The barefoot ascetic who won Shiva through fierce penance; the second night turns worship inward to devotion and resolve.
Monday, 12 October 2026·Ashwin Shukla Dwitiya (Navratri Day 2)·Mumbai, Maharashtra
Main daily worship of Brahmacharini - abhishekam, offering the bhog and mantra japa.
Daily worship, mantra japa and other auspicious Navratri observances.
The second day of Sharad Navratri is dedicated to Brahmacharini, the ascetic form of the Goddess who undertook fierce penance to win Lord Shiva as her husband. Her worship deepens the sadhana begun on the first day, drawing the devotee toward restraint, discipline and single-minded devotion. This is a day to cultivate inner resolve and to honour the power of tapas - austere spiritual practice - as the path to the divine.
Brahmacharini teaches that the divine is won not by force but by disciplined, patient devotion. Her worship strengthens self-control and steadies the mind for the deeper practice of the coming nights. She reminds the seeker that true attainment flows from perseverance, austerity and an unshaken inner resolve.
To honour the Goddess's supreme penance and to seek her blessing of devotion, restraint and the resolve to persist on the spiritual path.
Brahmacharini, whose name means one who practises devout austerity, is Parvati in her form as the unmarried ascetic who resolved to win Shiva. For countless years she performed the severest penance - subsisting first on fruit and leaves, then on fallen bilva leaves, and finally on nothing at all, earning the name Aparna. She is depicted walking barefoot in plain white, holding a rosary (japa mala) in her right hand and a water-pot (kamandalu) in her left, her face serene and luminous with the glow of her tapas. Unlike the other forms she rides no mount, for her penance is undertaken on foot. She embodies devotion, restraint and unwavering resolve.
The second of the nine Navadurga - the devout ascetic form of Parvati who won Shiva through fierce penance. She walks barefoot holding a rosary and a water-pot, and embodies devotion, restraint and resolve.
Sugar is offered as her bhog and shared as prasad; giving sugar in charity on this day is believed to bless the family with long life.
'ॐ देवी ब्रह्मचारिण्यै नमः'. Chant it in daily japa, ideally 108 times on a rosary, focusing on her spirit of penance and devotion.
The Durga Puja Abhijit Muhurat - the self-victorious midday window - shown above for your location. The day's auspicious Choghadiya blocks serve for japa and worship at other times.