The greatest impact of ritual on the mind of man is in the form of rousing the spiritual consciousness within him. Ritual is not an end in itself, but a pointer to the attainment of the religious consciousness which is different from the forms of religion. The purpose of ritual is to rouse this consciousness within, and it misses its aim when it fails to achieve this end. The system of ritual is instituted in such a way that its performance stirs the mind to a process of unfoldment of its potentialities. Just as a treasure is unravelled through the use of proper implements, the wealth of the Divine Presence hidden beneath the mind is gradually revealed by shaking off from the mind the dross covering it by means of the equipment of ritual which acts as both a restraining and an entertaining factor to the mind of the individual. In the ritual of worship, for example, the mellow light of the lamps lighted in front of the sacred image of the deity in which the devotee sees the presence of God vibrating and radiating an atmosphere of holiness and grace, and the calm effect of the fragrance of incense placed beside it, stimulate the sensory and mental texture into a condition of receptivity to the inflow of the ideas of unification, integration and freedom from distracting multiplicity. All ritual, in this way, is a variety of the techniques to bring about a consciousness of the presence of the Divine Being. The elaborate parts of a sacrifice induce not only a sense of seriousness and a feeling of reality in the performance of the rite but also a state of concentration of mind to the exclusion of extraneous thoughts by the very fact of having to fix the mind in its widespread processes.  

The performance of ritual is not the same in its forms for all people and for all times. It varies with the stage of life in which one is, the class of society to which one belongs, the circumstances under which the ritual is performed, the place, time and the purpose of the ritual, etc., so that ritual is a relative and not the absolute truth of religion. The details of all these aspects are laid down in the Smritis, Itihasas and Puranas.  

Puja or Worship: One of the important rituals is the performance of worship (Puja). This is a procedure of invoking God in an image, a diagram or any other suitable symbol for the purpose of adoration and contemplation. God in the ritual of worship is treated as an honoured guest, mostly as a king, requiring solemn hospitality and reverence. The adoration of God in such worship may be either external or internal. External worship is the ceremony which we usually see being performed in temples and consecrated parts of houses. The process of invocation is an invitation to God for condescending to reveal himself in the symbol or the place of worship. The manner of invocation and the subsequent entertainment of the Divine guest have many stages, but the prominent ones are considered to be sixteen in number. The first stage is contemplation (dhyana) on the form of the deity, in the mind. The second is invocation (avahana) or mentally investing the symbol of worship with the glorious Presence. The third is offering of an elevated seat (asana) to the deity and enthroning it therein. The fourth is washing of the feet of the deity (padya), as is the custom in India when receiving a guest. The fifth is offering of special hospitality by way of respectful libations and glorification (arghya). The sixth is arrangement for ablutions (snana). The seventh is presentation of dress or clothing (vastra). The eighth is investiture of the deity with the sacred thread (yajnopavita) or such other requirement. The ninth is offering of perfumes or sandal paste (Gandha). The tenth is offering of flowers (pushpa). The eleventh is burning of incense (dhupa). The twelfth is waving of lamps (Dipa). The thirteenth is offering of food (naivedya). The fourteenth is offering of betel leaves (tambula). The fifteenth is burning of camphor before the deity (nirajana). The sixteenth is offering of gift, especially in gold-ornament (suvarnapushpa). These are the sixteen forms of hospitable treatment (shodasopachara) with which the deity is honoured. In the end, the deity is given leave to withdraw from the image (visarjana). All these processes are attended with chanting of the respective mantras or formulae meant to indicate the different stages of the performance. In big temples, the deity is permanently invoked in the image and the temple forms a perpetual shrine for the divine manifestation and becomes a place of pilgrimage to devotees. In such temples the deity during worship is entertained also with the performance of dance and music, both vocal and instrumental. The deity is ceremonially roused in the early morning and taken to bed in the night after the day's ritual. God present in the images of temples as the great King of kings is taken in grand processions during special festive occasions (utsava). In worship, the devotee makes special gestures of the hands, called Mudras. By these gestures the worshipper indicates his feeling and intention in worship. Just as in a dance performance suggestive gestures are called Abhinayas, the gestures in worship are called Mudras, which convey the inner significance and purpose of worship. As an aid in the attuning of oneself to the form of the deity, the devotee performs the ritual of placing (Nyasa) of the different limbs of the deity in the corresponding parts of his own body. This is also a symbol of the adjustment of the macrocosm with the microcosm, as a process of one's graduated endeavour to attain universality in the realisation of the Divine Existence.  

