Puja Vidhi

A formal declaration of intent — stating the time, place, one's name/lineage (gotra), and the specific purpose of the puja. Anchors the ritual as a deliberate act, not a rote one.

Brief meditation on the deity's form before invocation, to focus the mind.

Invocation — inviting the deity's presence into the murti, image, or a symbolic object such as a kalasha.

Offering a seat to the now-invoked deity, a gesture of hospitality.

Offering water for washing the feet and hands, and for sipping — preliminary gestures of respect found in fuller versions of the sequence.

Ritual bathing of the deity's image, often with water, milk, honey, and yogurt — an act of purification and reverence.

Offering cloth or clothing to the now-bathed deity.

Applying sandalwood paste or other fragrant substances — one of the five core sensory offerings (Pancha Upachara).

Offering flowers, often while chanting the deity's names.

Offering lit incense.

Offering a lit lamp.

Offering food, later distributed as prasad.

Waving a lit lamp before the deity in circular motions while singing devotional hymns — a culminating act of adoration.

Circumambulating the deity or shrine clockwise (keeping the deity to one's right), typically after the main worship.

Formally taking leave of the invoked deity — most visibly seen in festival contexts like Ganesh Visarjan.