What
is Aarti ?
Aarti
is perhaps the most attended ritual in Hindu
temples yet it is least understood. ‘Aarti’ Darshan is considered to be one of
the most auspicious Darshans in Pushti Margiya and Maryada Purushottam temples.
Aarti is one of the 16 offerings of the Pooja ritual. Aarti is also considered
to be a stand-alone ritual in Hinduism. It was the masters of the school of
Bhakti (devotion) who transformed the simple-fire ritual into an exalted
spiritual method referred as ‘aarti’.
In
Maryada Purushottam temples, Aarti of God/Goddess is performed twice a day, in
the morning at the sun rise and again in the evening at the sunset. While in
Pushti Margiya temples, Aarti is performed during each Darshans, typically 6 to
8 times a day. If you want to experience the true mahima of Aarti darshan, then
you must visit Nathdwara temple in Rajasthan, India.
Nowadays
Aarti has become traditional Indian form of greeting, which has no more religious
significance than a handshake in western culture or giving someone a wreath of flowers as a welcome in Hawaii. As an
example, ‘Aarti’ is often performed to greet the principal celebrant in India
such as Pope, a movie star or political leaders.
I
have come across many explanations on Aarti but none of them conveyed a true
meaning of aarti. Recently I found an explanation, which really makes sense and
truly says what aarti is all about, which I want to share with you.
What we know about the Aarti
The
ritual of aarti is a kind of simple fire ritual. That is why is frequently
translated as a ritual as of ‘waving lamps’. In simplest term the Aarti
consists of a small flame, which burns on a wick, placed on a plate, which is
rotated round the Deity. Aarti is a form
of congregational worship, in which the devotees stand facing the image of a
deity or a defied saint or, the personage (‘living idol’) of an exalted saint
singing devotional songs in unison. Normally, musical instruments such as
bells, gongs and cymbals accompany the singing. The object of worship is devoutly
decorated with posy garlands and, aromatic incense and musk are kept smoldering
(this is commonly referred as Shringar). While the devotees sing psalms, either
an official or a devotee revolves clockwise, (usually) a fivefold oil lamp –
consisting of five oil – traylets - round the object of adoration. By waving
the lights in circular motion, we, in fact, symbolically perform ‘Pradakshina’
around our Deity.
A
lamp with wicks burning clarified butter (ghee) is most preferred. After the
devotional singing, the flame of the aarti-lamp is offered to the devotees, who
pass their hands by turns over the sacred flame and quickly draw them to their
faces and heads as a gesture of drawing onto themselves the auspicious energy
emanating from ‘the receptacle grace’ i.e. the flame.
A
hymn is an expression of ardent devotion which in turn is capable of evoking
emotions in the hearts of those who recite it. The most common hymn (ironically
this is also called ‘aarti’) is ‘Om Jaya Jagdish Hare’.
What we should know about the Aarti
The
Word. First let us understand the word. The word ‘aarti’ is an adjective form
of the word ‘aart’ which in Sanskrit/Gujarati means tiredness or
Vedna. The Meaning. When we think of Aarti, we immediately have an
image of ourselves waving a flamed lamp in front of an idol. This action really
does not go well with the meaning of the word ‘aarti’ which we just learnt. You
may think what tiredness or vedna got to do with waving a flamed lamp in front
of an idol. Now let us understand this concept. This is little hard to
understand moreover, it is hard to explain in English language because the lack
of proper words to explain the meaning! However, I will try!
The
vedic philosophy believes that Lord does everything for us. In fact the very
existence of us is due to Lord’s Kriya. This constant kriya makes Lord tired
and experiences vedna. In order to alleviate him/her from this vedna or tiredness,
we the devotees essentially tell Lord that give us your vedna and we will
perform your work.
In
aarti, the jyot or deep means aatma. Usually there are five jyots representing
five pranas. The thali or a lamp holder represents the body. So basically when
we wave a lighted lamp in front of an idol we are saying to the Lord that give
us your vedna and I will do all the work. Based on this thought, we have ‘dev
podhi ekadashi’ and ‘dev uthi ekadashi’. The period between these two
ekadashis’s is a resting period for Lord. The circular waving motion of the
lamp represents the circle of life or Kriya chakra. In other words we are saying
that we will keep this kriya chakra moving forward. Remember, without Kriya there
is no progress!
The
waving motion differs from sect to sect and region to region. This has to do
with local customs, schools of thoughts and priest preferences. This is also a
deep subject matter. We will discuss it later. After aarti ritual we usually
pass the lamp (aarti) to others. The philosophy behind this is that we
essentially all have to distribute vedna and participate in Lord’s kriya.
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The
third incarnation among the Ten Incarnations is Varaha avatara, (Boar
incarnation.) At the beginning of the creation of the universe, Brahma, a
male named Svayambhuva Manu and a female named Satarupa manifested from
his body. By the desire of Brahma, Svayambhuva Manu accepted Satarupa
as his wife for the purpose of creation. Seeing the earth submerged in
the water of annihilation and desiring to seek a dwelling place for the
living beings, Manu approached his father Brahma and prayed to him to
rescue the earth. When Brahma saw the earth submerged in the water, he
thought for a long time about how it could be rescued. He had earlier
established the earth after removing all the water but he could not
understand why the earth had sunk into the water again. He had been
appointed for the work of creation but the earth had become inundated in
a deluge and had sunk down to the Rasatala planetary system. 
People send gifts to their near and dear ones to convey their good wishes as gifts are the best way to accelerate the feeling of appreciation, love, bonding, affection and respect. As Festival is one of the biggest religious festivals in India, sending Festival gifts also signifies sender’s prayer to the God for the well being and prosperity of the recipient.
