Ganesha · 45–60 minutes (sthapana); 15 min daily
Ganesh Sthapana & daily puja
Ganesh Chaturthi (14 Sep 2026); any new beginning
In the simplest words
Welcoming a clay Ganesha home like a royal guest — a seat, a bath, flowers, modak — and a small aarti every morning and evening he stays.
For up to ten days Ganesha is the house's guest of honour. The sthapana welcomes him; the daily puja keeps him company; the visarjan sees him home. A small clay murti, honestly worshipped, outweighs the grandest plaster one.
The festival is atithi-dharma made divine: for these days the murti is not an object in the house but a person in the family — welcomed formally, fed on time, never left alone in the dark. That is why the clay matters; a guest who came from the earth can be seen home to the water without a single thing poisoned on the way.
Samagri — what you need
0/8 gatheredThe vidhi, step by step
0/9 doneSthal & chowki
Clean the spot (east/north-east preferred), lay the cloth on the chowki, draw a small rangoli or place akshat where the murti will sit; set the kalash beside it — water inside, mango leaves in its mouth, the coconut on top.
Achaman & sankalp
Three sips of water; then sankalp — name, day, and the prayer of these ten days, in your own words.
Avahan — welcoming Ganesha
Place the murti with both hands. With folded palms invite him: the home form of pran pratishtha is a wholehearted avahan — 'come, be established here, accept our worship these days.'
वक्रतुण्ड महाकाय सूर्यकोटिसमप्रभ । निर्विघ्नं कुरु मे देव सर्वकार्येषु सर्वदा ॥
Vakratuṇḍa mahākāya sūryakoṭi-samaprabha, nirvighnaṁ kuru me deva sarva-kāryeṣu sarvadā
O curved-trunked, mighty-bodied one, radiant as ten million suns — make all my works free of obstacles, always. The verse asks for nirvighna: not that the work be done for us, but that the path be clear enough for our own effort to count. 'Always, in all works' makes it the one prayer wide enough to cover everything a life will attempt.
Source: Traditional Gaṇeśa dhyāna-śloka, recited at the start of most Gaṇeśa pūjās; no single scriptural source is established.
Shodashopachara (the sixteen honours)
Offer in order, unhurried: asana, padya (feet-water), arghya, snan (a soft wipe for clay), vastra/janeu, chandan, sindoor, akshat, flowers & durva (in 21s), dhoop, deep, naivedya, tambul, dakshina, and pranam — sixteen ways of saying 'you are our guest.'
Modak naivedya
Offer the 21 modaks with water — his dearest bhog.
Gam jaap
A seated mala of the Ganesha mantra to complete the sthapana.
ॐ गं गणपतये नमः
Oṁ Gaṁ Gaṇapataye Namaḥ
Om — Gam — salutations to Ganapati, lord of the ganas. The ganas are the hosts that attend Shiva; devotional commentators widen the word to every ordered set of forces in the world — and Ganapati is the intelligence that marshals them. The mantra is a request in miniature: let what stands in the way step aside, and let what scatters come into order.
Source: Gaṇapati Atharvaśīrṣa (Ganapati Upaniṣad)
Aarti
Morning and evening through the festival — the day's two anchors. Sukhkarta Dukhharta is the traditional aarti of Maharashtra.
Daily pattern (days 2–10)
Each day: fresh flowers and durva, naivedya, both aartis, and at least 21 counts of the mantra.
ॐ गं गणपतये नमः
Oṁ Gaṁ Gaṇapataye Namaḥ
Om — Gam — salutations to Ganapati, lord of the ganas. The ganas are the hosts that attend Shiva; devotional commentators widen the word to every ordered set of forces in the world — and Ganapati is the intelligence that marshals them. The mantra is a request in miniature: let what stands in the way step aside, and let what scatters come into order.
Source: Gaṇapati Atharvaśīrṣa (Ganapati Upaniṣad)
Visarjan
On the chosen day, a final full puja, then the farewell. A clay murti can be given its visarjan in a bucket at home, the water then poured to plants — clay and a bucket ask nothing of the river. Ganpati Bappa Morya!
Note: Full pran pratishtha with vedic nyasa is traditionally done by a purohit; the home avahan above is the honest household form.
Note: Tulsi is not offered to Ganesha; durva is offered in odd bunches.