Aarti closes almost every act of Hindu worship. A lamp, usually with an odd number of wicks fed with ghee or camphor, is moved in circles before the image while a hymn is sung and a bell is rung. It looks like the simplest part of the ritual and is among the most layered. The lamp is not there to light the deity, who does not require it. It is there so the worshipper can see, and the circling is what makes the seeing complete.
The motion is prescribed rather than free. The lamp is typically circled clockwise, and in the fuller versions it is moved first at the feet, then the navel, then the face, then the whole form, so that the image is revealed in parts and then as a whole. What is being enacted is attention: light applied deliberately to one region after another until nothing is left in shadow. That the flame is fed with camphor in many traditions is itself the teaching, since camphor burns away completely and leaves no residue, which is what the ego is supposed to do in the presence it is standing before.
The end of the sequence is the part most people participate in. The lamp is carried out to the gathering and each person passes their palms over the flame and touches them to their eyes and head. The light that fell on the divine form is taken back to the senses that did the looking. This is the same reciprocal structure that makes darshan a mutual act, and it is why Surya, the visible source of all light, needs no temple to be worshipped in.
Aarti is a lesson in attention disguised as the easy part of the ritual. To see how light functions as darshan across this tradition, explore more of The Living Sanatan Timeline.
Part 66 of 100 — Series II: To the Eternal
Series II: To the EternalThe Five KoshasIndexFAQThe Timeline