Once Lakshmi Maa came down to walk upon the earth. As she went on her way, a wish rose in her heart: she longed to offer puja to Vishnu ji and to Shiv ji together, at one time and in one place. But how could puja be offered to the two together, when each is pleased by a different offering? Vishnu ji loves the tulsi, and Shiv ji loves the leaf of the bel.
Lakshmi Maa thought on it, and then it came to her that the virtues of the tulsi and of the bel are found together in one tree, the amla. So she took the amla tree as the form of both Vishnu ji and Shiv ji, and offered her puja to it with all her heart.
Pleased with her puja, Vishnu ji and Shiv ji both appeared before her. Lakshmi Maa cooked a meal beneath the amla tree and served it to Vishnu ji and to Shiv ji. Then she herself took the same food as prasad. The day this happened was the Navami of the bright half of Kartik, and from that day the custom has come down: on this Navami the amla tree is given its puja, and food is cooked and eaten in its shade.
The day is called Akshaya Navami, the Navami that does not wane, because whatever puja, japa and daan is done on it is said never to diminish, and its good follows a person into the lives to come. The books count it as the day the Satya Yuga began, as Akshaya Tritiya is the day the Treta began.
The amla is dear to Vishnu ji, and it is said that from this Navami until the Purnima of Kartik, Vishnu ji makes His dwelling in the amla tree. That is why, on this day, the family goes to the tree itself, pours water and milk at its root, winds a thread round its trunk, walks round it, and sits in its shade.
The same Navami is also called Kushmanda Navami. It is told that on this day Vishnu ji slew the asura Kushmandak, and from him the kushmanda, the pumpkin vine, sprang. So on this day a ripe pumpkin is given in daan, with a coin set inside it.
In Odisha the day is called Anla Navami, and there, on this one day of the year, Radha Rani's feet are uncovered for darshan at the temple of Sakhigopal, near Puri.
So the women of the house do as Lakshmi Maa did. After the morning bath they go to an amla tree and offer it puja, facing east. They cook beneath it, offer the food first to Vishnu ji and Shiv ji, and then the whole family sits together in the tree's shade and eats it as prasad.
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