Bengali Brahmins General Puja Rules

In this post I will talk about general puja rules as per Bengali NItya Karma Paddhati texts.

পূজার সাধারণ পদ্ধতি / General Puja Rules
The following steps need to be undertaken at the beginning / পূজা করিতে হইলে প্রথমে:

• Achaman / আচমন
• Vishnu Smaran / বিষ্ণুশ্মরণ
• Gandhadi Archana / গ্নধাদি অর্চ্চনা
• Narayanadi Archana / নারায়নাদি অর্চ্চনা
• Shasti Vachana / শ্বস্তিবাচন
• Samkalpa / সঙ্কল্প
• Jala Shuddhi / জলশুদ্ধি
• Asana Shuddhi /  আসন শুদ্ধি
• Guru Pranam
• Kara shuddhi
• Pushpa shuddhi
• Bhutapasharan
• Pranayam and Manasa Puja
• Ganesh and other Pancha Devatas
• Navagraha
• Dasa dikpala
• Sarva deva devi Puja

The above order may vary slightly from family to family. After all this can the main Puja starts.

Additional Notes on General Puja Rules

Before starting any Puja, the following must be performed once. I am giving the short version which takes 5 minutes.

• Achamana and Vishnu Pranam
• Surya Pranam or Surya Arghya Dan
• Svasti Mantra (for Bharadvaja Gotra it would generally be Yajur vedi svasti vachana etc)
• Samanya Arghya Sthapana
• Jala shuddhi
• Asana shuddhi
• Pushpa shuddhi

After that Puja of each God starts. For each God:

• Close your eyes and recite Dhyana Mantra first
• Then offer Panchopachara Puja
• Then do Japa (3 or 10 times)
• Then recite pranam mantra

This will take 10 minutes total.

Total Puja time is therefore: 15 minutes (maximum) Longer Puja takes upto 45 minutes, but that is not possible daily.

For simple daily Puja (Panchopachara) ingredients are:
gandha (chandan), pushpa (flower), dhup, dip (lamp), naivedya

If ingredients are not available you may use only water.

Other Details for Daily Puja

Ideally one should perform 4 steps:
1. Pre-puja steps - Achamana, (school specific) svasti vachana etc
2. (A relatively short but compulsory) Panchadevata Puja - Ganesh, Surya, Durga, Shiva and Vishnu
3. (Longer main Puja) Kuladevi Puja - in your case Lakshmi Puja
4. Closing or visarjana activities

For details of individual steps like achamana, the various shuddhis, please refer to any standard (Bengali) nitya karma paddhati book, like:

• Bishuddha Nitya Karama Paddhati (Smritirtha)
• Brihat Bisshudha Nitya Krama Paddhati (hardcover edition)

If you prefer greater details, you may refer to the following (hardbound) Bengali books (available in College Street, Kolkata):

• Purohit Darapan
• Brihat Purohit Darpan
• Purohit Sarbaswa (out of print) - available online in DLID
• Hindu Sarbaswa (out of print) - available online in DLID

If you prefer to understand the steps in greatest of details, including every minor achara, you have to refer to original Sanskrit texts (in order or applicability to Bengali Puja):

• Brihat Tantra Sara - truly a detailed text (by Krishnananda Agamvagisha)
• Sharada Tilaka Tantra (based on prapanchasara)
• Prapanchasra Tantra (the oldest mantra shatrsa text, probably written during the time/ or after Adi Shankaracharya and by someone of his lineage)

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Subhodeep Mukhopadhyay | Mkerj | Hoorayforlife | The Tiny Man | The Advaitist