How to do the Naraka Chaturdashi · Chhoti Diwali puja at home

In pradosh, the hours just after sunset, while Chaturdashi holds: the four-wick diya to Yamraj at the door, and fourteen diyas round the house. When the tithi falls across two days this is the evening before the bath.

1. Pradosh

   The Yama diya made ready

   1. Take a clay diya with four mouths, or a large diya that holds four wicks.
   2. Fill it with mustard oil, or til oil.
   3. Lay four wicks in it so that one points each way.
   

2. Pradosh

   The diya to Yamraj

   1. The eldest of the house lights the four wicks.
   2. Carry the diya out of the main door and set it on the ground outside, its flame towards the south.
   3. Face the south, fold your hands, and pray to Yamraj that no death before its time come to this house.
   4. Go back in without turning to look at the diya.

   The south is Yamraj's direction; the diya is given to Him so that He keeps untimely death away.

   

3. Pradosh

   Fourteen diyas

   1. Light thirteen more diyas of ghee or oil, so that with Yamraj's there are fourteen.
   2. Set one at the puja place and one by the tulsi.
   3. Set one on each side of the main door, and one where water is kept.
   4. Set the rest in the kitchen, on the stairs, in the courtyard and in the dark corners of the house.

   Deepa · 2 lines

   दीपज्योतिः परब्रह्म दीपज्योतिर्जनार्दनः।dīpajyotiḥ parabrahma dīpajyotirjanārdanaḥ.The flame of the diya is the Supreme Brahman; the flame of the diya is Janardana.

   दीपो हरतु मे पापं दीपज्योतिर्नमोऽस्तु ते॥dīpo haratu me pāpaṁ dīpajyotirnamo'stu te.May the diya take away my wrongs. O flame of the diya, I bow to You.
   
5. 4. Hanuman ji · the prayer
   5. Sindoor in oil, and the bhog
   6. The Hanuman Chalisa
   7. Hanuman ji's aarti
   8. Manojavam, and the prasad

   These 5 steps, with their drawings and mantras, are in the app

In the last hour of the night, while Chaturdashi holds and before the sun is up: oil, the apamarga turned over the head, and the bath.

1. 1. Before dawn
   2. Oil and ubtan
   3. The apamarga over the head
   4. The bath

   These 4 steps, with their drawings and mantras, are in the app

At sunrise: water and til to Yamraj facing south, the new clothes, Shri Krishna's puja and the katha.

1. 1. Achaman
   2. Water and til to Yamraj
   3. New clothes, and the elders' blessing
   4. The diya before Shri Krishna
   5. Roli, flowers and the sweets
   6. The aarti
   7. The katha

   These 7 steps, with their drawings and mantras, are in the app