, fasting, and a deep sense of devotion and purity, often without the involvement of temple rituals or priests.
🗓️ Chhath Puja 2025 Date
The four-day-long festival is celebrated on the sixth day of the Kartik month in the Hindu lunar calendar, just after Diwali.
🌅 Chhath Puja 2025 – 4-Day Ritual Summary
| 📅 Day | 🗓️ Date (IST & CST) | 🪔 Event |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1: Nahay Khay | Friday, October 25, 2025 | Start of the festival; purification through holy bath |
| Day 2: Kharna (Lohanda) | Saturday, October 26, 2025 | 36-hour waterless fast begins after evening kheer-prasad |
| Day 3: Sandhya Arghya | Sunday, October 27, 2025 | Offerings to the setting sun |
| Day 4: Usha Arghya | Monday, October 28, 2025 | Offerings to the rising sun & end of the fast |
🌅 Sunrise and Sunset Timings (Arghya) for Chhath Puja 2025
Below are the exact sunrise and sunset timings based on Indian Standard Time (IST) and Central Standard Time (CST) for Dallas, TX (USA):
Day 3 - Evening Arghya (October 27, 2025)
| Location | Sunset Time (for Arghya) |
|---|---|
| New Delhi, India (IST) | 5:40 PM IST |
| Dallas, TX (CST) | 6:41 PM CST |
Day 4 - Morning Arghya (October 28, 2025)
| Location | Sunrise Time (for Arghya) |
|---|---|
| New Delhi, India (IST) | 6:30 AM IST |
| Dallas, TX (CST) | 7:42 AM CST |
🕉️ Muhrat Tip: Arghya preparations should ideally begin 30–45 minutes before sunrise and sunset, allowing devotees to offer prayers at the precise moment of solar transition. Timings may vary by location, so kindly verify the muhurat using your local Panchang or authoritative source.
🙏 Complete Rituals of Chhath Puja Explained
Each of the four days of Chhath Puja carries specific spiritual and symbolic importance. The rituals are performed with intense discipline, purity, and reverence. While outward rituals are significant, Swami Mukundananda ji emphasizes that it is the internal devotion, purity of mind, and selflessness that elevate any spiritual practice.
🌞 Chhath Puja 2025 – 4-Day Ritual Summary
| 📅 Day | 🗓️ Date | 🕉️ Ritual Summary | 💭 Spiritual Insight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1: Nahay Khay | Oct 25, 2025 | Devotees bathe in rivers, clean homes, and eat satvik food (lauki, chana dal, rice). Marks the beginning of internal purification. | Cleanse the mind through God-consciousness and detachment—more vital than outer rituals. |
| Day 2: Kharna | Oct 26, 2025 | Nirjala vrat (waterless fast), broken at night with jaggery-kheer and roti offered to the deity and consumed as prasad. | Fasting disciplines the senses and aligns with Swamiji’s teachings on mastering desires. |
| Day 3: Sandhya Arghya | Oct 27, 2025 | Offerings to the setting sun while standing in water. Prasad includes thekua, fruits, and sugarcane in a soop (bamboo tray). | Represents surrender, gratitude, and acceptance of life’s impermanence and duality. |
| Day 4: Usha Arghya | Oct 28, 2025 | Morning offering to the rising sun. Same prasad as Day 3, but the mood shifts to hope and new beginnings. | Even simple offerings made with bhakti are more powerful than grandeur. Devotion matters most. |
Let’s explore each day in detail.
Day 1: Nahay Khay (Oct 25, 2025)
- Devotees purify themselves in rivers or other natural water bodies.
- Homes are cleaned, and satvik food is prepared—typically bottle gourd (lauki), chana dal, and rice.
- This day symbolizes internal purification and setting intentions for the puja.
🧘♂️ Swami Mukundananda’s Insight: Just as we purify the body with bathing, we must cleanse the mind through contemplation over God and detachment from worldly concerns. Inner purity holds more significance than outward rituals.
Day 2: Kharna (Lohanda) – Oct 26, 2025
- Devotees observe a nirjala vrat (waterless fast) for the whole day.
- In the evening, kheer (rice pudding) made with jaggery and milk, along with chapatis, is offered to the deity and consumed as prasad.
- The fast resumes immediately after, continuing through Days 3 and 4.
