Frequently Asked Questions

Bhagwan Seva is a platform that connects devotees with verified pandits for authentic Hindu poojas. Whether you're in India or abroad, you can book rituals performed by qualified pandits who follow proper sampradaya traditions. We offer virtual and physical participation modes.

Every pandit goes through our Know Your Pandit (KYP) verification process. We verify their training, lineage, sampradaya knowledge, and ritual competence. Pandits are not self-registered — they are onboarded through our verification pipeline. We have three tiers: Verified (entry-level), Certified (10+ bookings, 4.5+ rating), and Acharya (senior scholars, manually approved).

We support multiple Hindu traditions including Smarta, Vaishnava (including Pushti Marg), Shaiva, and Shakta. Each pooja module specifies which sampradaya it follows, and some poojas offer variant options (e.g., Satyanarayan Katha in Smarta or Pushti Marg traditions).

Absolutely! Bhagwan Seva is designed NRI-first. We support timezone-aware scheduling, international payments, and virtual delivery modes. You can book a pandit in India to perform your pooja and join live via video, or have the pooja done on your behalf. We support English, Hindi, and Gujarati.

A bundle is a curated set of poojas for a specific occasion. For example, our "Griha Pravesh Complete" bundle includes Ganesh Pooja, Vastu Shanti, Navagraha Shanti, and Griha Pravesh ceremony — everything you need for a housewarming. Bundles save you the effort of selecting individual poojas.

Yes! Each booking can contain multiple pooja engagements. You can use a bundle or build your own set. Each engagement has its own date, time, and delivery mode, but they share a single payment and address. A booking can span up to 14 days.

Sankalp is the formal declaration of intent at the beginning of a Hindu ritual. It identifies the yajaman (person for whom the pooja is performed), their gotra (lineage), nakshatra (birth star), and the purpose of the ritual. We collect this information during the booking wizard so the pandit can perform the sankalp accurately.

After payment, our system automatically matches your engagement with the best available pandit based on: pooja expertise, sampradaya match, language preference, schedule availability, tier, and rating. The pandit has 2 hours to accept. If they decline, we try the next best match (up to 3 attempts). For multi-pooja bookings, we give a ranking boost to pandits already assigned to another engagement in your booking for continuity.

India: UPI, credit/debit cards, netbanking, and wallets via Razorpay.
International: Credit/debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and bank transfers via Stripe (post-beta). During beta, we support manual payments via Wise or PayPal.

Each pooja has a base price. This is adjusted for pandit tier (verified, certified, or acharya), delivery mode, and muhurat timing. We show a full breakdown: base price, adjustments, platform commission (20%), GST (18% on commission, India only), and pandit dakshina. The pandit's dakshina is exempt from GST under religious services.

Cancellation: You can cancel individual engagements or the entire booking. Refund depends on timing: 100% if more than 48 hours before, 75% for 24-48 hours, 50% for 6-24 hours, and no automatic refund under 6 hours (ops discretion).

Rescheduling: You can reschedule individual engagements up to 24 hours before start time. Maximum 3 reschedules per booking (across all engagements). If the original pandit isn't available at the new time, you'll be asked to consent to a pandit change.

If a pandit cancels, you receive a full refund for that engagement plus goodwill platform credit. We immediately attempt to find a replacement pandit if there's enough time (more than 24 hours before start). The pandit receives a strike on their profile.