Understanding Puja, Prasad, Darshan and Aarti: A Short Glossary

These four Sanskrit terms come up constantly around Hindu temples in Nepal, and understanding them in plain English makes a temple visit considerably more legible. Puja is a ritual act of worship — an offering made to a deity, which can range from a brief personal moment (lighting a lamp, offering flowers) to an elaborate, hours-long ceremony conducted by a priest on behalf of a family or community. Most of what you'll see happening at a temple on any given day is some form of puja, usually on a much smaller and more everyday scale than the word might suggest. Prasad is the food or other offering that has been presented to a deity during puja and is then distributed to worshippers — receiving prasad is understood as receiving a blessing that has, in a sense, already passed through the deity. If a priest or fellow worshipper offers you prasad, it's generally polite to accept it with your right hand (or both hands) rather than decline outright, though nobody will force it on you if you'd rather not. Darshan means, roughly, "seeing" or "being seen by" the divine — the act of viewing a deity's image or presence at a temple, which in Hindu practice is itself considered a meaningful, even reciprocal act, not simply looking at an object. This is part of why standing quietly in view of a temple's main image, even briefly, is treated as significant rather than incidental to a visit. Aarti is a specific ritual involving the offering of light — typically a small flame on a plate, circled in front of a deity's image — usually accompanied by bells, chanting or singing. Aarti ceremonies at major temples, including the evening aarti along the Bagmati at Pashupatinath, draw both devotees and visitors and are one of the more accessible rituals for an outside observer to watch respectfully from an appropriate distance.