Pūjā, Step by Step

Home worship explained. At its heart pūjā is simple hospitality: a beloved guest arrives, and you welcome them with water, flowers, light and food.

Every Hindu home that has a lamp has a pūjā of some kind. It may be a grandmother’s hour of chanting or a student’s ten seconds before an exam. This page explains home worship: what the offerings mean, the classical list of sixteen, a five-offering pūjā a beginner can do today, and answers to the questions people are often shy to ask. For the great temple rituals — consecration, the daily Āgamic cycle and kumbhābhiṣekam — see Agamas & Tantras.

God as a guest

Pūjā means “honour” or “worship.” Its grammar is the grammar of hospitality. In the Indian home a guest is met at the door, given a seat, water to wash the feet and hands, water to drink, perhaps a bath and fresh clothes, fragrance and flowers, food, betel leaf to close the meal — and is seen off with respect. Pūjā offers the same courtesies to God. Each courtesy is an upacāra, an “attendance” or service.

The Taittirīya Upaniṣad, in its parting advice to a graduating student, turns the idea the other way round:

मातृदेवो भव । पितृदेवो भव । आचार्यदेवो भव । अतिथिदेवो भव ॥ mātṛ-devo bhava, pitṛ-devo bhava, ācārya-devo bhava, atithi-devo bhava Treat your mother as a god. Treat your father as a god. Treat your teacher as a god. Treat your guest as a god. Taittirīya Upaniṣad 1.11.2

If the guest is to be treated as God, God may be welcomed as a guest. Behind this lies a theology explored on One and Many: the infinite is believed to make itself available in a form — an image, a picture, a lamp — so that finite people can love and serve it. Worshipping in front of an image so that one may see and be seen by the deity is called darśan.

The sixteen offerings

The full home pūjā is the ṣoḍaśopacāra, the “sixteen services.” Lists vary between Purāṇas, Āgamas, ritual manuals and family traditions — in order, in names, and even in number; Śrī Vidyā worship speaks of sixty-four. Here is one common list. Tap each tile:

Community practice In many Smārta homes the sixteen verses of the Vedic Puruṣa Sūkta are recited one by one, a verse for each service. Other families use the deity’s own names, a Tamil hymn, or simply silence. Many longer pūjās close with a farewell (visarjana) or a prayer that the deity remain.

A five-offering pūjā

For everyday worship, the sixteen are usually condensed to five — the pañcopacāra: fragrance, flowers, incense, lamp and food. Hold the item, say the deity’s name with namaḥ (“I bow”), and offer. The phrases below are standard Sanskrit forms used in many manuals; your family’s may differ.

  1. Gandha · fragranceTouch a dot of sandal paste or kumkum to the image. gandhaṃ samarpayāmi — “I offer fragrance.”
  2. Puṣpa · flowersOffer a flower or a few petals at the feet. puṣpaiḥ pūjayāmi — “I worship with flowers.”
  3. Dhūpa · incenseWave a lit incense stick slowly before the image. dhūpam āghrāpayāmi — “I offer incense to smell.”
  4. Dīpa · lampShow the lamp. dīpaṃ darśayāmi — “I show the light.”
  5. Naivedya · foodOffer fruit, sugar, milk or cooked food, sprinkling a little water around it. naivedyaṃ nivedayāmi — “I offer food.”

Tantric reading Some Tantric manuals link the five offerings to the five elements — fragrance to earth, flowers to space, incense to air, the lamp to fire and food to the nectar of water — so that the worshipper offers the whole world in miniature.

Beginning well

Gaṇeśa first

Almost every pūjā, whatever its deity, begins by remembering Gaṇeśa, the one worshipped first, so that the rite may go ahead without obstacle. A short verse, a flower, or simply “Om Gaṇeśāya namaḥ” is enough. His invocation verses are on the Ganesha page.

Saṅkalpa: stating the intention

A formal pūjā includes a saṅkalpa, a declaration of who is worshipping, where, when and why. A priest’s saṅkalpa places the worshipper in cosmic time, from the age of the universe down to today’s lunar day — see Time & Cosmology. At home, a simple sentence will do: “Today I offer this pūjā to Murugan for the well-being of my family.” Many hold a little water or rice in the right palm while saying it, then let it fall.

Ārati and prasāda

Ārati (Sanskrit ārātrika, also nīrājana) is the waving of light before the deity — a ghee lamp or a flame of camphor on a small plate, moved in slow clockwise circles while a bell rings and a hymn is sung. In Tamil homes and temples, camphor (karpūram) is usual. Popular tradition Because camphor burns away leaving no residue, it is often explained as an image of the ego consumed without trace.

After ārati, the flame is brought to the people. Community practice Each person passes the palms over it and touches them to the eyes, drawing the light inward. Then naivedya, the food offered, is shared as prasāda, “grace.” It is received with the right hand or both hands, eaten rather than wasted, and offered first to elders and guests.

