How I do DIWALI PUJA at Home? (Explained Step by Step)

- By Anamika Mishra

Diwali is such a special festival which brings so many wonderful things in our lives. Diwali is uplifting, refreshing and very joyous. This festival is loved and celebrated by people of all ages. We love to meet and greet our loved ones during this wonderful festival of Diwali. One of the most important rituals of Diwali is worshipping Ganesh-Laxmi ji. I am a Brahmin girl and we follow a routine on Diwali. We perform Diwali puja also known as Laxmi puja at home before lighting the diyas and burning crackers. And this is not just for Brahmins or Pandits, but every person who celebrates Diwali follows this routine. And the ritual is very easy. If you are a new person or someone who is going to do the Diwali puja for the first time or someone who is looking for the right way to do Diwali puja at home then this post is for you.

Diwali Puja Decoration Photo at Home — Diwali Puja at Home

Why we do Ganesh-Laxmi Puja on Diwali:

Diwali is not just a festival but also considered as a beginning of a new phase in our lives. It is believed that Maa Laxmi visits every house in Diwali carrying a pot full of wealth, good luck and prosperity. We worship Lord Ganesha with Laxmi ma because Ganesh ji is the God of wisdom and he is known to remove all the obstacles in one’s life while Laxmi Ma is Goddess of wealth. We worship them together on Diwali so that we get wisdom along with wealth and all our life obstacles are removes. And obviously, without wisdom, wealth cannot stay longer with you.

This is the reason why we worship Laxmi-Ganesh on Diwali, in order to invite wealth, prosperity, abundance, good luck and wisdom.

How to do Diwali Puja at Home?

Every Diwali the Muhurat (favourable time) for Diwali puja is different. This year in 2022, Diwali is on 24 October and the Puja Muhurat starts at 6:54 pm to 8:18 pm.

In my family, we begin with taking bath and wearing new clothes before the puja. The puja-ghar or altar is cleaned and decorated on Dhanteras (2 days before) it self. So, we set up the puja things in the room to prepare for puja. After this, we do the following steps:

Spread a new red cloth
Sprinkle some rice on it and touch it to seek blessings
Place a kalash in the middle of it, fill it with ganga jal and some rice.
Cover it with mango leaves
Put a tilak on it
Now on one aasan, place the Ganesh-Laxmi idols
Start the puja by sprinkling ganga jal, making them wear new clothes and garlands, putting tilak and offering them flowers sweets, dry-fruits and fruits.
Then light 9 earthen diyas for 9 planets (this is done to balance and calm all the 9 planets and seek blessings)
This ritual to worship the God and Godness and the kalash is done by everyone in the house

The Diwali puja is also to be done in your office and seek blessings of the almighty. So, because 90% of our work is done by phones and laptops, we also worship it. We put the work-related gadgets in front of the God and Goddess and worship it by making a swastik on it, sprinkling rice and flowers on it. We then keep it for some time in the puja ghar only.

Some people also put their cash chest, cash box, locker keys and account books too. After from this, it is also a good ritual to take a bowl and ask every earning member of the family to put some money into the money bowl which resembles inviting prosperity and wealth to our home.

An aarti is performed and prasaad is distributed to conclude the Diwali puja ritual. We then light the diyas and candles and celebrate it further by burning crackers, eating sweets and meeting and greeting the loved ones.

This is how I do Diwali puja at home. Hope this helped you! Don’t forget to share!