Lakshmi Puja: Which Way to Face, and Where the Diyas Go

Face north or east. North is the more common choice for Lakshmi Puja specifically, being the direction traditionally associated with increase and with Kubera; east is the general direction for ritual and is equally acceptable where the room does not allow north.

What you should avoid is facing south while performing the puja, and sitting with your back to the main door. In a small flat one of these is often unavoidable — if so, prioritise facing north or east over everything else.

The north-east of the home is the traditional zone, in the puja room if there is one. The chowki is raised off the floor, covered with a clean red or yellow cloth, and placed where nobody has to walk across it during the evening.

The images are usually set facing west or south, so that the people performing the puja are facing east or north. Keep the wall behind the chowki solid where possible — not a window, and not a wall shared with a bathroom.

The main door comes first. A pair of दीप (deep, lamps) at the entrance, one on each side of the threshold, is the oldest and most consistent part of the practice — the point of Diwali is light at the doorway.

After that, the usual order through a home is the puja area, the kitchen, the balcony or window ledges, the corners of each room, and finally the bathroom doorway, which is often skipped but traditionally included because it is a zone that otherwise stays dark.

Thirteen is the number most often quoted for Diwali, and eleven, twenty-one and other odd counts appear in different family traditions. There is no single correct answer, and no Vastu principle that makes a particular number necessary.

What does matter, practically, is that the lamps stay lit for the evening rather than being lit for photographs and allowed to go out. One lamp burning at the entrance through the night is closer to the tradition than fifty extinguished by nine o'clock.

Oil lamps on a windowsill beside a curtain are a genuine hazard, and Diwali is when home fires spike. Keep lamps away from curtains, dupattas, paper decorations and anything synthetic. Use a stable base rather than balancing them on a ledge.

Never leave lamps burning in an empty flat, and keep them out of the reach of young children and pets. If the balcony is windy, a covered lantern is a reasonable substitute and nothing in the tradition objects to it.

The entrance lamps are commonly kept up through all five days, from Dhanteras on 6 November to Bhai Dooj on 10 November, rather than only on Diwali night itself.

On the morning after, clear the burnt-out lamps and spent decorations promptly rather than leaving them for a week. In the same tradition that asks for light at the doorway, a doorway full of dead lamps is the thing to avoid.