Today I performed a Homa which is a fire ritual to the Divine and the Goddess of Prosperity and New Beginnings, Lakshmi.
It was very cool. I had a sri murthi, which is a small card with Sri Amma Bhagawan's picture and offered water 3 times. Then offered flower petals and lit incense. The incense gets circled 3 times around the sri murthi, like an Aarti. Then I offered rice kernals and cooked rice cereal. Next I built my fire with wood and lit it with dried roots and ghee. Each piece of wood and roots was first dipped in ghee. I also lit a piece of camphor and did a mini Aarti. The Dasa kept doing different prayers and we would annoint the fire with ghee at various times. Last was a big coconut full of rice and dried fruit and wrapped in cloth. I soaked this in ghee and then put it on the fire.
The whole thing was very cool and I was really glad I did it! We have 9 more homas but this was the only one we could participate in.
Very unique experience!!