Business pujas (व्यापार)
The rituals families keep for this occasion, and the order they are usually kept in.
3 pujas cover almost every booking for this occasion. Which ones you keep depends on your family's custom.
- Vastu Shanti वास्तु शांति — the rite kept for a newly built house before Griha Pravesh
- Lakshmi Puja लक्ष्मी पूजा — the Diwali-evening puja of Lakshmi and Ganesha
- Satyanarayan Katha सत्यनारायण कथा — the katha of Bhagwan Satyanarayan, traditionally read to give thanks
What business asks of a family
The business rites are the household ones applied to a place of work. A Ganesh puja opens a shop or an office; a Vastu Shanti is kept where premises are newly built or substantially rebuilt; a Satyanarayan katha marks a beginning or a completion; and at Diwali the Lakshmi Puja carries the Chopda Pujan, in which the new year's account books are opened and marked.
The practical differences from a home booking are the venue and the hour. Premises usually need an early-morning or after-hours muhurat, a havan needs somewhere it can be kept safely, and the gathering is staff and neighbours rather than family — which changes the language the rite is explained in more often than it changes the rite.
For a trading household the Diwali muhurat is the year's fixed point and is booked months ahead in the older market areas. Everything else on this occasion is arranged at ordinary notice.
