Pooja Essentials

Lighting a lamp is the first act of the day in many Hindu, Jain and Sikh homes, and the last one before bed. The wick sits in a small brass or clay diya, fed with ghee or a lamp oil blend, and the flame stays lit through the evening aarti. Lamp ghee is sold for exactly this job: it is produced and labelled for pooja use, and it is not a cooking fat, so it lives here in our personal care and household department and not beside the cooking ghee.

Choose by how you pray. Ghee gives the steady, golden flame and warm smell that many families prefer for the main morning lamp and for festival days such as Diwali, Karthigai Deepam and Navratri. Lamp oil blends, often based on sesame or other seed oils, burn longer and cost less per evening, which suits a lamp that is lit every day. Cotton wicks, camphor for the aarti plate and incense complete the shelf.

Always read the label: anything sold for pooja carries a warning that it is not for edible use, even when it looks like food. For cooking, buy from our pure ghee range. Keep lamp ghee sealed and away from the stove, trim the wick short for a clean flame, and never leave a lit diya unattended near curtains or flowers. Hair and massage oils sit next door in hair oils and body massage oils.