Puja - a ritual Cleansing for a good Start

It's Monday morning, 9:30 a.m. on January 16th. Now is the right time for Griha Pravesh Puja, a ritual ceremony to thank the elements for the home which had to make way for it. The house is cleansed of negative energies and the ritual is said to bring joy and prosperity.

The priest comes to our apartment together with a companion. They quickly find the right place for the prayer and prepare everything. Martin then is dressed in the traditional way. The puja begins.
 
We both get a dot on our foreheads. Then the priest says the first prayers and explains what we have to do. He accompanies some of his prayers with the loud ringing of bells.

We start with a ritual hand washing, accompanied by his pleasantly rhythmic prayer. We then take a sip of the water. The priest prays and pays homage to the small Ganesha statue with flowers and rice. The Ganesha statue is also given a dot on the forehead. In between, we stand up and slowly turn clockwise around our own axis. In doing so, we ask for protection.

Every now and then, a little banana from the fruit basket in front of us is included in the ritual. Presumably this is also a sign of sacrifice? Tomorrow I will ask my colleagues for more details.

Even though we certainly don't always get everything right, it feels good. The guide explains to us what we should do and which prayers are said for what reason.

Together we walk to the front door. This is also blessed accordingly and the priest nimbly draws rangoli - patterns made of sand or limestone - in front of the door. We then step over the threshold with our right foot first.

Next, we go into the kitchen. We weren't allowed to use the stove before the ceremony and we weren't allowed to have any meat or fish in the house at the time of the ceremony. Not so difficult for me as a vegetarian 😉. We put a pot of milk on the stove. It has to boil until it overflows. While we watch the milk, the priest continues to pray in front of the image of Ganesha.

Ganesha is the god and lord of obstacles - he can place and remove them. He is one of the key gods people pray to. We hope that he only sets obstacles that we can deal with and helps to remove the other obstacles.

Just before the milk boils over, we both throw a large handful of sugar into the pot.

After the milk has boiled over, a little prayer is said and cleansing water is prepared. Martin gets small grains, I get an incense stick and the priest takes the prepared holy water. We walk through the apartment together, the priest blesses the rooms with the water, Martin throws the grains and I burn a little incense in each room.
 
Soon after, the ritual is over. We are very happy that we were able to experience it!

The Puja ceremony is dedicated to the Hindu deity Ganesha. If you want to know why it is depicted with a human body but an elephant head, you should read our article Ganesha, the most popular God.