🥣 The idea is to discipline desires, control senses, and engage in detachment—key elements in Swamiji’s teachings on mind management.
Day 3: Sandhya Arghya – Evening Offering to Setting Sun (Oct 27, 2025)
- Devotees, dressed in traditional attire, gather near water bodies.
- The soop (bamboo tray) is filled with fruits, thekua (sweet made from wheat and jaggery), sugarcane, and other prasad items.
- Standing in water, devotees offer Arghya to the setting sun while chanting folk songs and mantras.
🍱 Main Items Offered in Arghya:
- Thekua
- A traditional sweet made from wheat flour, jaggery, and ghee, shaped and fried.
- Symbolizes sacrifice, as it's handmade with love and simplicity.
- Fruits
- Common fruits: bananas, apples, oranges, pomegranates, and coconuts.
- These symbolize nature’s bounty and the devotee’s gratitude for sustenance.
- Sugarcane
- Sometimes offered whole or in cut sections.
- Represents sweetness, purity, and life energy.
- Coconut (with husk)
- A powerful symbol in Hindu rituals representing self-offering and complete surrender.
- Often placed atop a kalash (water pot) or directly in the soop.
- Rice Laddus / Rasiyo (sweet rice)
- Made from rice, jaggery, and milk.
- Symbolic of simplicity and purity.
- Turmeric and Raw Rice (Akshat)
- Offered as symbols of purity, protection, and auspiciousness.
- Earthen lamps (Diyas)
- Placed in or near the water during Arghya.
- Symbolize light, spiritual awakening, and guidance.
- Kalash (Copper or Earthen Pot)
- Filled with holy water, mango leaves, and topped with a coconut.
- Symbolizes abundance and purity; carried or placed near the devotee.
🔥 Spiritual Symbolism: Offering to the setting sun acknowledges life's inevitable decline—symbolizing acceptance of life’s duality and the cyclical nature of existence.
💡 Swamiji’s Teaching: Rather than focusing on external perfection, Swamiji reminds us that devotion (bhakti) offered with humility and a sincere heart pleases the Lord far more than grandeur. Even a simple offering made with love can invoke divine grace.
Day 4: Usha Arghya – Morning Offering to Rising Sun (Oct 28, 2025)
The soop (bamboo tray) or tokri (basket) is the primary vessel in which offerings are carried. The physical items offered in Arghya are virtually the same on both days 3 and 4. What truly differs is the intention, timing, and spiritual message of the ritual.
- Day 3 (Sandhya Arghya): Offering is made to the setting sun, symbolizing gratitude, surrender, and acceptance of the transient nature of life.
- Day 4 (Usha Arghya): Offering is made to the rising sun, symbolizing hope, renewal, and spiritual awakening. The sentiment is forward-looking and celebratory, marking the culmination of the fast.
- After Usha Arghya, the vrat ends, and devotees consume the prasad as their first food in over 36 hours, making the offering highly symbolic of spiritual completion and divine grace.
🕉️ Spiritual Significance of These Offerings
Each item offered during Usha Arghya is symbolic and spiritual:
- Rising Sun: Represents new beginnings, hope, clarity, and the victory of light over darkness.
- Soop and Prasad: Handmade, natural, and satvik (pure), they reflect devotion, self-effort, and detachment from materialism.
- Water Offering (Arghya): A symbolic surrender of the ego, offering our life energies back to the cosmic source—Surya Dev.
- Devotees complete their 36+ hour fast only after offering Arghya and receiving prasad.
- The act signifies self-restraint, endurance, and thanksgiving.
🌅 The rising sun symbolizes spiritual enlightenment, mirroring Swamiji’s emphasis on inner awakening through selfless love and daily spiritual practice.
🧘 Swami Mukundananda's Teachings on Rituals and Bhakti
Swami Mukundananda teaches that true spiritual power doesn't lie in elaborate rituals, but in the intention and devotion behind them.
Here’s how his teachings beautifully complement the spirit of Chhath Puja:
- 🔹 Intention Over Action: Swamiji always emphasizes that the Bhav (sentiment) behind any ritual is what pleases the divine. If one cannot perform every aspect perfectly, sincere prayer with love and humility is far more valuable.
- 🔹 Discipline and Sattvik Living: The fasting and celibacy observed during Chhath align with Swamiji’s teachings on restraining the mind and senses to purify thoughts.
