Skip to content
Dharamkira
← Puja Guides
Ganesha in a yellow dhoti and jewelled crown riding his mouse across a green landscape, an axe and a sweet in his hands — a bazaar print of 1910.
Ganesha on his mouse — Bazaar print, 1910, 1910

Ganesha · 30–45 minutes + the walk to water

Ganesh visarjan — the farewell

Anant Chaturdashi (25 Sep 2026; 14 Sep 2027) — or day 1.5/3/5/7 by vow

In the simplest words

Saying goodbye to Ganesha with a smile — final aarti, a handful of his favourite modaks, and walking him to the water: 'come early next year!'

The hardest aarti of the year is the last one. Visarjan is not disposal but seeing-off: the guest who filled the house returns to the element he came from, with food for the road and a promise extracted — pudhchya varshi lavkar ya, come earlier next year.

Perform this puja

5 steps, one at a time, with the lamp, the mantras and the bell — on this screen.

Samagri — what you need

0/3 gathered

The vidhi, step by step

0/5 done

  1. Uttar-puja

    The closing worship: fresh flowers and durva, the naivedya, and thanks said plainly for the days he stayed.

    गजाननं भूतगणादिसेवितं कपित्थजम्बूफलचारुभक्षणम् । उमासुतं शोकविनाशकारकं नमामि विघ्नेश्वरपादपङ्कजम् ॥

    Gajānanaṁ bhūtagaṇādi-sevitaṁ kapittha-jambū-phala-cāru-bhakṣaṇam, umāsutaṁ śoka-vināśa-kārakaṁ namāmi vighneśvara-pāda-paṅkajam

    I bow to the lotus feet of the lord of obstacles — elephant-faced, attended by the ganas, delighting in kapittha and jambu fruits, son of Uma, destroyer of sorrow. The epithets are chosen for reassurance: he is easy to please — simple wild fruit delights him — and near at hand, Uma's own child. Sorrow, the verse says, is destroyed not by force but by his remembered presence.

    Source: Traditional Gaṇeśa vandana (prayer corpus)

  2. Final aarti

    The full family, the loudest bells of the season — grief and joy in one flame.

  3. Shift the pran

    Move the murti slightly with akshat sprinkled — the sign that the invoked presence returns to the heart, where he actually lives.

    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.

  4. Carrying him to the water

    Carry him with the potli tied to the murti, singing 'Ganpati Bappa Morya' — to water, or to the tub at home.

    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)

  5. Immersion — gently

    Lower him with both hands, unhurried. A clay murti dissolves overnight in the home tub; the water then goes to plants — he leaves as nourishment.

Note: Clay (shadu) murtis and home-tub visarjan are the old way and the kind way — painted PoP murtis harm the waters he is given to. If the family vow is 1.5, 3, 5, or 7 days, the same vidhi applies on that day.

Ganesh Chaturthi →Anant Chaturdashi →