Shiva · Day fast; puja 20 min morning & evening
Shravan Somvar vrat
Mondays of Shravan — see calendar entry for this year's Mondays
In the simplest words
The monsoon Mondays for Shiva, kept simply: light fast, a little abhishek, bel leaves, and his name through the day.
The gentlest beloved vrat of the year: Shiva's day in Shiva's month. One fast, two short pujas, water and bel on the linga — kept by grandmothers and first-timers alike, and the classic opening of a solah-somvar vow.
By popular tradition Sawan is the month the ocean was churned and Shiva drank the poison; its Mondays are kept in gratitude for that swallowing. Rain on the roof, bel leaves on the linga, a fast kept simply — the vrat asks little, which is exactly its teaching: Shiva is the god most easily pleased, Bholenath, and steadiness pleases him most of all.
Samagri — what you need
0/4 gatheredThe vidhi, step by step
0/5 doneMorning snan & sankalpa
Bathe, wear clean (many prefer white or green) clothes, and take the day's vow before the linga.
Jalabhishek
Pour water, then milk, then water again over the linga in a thin stream; lay bel leaves smooth side down, with dhatura or white flowers if you have them.
ॐ नमः शिवाय
Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya
I bow to Shiva — the auspicious one. Shiva names what is ever-kind and ever-pure: not a being who possesses stillness but stillness itself, the ground under every wave of experience. The five syllables na-mah-shi-vā-ya are held to answer the five elements, so the whole person — earth to ether — is folded into one bow. Nothing is asked for; this is the rare prayer whose entire content is surrender.
Source: Taittirīya Saṁhitā 4.5.8 — Śrī Rudram, anuvāka 8 ('namaḥ śivāya ca śivatarāya ca'), Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda
Through the day
Phalahar fast; where possible, visit a shivalaya. The mind kept on the name in spare minutes.
Evening puja & katha
Diya and dhoop; the Somvar vrat katha read aloud; a closing short jaap.
ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम् । उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय मामृतात् ॥
Oṁ tryambakaṁ yajāmahe sugandhiṁ puṣṭi-vardhanam, urvārukam iva bandhanān mṛtyor mukṣīya māmṛtāt
We worship the three-eyed one, fragrant, nourisher of all. As the ripe cucumber is released from its vine, may I be freed from death — not from immortality. The image carries the whole teaching: the fruit does not tear itself from the vine; it ripens until release is effortless. So the prayer is not to escape dying but to be so fully ripened that death loses its grip — while the bond with the deathless is never cut.
Source: Ṛgveda 7.59.12
Parana
Break the fast after evening puja — one satvik meal, shared if you can.
Note: North and Deccan reckon Shravan a fortnight apart (purnimanta vs amanta) — your region's Mondays are in the calendar entry. The solah-somvar vow simply continues this vidhi for sixteen Mondays.
Note: Fast within your health — a single light meal with the same bhava is a full vrat.