Rushi Panchami
What it is
Rushi Panchami falls on Bhadrapad Sud 5, the day after Ganesh Chaturthi, and is dedicated to the Saptarishi, the seven sages revered across the Hindu tradition as the source of much of its scriptural and spiritual knowledge. Traditionally it is kept as a day of purification: a bath taken with particular care, a simple, often single meal, and a conscious clearing of the small errors of daily life, particularly around ritual observance, that may have gone uncorrected through the year.
It sits close to Ganesh Chaturthi and Nag Pancham in the calendar, part of a short run of Bhadrapad observances that lead on toward Radhashtami later in the same month.
Why we observe it
The Saptarishi are, in a real sense, the reason any scripture reaches a Vaishnav at all: tradition, transmission and remembrance across generations is the rishis' particular gift, the same gift Pushtimarg itself depends on to carry Shri Mahaprabhuji's own teaching forward unbroken. A day of gratitude toward the sages fits naturally beside days honouring Prabhu Himself.
For a Vaishnav, the day's traditional emphasis on quietly correcting small lapses is a useful, humbling practice on its own terms: not a grand vrat, but an honest, unglamorous tidying of one's own conduct, done in the same spirit of care that seva itself asks for every day.