“Homam” is a ritual where offerings are made into a sacred fire. The root word of the Homam is 'Ha' meaning 'offering' or 'sacrifice' in Sanskrit. Just as the five elements exist in the cosmos in the world around us, they exist inside the human body too. Inside the being, Agni (fire) exists in two forms - as “Jatara-agni” (digestive fire in the physical body) and as “Bhoota-agni” (internal spiritual fire in the subtle body). In most humans, jatara-agni burns brightly and the bhoota-agni burns low merely as a flickering dim flame. A yogi with his spiritual practices converts the jatara-agni into bhoota-agni. Hence, he feels very little / no hunger (due to lack or absence of digestive fire). Bhoota-agni, on the other hand, is spiritual in nature and is capable of sustaining divinity.

When a yogi performs the nama / japa / mantra / offerings to a deity, the deity enters into the bhoota-agni and receives the offering directly. This is said so because a yogi's bhoota-agni burns so brightly inside his sookshmasarira (subtle body) that it can sustain within it, the divinity of a deity or any other divine being. Since, a normal human being's bhoota-agni burns poorly, he makes use of an external fire, to invoke the deity into the fire so that the deity may receive the offerings directly from the external fire. In return, the deity fulfills the righteous desire of the person who performs the homam.

Homam is a ritual performed by practitioners of Hinduism. It is a process of invoking a sacred fire with intentions of cleansing one’s self (material and spiritual), and the environment. The fire is a symbol of God, and practitioners offer items such as grains, ghee and herbs to the sacred fire as symbolic offerings to God. Common belief assumes several positive effects inherent to this ritual, ranging from revitalizing/purifying the environment to curing diseases.