22/10/2021
🪔How to do aippasi masam Velli Pooja at Home🏡
According to the Tamil Hindu tradition, each day of a week is dedicated to a particular deity. Tuesdays and Fridays are dedicated to Goddess Parvati, popularly called ‘Amman’. Most people visit the temples on Friday even if not on any other day. Women regularly do a pooja on Friday at their homes.
Before commencing the pooja, clean yourself and the surroundings.
Take a hair bath and sweep and mop the house on that day or the day before. Non vegetarian should not be cooked. Make sure your entrance has a kolam.
❤️REQUIRED❤️
🌹Kumkum
🌹Turmeric paste
🌹Flowers
🌹Kolam powder/Chalk piece
🌹Sandal paste
🌹Fruits (any)
🌹Incense sticks (optional)
🌹Oil (gingely oil preferred also known as sesame oil)/Ghee
🌹Cotton wicks
🌹Matchstick
🌹Camphor
🌹Pooja utensils
🪔PREPARE THE POOJA AREA🪔
1⃣Clear the pooja area.
The old flowers can be put in your garden or under any plant if you do not want to throw them in the trash.
2⃣Wash the pooja utensils.
Put turmeric paste and kumkum on them. Wash the idols with water and put sandal pastes and kumkum dots on them.
3⃣ Decorate the photos and idols of the deities with flowers.
4⃣Usually kadhambam(a mixture of flowers and tulsi), samandhi(chrysantheum) or jasmine is used but any flower can be used
For the Kamatchi lamp(main lamp), try to use jasmine.
5⃣The photos of God need not be cleaned every Friday.
6⃣When you get time, clean it and put sandal paste and kumkum on it.
🙏PREPARE THE 'NADUVEEDU'🙏
🔴This is a ‘nadu veedu’.
🟠It personalizes the God and we give the offerings to it.
🟡It is usually drawn on the wall but you can also use a substitute of wood or stone.
🟢 It is coated with turmeric paste initially and the strokes are drawn with kumkum powder.
🔵Sometimes, namakatti is also used.
Based on whether you are a Saiva or Vaishnava, the pattern changes.
🟣 It also changes with caste and sub-caste.
I myself drew a different pattern back at my mom’s place.
🟤Women should follow the rituals and traditions of the husband’s side after marriage no matter how different she had been doing before that.
⚫For any kind of pooja at home(Friday pooja, Krithigai pooja or festival pooja), this should be cleaned with water and fresh pattern should be drawn.
🔯PLACING THE ITEMS🔯
🟥Put a kolam in front of the naduveedu.
Place the pooja utensils on the kolam as per your wish.
🟧Place a clean fruit (usually two bananas) before the pooja items.
🟨Betel and nut (Vethala paaku) can also be used with the fruit.
🟩 This is an offering to the deity.
Light the incense sticks and keep aside.
Keep flowers on the entrance on top of your main door.
🟦 Put oil or ghee into the lamps and then the cotton wicks.
🟪The procedure is to always put the oil first followed by cotton wicks and not the other way around.
🕉️WHEN TO DO THE POOJA🕉️
▶️On any day, there are time intervals that are good (nalla neram), bad (rahukalam and emagandam) and neutral.
⏩When this time interval starts and ends depends on which day of the week it is.
⏭️ For example, on Fridays good time falls between 9.15 am and 10.15 am and also between 4.45 pm and 5.45 pm.
⏯️Rahukalam on a Friday is from 10.30 am to 12 noon and Emagandam is from 3.00 pm to 4.30 pm.
▶️This remains the same for all Fridays irrelevant of the month or year.
⏩Any new ventures you start or do, it is auspicious to do it at the good time of that day and it is better to avoid the bad times. ⏭️Any pooja should be done at the good time if possible or at the neutral time.
⏯️You should avoid the bad time.
🔱So a Friday pooja can be done before 10.30 am or after 12 noon.
🔱If you are doing the pooja at evening, do it after 4.30 pm.
⏺️This timing can be known from your daily calendar sheet.
🌞STARTING THE POOJA🌞
✅Close the bathroom doors.
✅Close the back door of your house if you have one.
✅Open the front door of your house.
✅ We do this because we believe the Gods enter our house through the front door and if we do not close the back door, they will go away through it.
✅ If we are doing the pooja at evening, switch on the lights at the entrance and other rooms.
✅Now light the Kamatchi lamp, the side lamps.
✅An additional lamp is also lit which is kept near the entrance of the house facing east. This step is optional.
✅Now light the dheebakal and start the pooja.
✅You can use camphor ball.
✅Nowadays, people use ghee and cotton wick to avoid smoke from camphor.
✅Show aaradhana to Lord Ganesh first as it is a tradition to always worship Him first before you do anything.
✅Go out and show aaradhana towards Sun, symbolizing the Sun God.
✅Then show aaradhana to the main door of your house, start from there and show aaradhana to all the idols and God photos while constantly ringing the bell.
🔴 The bell should not be stopped until you finish the pooja.
✅Take care the light is not put out by wind.
If it is, light it again without stopping the bell. If you are using camphor ball, take care to keep it burning by adding extra ball till you finish the pooja.
✡️MANTRAS✡️
Mantras are not a necessity when doing the pooja at home.
However, we can chant mantras we know and recite songs while doing the pooja.
A very common mantra for Lord Ganesh is:⏬
🟥"Vakra thunda maha kaaya
soorya kodi samapraba
avignam guru me dheva
sarvakaaryashu sarvadha🟥
Another one is:⏬
🟥" Suklam baratharam vishnum sasivarnam sadhurpujam
prasanna vadhanam dhyayedh sarva vignopa saanthaye"🟥
There is another common mantra:⏬
🟥"Om poor puvassuva
dhathsa vithurvarenyam
pargod hevasya dheemahi
dhiyo yo nagaprachodhayadh"🟥
☸️FINISHING THE POOJA☸️
➡️Once the pooja is over, put down the bell, take a few drops of water from the panjapaathiram and pour it on the ground. ➡️Then you can kneel down and worship the deities.
➡️Married women apply kumkum to their mangalsutra at the end praying for the well-being of their husbands.
➡️After sometime, bring in the lamp that was near the entrance of the house.
➡️ Extinguish all the lights. Extinguish the lights with flowers or pull in the wicks.
Do not blow and put out the lights
📝NOTES📝
Pooja that is done at home can be flexible. It is best to follow what your family has already been doing.
