Satyanarayan Puja Vidhi · सत्यनारायण पूजा विधि

When

The Satyanarayan Vrat Katha says the puja may be done on any day, in the evening; the merchant in the story keeps it on full moons and sankrantis. Purnima is the most common day today, and families also do it on occasions such as a housewarming or a marriage, or when a wish is fulfilled. It can also be done in the morning.

Samagri to gather

• A picture or murti of Satyanarayan (Vishnu)
• A chowki and a clean cloth, usually yellow, to cover it
• A kalash with water, a coin and supari, with mango leaves, a coconut and kalava (sacred thread)
• Akshat (unbroken rice)
• Tulsi leaves, which are essential in the worship of Vishnu
• Panchamrit (milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar)
• Haldi, kumkum, chandan, flowers and garlands, incense and camphor
• A diya with ghee
• The katha book
• The ingredients for the prasad

The prasad

The katha names the offering: ripe bananas, ghee, milk and wheat flour, a measure and a quarter in all (when these are not at hand, rice flour, and sugar or jaggery). Many families make it as a sheera of semolina or wheat flour roasted in ghee, with milk, sugar and banana.

Before the puja

• Many keep a fast until the puja is over.
• Bathe and put on clean clothes.
• Clean the place of worship, set up the chowki with its cloth, and place the picture or murti on it with the kalash.

The puja

• Prepare the kalash: fill it with water, put in the coin and supari, set the mango leaves and the coconut on its mouth, and tie the kalava around its neck.
• Worship Ganesha first.
• Take the sankalp: holding water and a flower in your right hand, state your name, the occasion and your intention.
• Worship the kalash; many families also worship the navagraha (nine planets).
• Invite Satyanarayan and worship him: bathe the murti with panchamrit, and offer chandan, flowers, tulsi, incense, the lamp and the prasad. In its full form this is the sixteen-step shodashopachara puja.
• Read or hear all five chapters of the katha, with everyone present listening.
• Do the aarti with camphor: Satyanarayan Aarti.

After the puja

• Share the prasad with everyone present; in the katha, refusing or leaving the prasad brings misfortune, so no one should refuse it.
• Give dakshina to the priest and, as the katha says, feed brahmins, together with your relatives.

The Satyanarayan Puja worships Vishnu as Satyanarayan, the Lord who is Truth, and its heart is the reading of the Satyanarayan Vrat Katha. The katha itself describes the rite: worship in the evening with relatives and brahmins, the offering of a measure and a quarter of banana, ghee, milk and wheat flour, hearing the story, dakshina, and sharing the prasad.

This page gives the home puja as the published guides listed below describe it, keeping only steps found in at least two of them. A priest-led puja adds Sanskrit mantras for each step; we have not included mantras that we have not compared across editions. Follow your family's way where it differs.