Panchayatana Puja stands at the heart of Smarta practice as a ritual expression of unity amidst diversity. In this worship, five deities—Shiva, Vishnu, Devi (Shakti), Surya, and Ganesha—are honored together, often with one chosen as the central *Ishta Devata* and the others arranged around it. This pattern of worship does not merely place several gods side by side; it symbolically affirms that no single form of the divine holds exclusive claim to truth. Each deity is treated as a fully valid gateway to the sacred, while simultaneously being understood as a manifestation of the same ultimate reality.

The deeper significance of this practice lies in how it ritualizes the Advaita Vedanta vision. Although the devotee engages with multiple divine forms, all are contemplated as expressions of one formless, attributeless Brahman. The many images, names, and powers serve the mind and heart, but they are grounded in a non-dual understanding that reality is fundamentally one. In this way, Panchayatana Puja allows devotional plurality to coexist with philosophical non-dualism, turning the altar into a living diagram of Advaitic insight.

This form of worship also functions as a powerful instrument of harmony among different devotional lineages. By bringing together the deities central to Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism, Saura, and Ganapatya traditions, it softens sectarian boundaries and affirms a shared spiritual ground. A practitioner may inwardly gravitate toward one form—seeing Shiva, Vishnu, or Devi as most intimate—yet the daily honoring of the other deities cultivates respect and reverence for diverse paths. Such a discipline nurtures an inclusive religious sensibility that is both broad in scope and rooted in a coherent vision of the divine.

At a practical level, Panchayatana Puja provides a systematic and flexible framework for regular worship. It offers householders and renunciants alike a structured way to engage with different aspects of the sacred—auspiciousness, preservation, transformation, illumination, and wisdom—without fragmenting their spiritual life. The ritual thus becomes a comprehensive sadhana in which varied divine powers are integrated into a single contemplative act. Through this integration, the practitioner is gently led to see that the apparent multiplicity of gods is, at its core, the play of one indivisible reality.