Internal worship is a mental ritual of the adoration of God along the same lines as the external worship described above. Mental worship does not require material offerings but includes all the psychological processes of external worship. We hear of one of the Saiva saints, called Pusalar Nayanar, constructing a temple to the Lord, with mental bricks and mortar, performing a mental installation therein, and obtaining thereby the same results as through the external ceremony. The Mahabharata recites the mental sacrifice performed by sage Agastya without material components, working a wonder which stunned even the celestials. In higher forms of mental worship the process need not include such details as the sixteen limbs or an effort to collect articles of worship and arrange them in the pattern of the external ritual. It is a simpler but more concentrated act of the collecting of thought in an inward surrender of oneself by meditation (Dhyana), which is the consummation of internal worship.  

The recitation (Japa) of the divine Name or sacred formula is mostly a mental ritual, though in the initial stages it may be a verbal process coupled with thinking thereon. The divine Name or formula is called a mantra, which is a compact sound-symbol of the deity as the object of worship or contemplation. In addition to the deity (devata), the mantra has also a seer (rishi) and a metre (chhandas), which have to be mentally or verbally recited before the recitation of the mantra is commenced. The remembrance of these three essentials of the mantra forms a subtle invocation of the power of the deity, the sage to whom the mantra was revealed and the force of the constitution of the letters of which it is composed. This triple power (sakti), thus invoked mentally, becomes a helpful factor in the achievement of success in the practice (Sadhana), in addition to the inner effort put forth by the devotee himself. The mantra is a specific type of formula consisting of letters which are juxtaposed in such a manner or order as to produce a particular type of effect. A correct pronunciation or chanting of the mantra causes a form to be projected outwardly in space and inwardly in the mind, which is the contour of the deity of the mantra. A mantra may consist of several letters or even a single letter which is called a bija-mantra (seed-formula). It is believed that the shorter the mantra the greater is its effect, perhaps due to the greater concentration of force in it and the facility one has in directing thought in relation to it. The highest mantra is the pranava which consists of a single sound-component formed of three constituents (A-U-M). This is regarded as the symbol of the Absolute in the realm of sound. The chanting of the pranava is recommended to bring about a system and harmony in the flow of energy through the nervous system and of ideas in the mind. This equilibrated condition of the personality frees the mind from distraction (rajas) and settles it in the condition of transparent rhythm (sattva). It is in this state of conscious equilibrium that the light of the Supreme Being, which is present everywhere, is revealed, as it is in the limpid, undisturbed surface of a lake that we can see a clear reflection of the sun shining in the sky.  

Prayer: There is a little difference between the recitation of a mantra in Japa and the offering of prayer (prarthana). While Japa is always a fixed form of utterance of words or formulae, as in a mantra, prayer can be an expression of one's feelings in any language and in any manner one would like. Prayer is primarily a supplication to God for his grace. In ordinary forms of prayer, it can be directed to an ulterior end, such as acquisition of material objects, recovery from illness, and the like. But the truly spiritual form of prayer asks for nothing from God; it asks for God alone. Though prayer may be expressed in words, phrases or sentences, it need not always be so; for prayer can also be mental and the devotee can inwardly solicit the grace of God by an act of deep concentration of mind and a feeling of union with him in love and adoration. The scriptures abound in prayers of various kinds addressed to the various gods of the pantheon, but often directly to the Supreme Being. Usually, it is the practice to regard one's chosen deity (Ishta-Devata) as the highest divinity and exalt it to the state of the Absolute, so that the devotee has no idea in his mind other than that of his deity. This is indicative of the truth that there is ultimately one God whose forms are all the deities adored in worship. Prayer can draw in grace by a spiritual attunement of one's being in the intensity of feeling, which is the motive power behind prayer. Feelings that rise from the deepest recesses of one's heart can produce immediate results, because of their proximity to reality. Japa and prayer are regarded as the best forms of worship (Puja) and sacrifice (yajna) as they do not involve dependence on external objects or circumstances. The purpose of this special rite is to grow into the likeness of the deity, whether by attunement of personality through mantra-Japa or self-surrender by prayer.  

Larger prayer-meetings held in congregation are nowadays called Satsangas, in which worship and discourses may also be included, in addition to prayer.