Different types of Flowers used in Hindu Pooja

Flowers form an integral part of Hindu Pujas. Pooja is incomplete without flowers. Flowers are offered to gods and goddesses in different Pujas. If you aren’t aware of which flowers for pooja you need to offer to which God, then this article will help you know the importance of each flower for each God/Goddess.

Why certain flowers should be offered to particular deities?

According to Hindu culture, each flower has its significance for each deity. It is not just the religious belief behind it, but also a scientific reason behind it.

Every flower has its own fragrance and color, which depicts that the frequency of each flower is different. Hence, every flower has the natural potential of attracting different deities and help the followers get all the blessings from deities. Also, if every devotee offers the flower with a lot of faith then it results in activation of deities’ frequencies and this helps devotee impress the Lord.

Why only fresh flowers needed for pooja?

As per Hindu religious scriptures, only fresh things should be offered to god and thus only fresh flowers should be offered to any God during the pooja.

Well, when we offer flowers to the almighty they are accepted by God and thus you would always like to offer fresh and new.

The deities get impressed and offer blessings. So, you need to offer fresh flowers for pooja to seek blessings from god. Do not offer dried or insect infected flowers to God.

Also, do not offer the same flower offered to one deity to other deities. The scientific reason behind this is once the flowers turn stale, the color of the flower changes and these decrease the frequencies and thus you should not follow the practice.

• If you have touched the flower with your left hand or taken the smell of the flower, you should not offer it to the deity.
• Do not offer flower buds.
• Do not offer flowers stolen from other places.
• Do not offer flowers fallen on the ground or flowers without any fragrance to the deity.
• Do not offer flowers washed/dipped in water
• If the flowers haven’t bloomed completely, you should offer such flowers too

You would certainly like to know the flowers adored by each God so that you make no mistake in offering the right flower to the deity for specific pooja next time.

Lord Shiva

Lord Shiva loves white-colored flowers. Some other flowers that are Lord Shiva’s favorites are

• Maulshri
• Dhatura flowers
• Kaner
• Harsingar
• Blue lotus
• Naagkeshar

Lord Shiva not just loves floral decoration but also pooja leaves like bel leaves and Bilvapatra. When you offer Bilvapatra make sure the white marks formed by insects should not be there on the leaves In case you find such marks, remove them.

Goddess Parvati

Goddess Parvati loves all the flowers that are loved by Lord Shiva. You can offer

• White lotus
• Palash
• Bela
• Apamarg
• Madar
• Champa
• Chameli

Lord Ganesha

Lord Ganesha loves flowers of red color. One of his favorites is Jaswanti (Hibiscus). Some of the other favorite flowers of Lord Ganesha are

• Lotus
• Rose
• Jasmine
• Champa
• Jasmine
• Marigold

The devotees of Lord Ganesha also know that durva or Dhruva which are grass blades also play a significant role in Ganesh Pooja. Apart from Durva, herbal or Bilva leaves can also be offered to Lord Ganesha. According to rituals, you should offer 21 flowers of different varieties during Ganesha Pooja.

Lord Vishnu

Lotus is the favorite flower of Lord Vishnu and other flowers among his favorites are

• Pink lotus
• Juhi
• Maulshri
• Kewra
• Kadamb
• Champa
• Chameli
• Malti
• Ashok
• Basanti

Goddess Durga

Goddess Durga loves red flowers. You can also offer

• Mogra
• Lotus
• Bel leaves

Lord Rama

Lord Rama loves Chameli flower

Goddess Lakshmi

Lotus flower is the favorite of Goddess Lakshmi. She also likes

• Pink Lotus
• Yellow Gaindha
• Desi Gulab

Lord Hanuman

Chameli flower, garland made of Tulsi

Dattatreya

Jasmine, Bilva leaves, Audumbar leaves

Lord Brahma

• Tagar
• White lotus

Goddess Saraswati

Goddess Saraswati loves white flowers and you can offer

• White lotus
• Palash

Goddess Mahakali

Yellow Kaner

Lord Surya

Lotus flower

Lord Krishna

Lord Krishna loves Tulshi leaves the most and apart from the leaves he likes

• Parijatha
• blue lotus
• Nandiyavattai

Saturn (Shani)

You can impress Lord Shani by offering flowers in blue color

Every flower has its significance to impress different deities and thus you get pooja garlands of different flowers to be offered to each deity.

Online Pooja stores also stock temple garlands made of favorite flowers of each deity so that devotees can use them to worship the God or Goddess.

Offering of fresh fragrant flowers at the lotus feet of the deities and garlanding the idols or the picture of the deities form the main part of the prayer of the Hindus. Several saints like Alwars