What is Puja? Best Time and Rules to Perform Daily Puja

What is Puja

Puja is a religious practice followed predominantly by Hindus worldwide. Puja is done in honor of deities, to mark festive occasions, honor guests, or remember people who have passed away. Jains and Buddhists also perform puja for similar reasons. Each occasion demands different procedures. The blog throws light into the importance and how to carry out daily puja.

Importance of Puja

Puja is one of the essential procedures of the day. Performing the same helps calm down the mind and prepares you to face the day ahead with on the feet. The act of performing pooja helps attain peace of mind and creates a tranquil atmosphere at home.
Puja is an elaborate procedure involving flowers and offering to God. While performing the pooja, uttering shlokas helps calm down the mind’s chatter. It acts as speech therapy for people with speech disorders. Following a fixed routine will help you build a structured life on principles, which is beneficial in the long run.

Best Time to Perform Puja

Veda’s suggest performing puja 5 times a day.

• Once in the early morning between 4:30 AM to 5:00 AM in the Brahmi muhurtham,
• Followed by puja at 9 AM,
• Mid-day puja at 12:00 PM. After which you have to allow God to rest.
• Perform Sandhya puja again in the evening between 4:30 PM and 6:00 PM.
• Followed by Shayana puja at 9:00 PM to put the God to sleep.

Since the current lifestyle does not allow us to do the same, it is advisable to perform a pooja at least twice a day, once in the morning and then again in the evening, to be blessed by God.

How to Perform Daily Puja / Puja Vidhi

As per the Vedic scriptures, performing the daily pooja in the morning hours benefits the person. The morning’s peaceful hours help keep the focus and develop a calm mind, increasing the person’s aura. The question next in line is, how can one complete the morning puja?

• First, take a bath. Wear clean cotton clothes before you sit for your pooja.
• To achieve focus, with your favorite deity in mind, sit facing east or north to meditate.
• Clean the puja area and light lamps.
• Start with the Ganesa hymn since he is the first God to pray according to mythological texts. Say shlokas that relate to your house deity.
• If performing abhishekam, first clean the deity and then bath the deity with milk, honey, curd, sugar, and coconut water. Clean the idol with normal water after abhishekam.
• You can recite the same while offering flowers. Light the dhoops sticks and spreads the smoke throughout the house. Based on how much time you have, you can continue reading the shlokas.
• Offer naivedyam to God – it can be fruits, milk, or anything you feel like offering to God.
• Perform aarti while reciting related verses.
• If you have performed abhishekam, you can consume the mixture as teertha and wind up your puja.

Puja Samagri list for daily puja

You can keep a stock of the daily puja samagri. You can also order them at Puja N Pujari online shopping portal to get quality materials at reasonable rates. We strongly advise to keep the puja samagri at a different place and not mix them with regular utensils. The list tells you what’s needed.

• Lamp oil
• Cotton wicks for the lamps
• Japa mala, if you perform Japa
• Mat to sit on while performing puja
• Puja utensils set to carry the required ingredients to perform abhishekam
• Flowers and a flower bowl to hold them
• Dhoop sticks and a stand to put them.
• Aarti puja diya or spoons to perform aarti
• Camphor

You can check mandapas also to place God on the online shopping portal.

Things not to do while performing puja

Now that you know what needs to done while performing puja, its time to understand what should not be done.

• Do not light lamps without taking a bath. Purifying yourself with a bath before offering prayers helps you do so with a clean mind and body.
• Sit in comfortable asana so that you can finish your puja without breaks.
• Do not have mobiles and other electronic items that can distract you from surrounding you.
• Just to follow the direction rules, do not perform puja while showing your back to the deities.
• Always offer anything to God in a plate, not in bare hands.
• Never light Diya with another Diya; it’s considered to bring bad luck.
• Do not pluck basil leaves on festival days, Friday, Sunday, 11th, and 12th day i.e., on Ekadashi and Dwadashi of the lunar cycles.
• Have idols below 11 inches in your puja house; preferably, the size should be in odd numbers, say 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, or 11 inches. Standing idols of Ganesha, Lakshmi, and Saraswathi are a strict no.
• Praying to broken idols is strictly prohibited. The only exception to this rule is Shivaling since we consider it not broken in any form.

You can also hire/book a pujari from PujaNPujari for specific days to help you perform the daily pooja until you get the hang of the same. You can reach out to us for any assistance. We strongly urge you to start praying to stay under the divine protection for long and get your desires fulfilled at earliest.