Kolam by Sudha Balaji

It is a good practice to remove the garland offered to Gods in the Puja the next day before starting the Puja. The dry flowers are removed and kept in a separate basket or bamboo plate near Pooja mandir or in the Pooja room.  I offer the dried flowers to the Tulsi plant. In our family we do not put them in the dust bin. If Tulsi plant is not available, we can offer to any other plants or trees in our garden, terrace garden.   Also, these garlands are not reused for any other photo or for any other purpose in the house. Traditionally flowers are tied with vazhai naaru (banana bark fibre - dried) .   I removed the dried flowers and used the fibre again for tying flowers but only for Puja . Paneer rose petals, some fragrant leaves (called maru , dhavanam ) were ground with shikkai few decades back. Nowadays everything available readymade! 

How to clean silver pooja vessels | pooja utensils  Poojai saman cleaning  Tamil Preparation for Varalakshmi Vratham | Vellikizhamai Pooja The pictures give the steps to clean the pooja utensils.   Take dish washing powder and detergent ( I usually have them in separate containers for Puja items alone ) Take coconut fibre , it should be soft Use hot water for oily lamps Brush the vessels with the mixture of detergent and dish washing powder Wash with cold water Clean with a soft cloth I find that using this method the silver vessels stay bright for a long time - two to three weeks This post may also answer the following questions in Kannada and Telugu Maneyalli beḷḷiya pooja vastugaḷannu svacchagoḷisalu hege Iṇṭlō veṇḍi pūja vastuvulanu ela subhraṁ cheyali 

A plank called manai is cleaned well and a traditional kolam with lines and with kaavi border is drawn on both sides  At the centre we can draw a free hand rangoli or Puja room rangoli like Hridaya kamalam or Aishwarya kolam. A simple method of offering Puja at home to Goddess Saraswathi which is celebrated during Navarathri festival.  It is usually performed on the 9th day of the 9-day long festival. The next day on Vijayadasami day which is considered auspicious for beginning any new venture,  children are asked to take the books from Puja and study for some time.     Prepare sandalwood paste, apply on the forehead of the Goddess followed by turmeric powder and kumkum, a traditional method of applying tilak or tilagam for decoration. Offer white flower garland to the Goddess, I make the garland at home,  we can also buy it from a flower vendor.  When we do it ourselves, we get lot of mental satisfaction. White lotus...

Aarti songs are important in the celebration of festivals and on Fridays.  After completion of Puja we offer Aarti to God or Goddess and it is customary to sing a song in praise of the God or Goddess for who we are performing the Puja. Varalakshmi Pooja songs in Telugu - aarti Mangala aarti song | Telugu Harathi song Jayamangala Nithya Subhamangala         ( Jaya is victory, mangala is auspicious, nithya is always ) Muthyala Aarti Pagadala Aarti                  ( We perform aarti with pearls, corals ) Manika Aarti                                             ( We perform aarti with rubies ) Mikutambuga meeku                                 ( You are very fond of these aarti ) Ananda kalamalu arisalu palalu ...

Whether it is Gokulashtami , Vinayaka Chaturthi or Varalakshmi Nombu ( Vratha ) there is a tradition of placing the idols in a mandap and decorating the mandapam (as we say in Tamil) .  We can have a blend of traditional and new and unique ideas too for decorating the mantap.   First the modern methods of decoration.  I have made a Hridaya kamalam or Lakshmi Hrudaya rangoli and a rangoli border using OHP sheet, glass colours, 3D glitter and decorative trinkets.  These two can be placed before the mantap for decoration. A close up of the Pooja in progress We can use OHP to decorate the top of the mandapam also.  I have an old mandapam made from rose that is being used in our family for various festivals.  Old is gold, as they say, so we are using this mantap for Krishna Jayanthi, Pillaiyar Chaturthi and Varalakshmi Nombu. I use a combination of kaavi or geru and limestone giving alternate white and kaavi colours to the mantap , this probably...