Aarti

The word "aarti" comes from the Rig Veda, one of the earliest Hindu scriptures. Aarti is a Hindu Ritual, where light from wicks soaked in ghee (purified butter) is offered to one or more deities. Aarti is performed and sung to develop the highest love for the deity that it is being offered to, which results in a state of spiritual joy.

The purpose of performing aarti is the waving of lighted wicks before the deities in a spirit of humility and gratitude, wherein faithful followers become immersed in God's divine form. It symbolises the five elements: 1) space (akash), 2) wind (vayu), 3) light (tej), 4) water (jal), and 5) earth (pruthvi).

The aarti evolved from the worship of fire. Fire in Hinduism cleans and purifies. The aarti is the closing ritual of the prayer. Typically, a piece of camphor or a clay or metal lamp with cotton wicks soaked in oil or ghee is placed on a metal plate along with flowers and incense. The lamp or camphor is then lighted. The plate is rotated in a clockwise direction in front of a picture or statue representing the deity whose blessing is being invoked, accompanied by the ringing of a bell and the chanting of devotional hymns. In doing so, the plate itself is supposed to acquire the power of the deity. After the prayer is finished, the plate is then taken to all the gathered worshippers who put their hands over the flame and then touch their eyes. The purificatory blessing, passed from the deva's image to the flame, has now been passed to the devotee.

Everything used to do aarti must be in its most natural form since the objective of the ritual is to reach a purer state. The lamp is made of clay or pure natural metal from the earth such as silver, as is the plate. The cotton for the wicks, the flowers and the camphor are also natural materials. Ghee is clarified butter, in which all solid residue has been melted away until only a pure liquid is left behind. The camphor similarly leaves no residue behind after it burns. The flowers and the incense purify the air with their fragrance. The devotional songs are natural sounds while the bell acts to eliminate any residual sound and focus attention on the prayer.

The offering of aarti symbolizes the belief that the divine is the ultimate center of all existence and life. By performing the aarti, the worshipper makes an offering to God of his material form, an act of submission of the individual to the divine, leading to a state of the highest joy.

Guru Granth Sahib Ji mentions a totally different type of aarti, an aarti that is already being performed by mother nature itself. As the “Name of the Lord” is the most purest, that is the only thing that is being “offered” to God. “What can I offer, when everything belongs to You?”

Your Name, Lord, is my adoration and cleansing bath. Without the Name of the Lord, all ostentatious displays are useless.

Your Name is my prayer mat, and Your Name is the stone to grind the sandalwood.

Your Name is the saffron which I take and sprinkle in offering to You.

Your Name is the water, and Your Name is the sandalwood.

The chanting of Your Name is the grinding of the sandalwood. I take it and offer all this to You.

Your Name is the lamp, and Your Name is the wick. Your Name is the oil I pour into it.

Your Name is the light applied to this lamp, which enlightens and illuminates the entire world.

Your Name is the thread, and Your Name is the garland of flowers. The eighteen loads of vegetation are all too impure to offer to You.

Why should I offer to You, that which You Yourself created? Your Name is the fan, which I wave over You.

The whole world is engrossed in the eighteen Puraanas, the sixty-eight sacred shrines of pilgrimage, and the four sources of creation.

Says Ravi Daas, Your Name is my Aartee, my lamp-lit worship-service. The True Name, Sat Naam, is the food which I offer to You.

Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Page 694

Guru sahib further explains how aarti can be done with the whole universe…

In the bowl of the sky, the sun and moon are the lamps; the stars in the constellations are the pearls.

The fragrance of sandalwood is the incense, the wind is the fan, and all the vegetation are flowers in offering to You, O Luminous Lord. What a beautiful lamp-lit worship service this is!

O Destroyer of fear, this is Your Aartee, Your worship service. The sound current of the Shabad is the sounding of the temple drums. Thousands are Your eyes, and yet You have no eyes.

Thousands are Your forms, and yet You have not even one form. Thousands are Your lotus feet, and yet You have no feet. Without a nose, thousands are Your noses. I am enchanted with Your play!

The Divine Light is within everyone; You are that Light. Yours is that Light which shines within everyone.

By the Guru's Teachings, this Divine Light is revealed. That which pleases the Lord is the true worship service.

My soul is enticed by the honey-sweet lotus feet of the Lord; night and day, I thirst for them.

Bless Nanak, the thirsty song-bird, with the water of Your Mercy, that he may come to dwell in Your Name.

Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Page 663

Other places in Guru Granth Sahib Ji where aarti is mentioned…

Kabeer, Your slave, performs this Aartee, this lamp-lit worship service for You, O Formless Lord of Nirvaanaa.

Guru Granth Sahib Ji, page 1350

With incense, lamps and ghee, I offer this lamp-lit worship service.

Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Page 695