After the pūjā

Flowers and leaves that have been offered, the nirmālya, are treated with respect, not thrown in the rubbish. Community practice Common options are to place them at the foot of a tree or in a garden, compost them, or give them to a temple that collects them. Immersing offerings in rivers and the sea was the old custom; today many priests and environmental groups urge against putting anything into waterways but flowers alone — and nothing plastic. Lamp wicks and ash can go into soil.

Mental pūjā

When there are no flowers, no lamp and no image — in hospital, on a journey, in a crowded room — the whole pūjā can be performed in the mind. This is mānasa pūjā, “mental worship,” and many teachers rank it above outward worship, since nothing stands between the heart and its offering. Imagine each service in detail: the seat you offer, the water, the flowers, the lamp. A famous hymn attributed to Shankara goes further still, and turns the whole of life into pūjā:

आत्मा त्वं गिरिजा मतिः सहचराः प्राणाः शरीरं गृहं
पूजा ते विषयोपभोगरचना निद्रा समाधिस्थितिः ।
सञ्चारः पदयोः प्रदक्षिणविधिः स्तोत्राणि सर्वा गिरो
यद्यत्कर्म करोमि तत्तदखिलं शम्भो तवाराधनम् ॥ ātmā tvaṃ girijā matiḥ sahacarāḥ prāṇāḥ śarīraṃ gṛhaṃ
pūjā te viṣayopabhoga-racanā nidrā samādhi-sthitiḥ,
sañcāraḥ padayoḥ pradakṣiṇa-vidhiḥ stotrāṇi sarvā giro
yad yat karma karomi tat tad akhilaṃ śambho tavārādhanam You are my Self; Pārvatī is my mind; my breaths are your attendants; my body is your temple. My enjoyment of the senses is your pūjā; my sleep is the stillness of samādhi. My walking is circling you; every word I speak is your hymn. Whatever I do, all of it, O Śambhu, is worship of you. Śiva-mānasa-pūjā, verse 4 (attributed to Śaṅkara)
Try this

A five-minute pañcopacāra pūjā.

  1. Wash your hands and face. Sit before your image or picture. Light the lamp.
  2. Remember Gaṇeśa: fold your hands and say “Om Gaṇeśāya namaḥ.”
  3. Say your intention in one sentence, in any language.
  4. Offer the five, one by one: a dot of sandal or kumkum, a flower, incense, the lamp, and a piece of fruit — naming the deity each time.
  5. Wave the lamp or camphor three times in slow clockwise circles. Pass your palms over the flame and touch your eyes.
  6. Bow. Sit for a moment in silence. Eat the fruit as prasāda, and share it if you can.

No items at all? Do the same five steps in your mind.

Check your understanding:

Quick check

The five offerings of the pañcopacāra are…

Gandha, puṣpa, dhūpa, dīpa and naivedya.

Pūjā is modelled on…

Each upacāra is a courtesy offered to a guest — seat, water, food, light.

What is mānasa pūjā?

Every offering is imagined; many teachers value it above outward worship.

Questions people often ask

Can I do pūjā without a priest?

Yes. Home worship has always been done by householders themselves — very often by the women of the house. Priests are needed for temple worship and for certain rites, such as consecrations and some saṃskāras, depending on family custom.

What if I make a mistake?

The tradition expected mistakes, and built in an apology. Many pūjās end with a prayer of pardon, such as this one (wording varies slightly between families):

आवाहनं न जानामि न जानामि विसर्जनम् ।
पूजां चैव न जानामि क्षमस्व परमेश्वर ॥ āvāhanaṃ na jānāmi na jānāmi visarjanam,
pūjāṃ caiva na jānāmi kṣamasva parameśvara I do not know how to invite you, nor how to bid you farewell; I do not even know how to worship. Forgive me, Supreme Lord. Traditional prayer of pardon (kṣamā-prārthanā); widely recited, source not fixed

Sincerity, the Gītā says, is what is accepted — see its “leaf, flower, fruit, water” on The Bhagavad Gita.

Can I do pūjā while travelling?

Yes. A small picture, a photo on your phone, or no image at all with mānasa pūjā. Many travellers carry a tiny shrine box; in a hotel, an electric candle avoids setting off smoke alarms.

Are there times when people do not do pūjā?

Many families pause home worship during a period of ritual impurity (āśauca) after a birth or death in the family. Many also observe a custom that women do not perform pūjā or enter temples during menstruation; its traditional rationale is ritual impurity, and some explain it as rest. Others, including many modern teachers and families, no longer keep it. The question became national news in India with the Supreme Court’s 2018 Sabarimala ruling, discussed on Pilgrimage. Follow your conscience and, where it concerns a temple, the temple’s rules.

॥ Pause and reflect

  1. How does it change pūjā to think of the deity as a guest in your home?
  2. Which of the sixteen services do you already do, perhaps without knowing its name?
  3. What in your ordinary day could become an offering, as in the Śiva-mānasa-pūjā?

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Key terms on this page

Sources & further reading