- 🔹 Detachment and Devotion: Chhath calls for detachment from bodily needs (no food or water), aligning with the path of Bhakti Yog, where one surrenders all desires at the feet of the Lord.
- 🔹 Connection with Nature and God: The sun represents divine illumination and life energy. Swamiji often speaks about how Nature is a manifestation of the Divine, and through gratitude, we grow spiritually.
In the Bhagavad Gita (7.20–23),
🕉️ Bhagavad Gita – Chapter 7 Insights
BG 7.20
Those whose understanding is clouded by material desires worship various devatās.
Read the Verse →BG 7.21
The Lord strengthens the faith of those who worship any devatā with devotion.
Read the Verse →BG 7.22
The devotee receives the desired benefits, but ultimately, they are granted only by the Supreme Lord.
Read the Verse →Shree Krishna says that those whose intelligence is stolen by desires worship various devatas (demigods), but their faith is granted by Him alone, and the fruits they receive are temporary. Swamiji explains this in the same spirit: that our ultimate devotion should be to God — the Supreme, the source of all devatas — not to the devatas themselves.
Now, when it comes to Chhath Puja, the key is in the bhāv (intention) behind the worship:
- If one sees Surya Dev as an independent power and prays for material results (health, prosperity, offspring, etc.), then it aligns with devata worship, which is discouraged by the Gita, because this worship stops at the external level and doesn’t connect to the source behind the light.
- But if one worships Surya Dev as the divine effulgence and manifest energy of the Supreme Lord — as the visible form of God’s grace that sustains all life — then it becomes worship of God through His manifestation, not of a separate deity.
Swamiji often emphasizes that God is one, but manifests in countless forms and energies. The wise don’t stop at the form — they use it as a medium to reach the Supreme. So, if during Chhath Puja one’s inner feeling is, “O Lord, You who shine as Surya Dev, You sustain all life — I bow to You, the source of all light and wisdom,” — then it is spiritual worship aligned with Gita’s teachings.”
Finally, Swami Mukundananda Ji teaches that true worship is done with the heart. Even if your voice is not sweet or your offerings are simple, God sees your love within your heart.
🌿 Eco-Friendly and Satvik Aspects of Chhath Puja
Chhath Puja is inherently eco-friendly. It promotes:
- Use of biodegradable offerings (fruits, bamboo trays).
- Clean water bodies, as devotees collectively clean rivers/lakes before performing rituals.
- Community discipline and unity.
Swamiji often speaks on living in harmony with nature and practicing sattvik living—a life of purity, compassion, and simplicity—which is at the heart of Chhath.
📌 Key Takeaways
| Takeaway | |
|---|---|
|
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Read More →❓ FAQs on Chhath Puja 2025
Q1: Can I perform Chhath Puja if I live outside India, like in the US?
Yes. Chhath can be performed anywhere. You can offer Arghya in a clean water body, pool, or even a symbolic tub at home. It’s your devotion that counts.
Q2: Is it mandatory to follow all fasting rules strictly?
The original tradition calls for strict fasting, but if someone has health conditions, they can modify it with bhakti and sincerity, as Swamiji teaches. Don’t harm your body—God understands your limitations.
Q3: What should be included in the soop for Arghya?
Include thekua, fruits (banana, sugarcane, coconut), sweets, rice laddus, turmeric, and rice grains. All should be prepared with purity and love.
Q4: Can men also perform Chhath Puja?
Absolutely. Chhath Puja is for all genders. Many men observe the fast and perform the rituals with equal devotion.
Q5: What is the spiritual benefit of Chhath Puja?
Chhath Puja purifies the mind and body, enhances willpower, and strengthens devotional resolve. It teaches detachment, humility, and gratitude—key tenets of Swami Mukundananda’s path of Bhakti Yog.
🙏 Final Words
Chhath Puja is more than just a festival. It's a soul-cleansing spiritual retreat—an opportunity to reflect on life, reconnect with nature, and surrender completely to the divine with love and faith.
While the rituals are powerful, always remember: as Swami Mukundananda teaches, “It is not how you perform the ritual, but how deeply you feel the love for God within your heart.”
May this Chhath Puja bring you light, strength, clarity, and devotional elevation.
Jai Surya Dev! Jai Chhathi Maiya! 🌞🌊