India Behind The Lens (News Centre)

Aarti is an easy and beautiful medium to light the lamp of devotion (present in the seeker’s heart) and obtain God’s grace and blessing

Belief is necessary to understand the importance of spirituality and spiritual practice. Belief developed through verbal information leads to spiritual practice which in turn leads to spiritual experiences which lead to faith and the individual starts doing more spiritual practice. Moving further on due to spiritual practice—spiritual experience—faith, one begins to have spiritual emotion, which finally culminates in self-realization that is a state of Bliss. Neither do our merits save us nor sins destroy us, only spiritual emotion can save us (as it is tarak-saviour form). Some people equate spiritual emotion with faith, but that is incorrect as faith is said to be three fold - three fold meaning sattvik, rajasik and tamasik depending on the three components (sattva, raja and tama) whereas spiritual emotion is trigunatit i.e. beyond the three gunas


A prayer at Gurudev’s lotus feet that let our spiritual emotion is awakened on reading this article.

Appropriate method of doing aarti

01. Before starting the aarti, blow the conch 3 times.

02. After blowing the conch, start to sing the aarti.

• Aarti should be sung with the spiritual emotion that ‘God Himself is in front of me and I am pleading fervently to Him’
• One needs to sing the aarti bearing in mind its meaning.
• While singing the aarti, the pronunciation of the words needs to be as per science of spirituality.

03. One can clap while doing aarti

• Seeker at an initial level: Clap softly to match the rhythm
• Seeker at an advanced or higher level: Try to be introvert by not clapping.

04. Play instruments as well while singing the aarti.

• Ring the bell such that the sound is melodious and the sattvikta is maintained
• Gong, drums and harmonium should be played in rhythm.

05. Aarti plate should be moved around God

• The aarti plate should be moved around God in a clockwise direction completing a circle.  
• While doing aarti, the plate should be waved between the Anahat and Adnya chakras.
 
06. After the aarti, do ‘jayghosh’ of the deities (for example Sri Bajarang Bali ki jai’)  

07. After this do camphor aarti by saying the mantra ‘karpur goram, karuna avatram’.

08. After the camphor aarti, one must take the aarti by keeping the palms of both hands on the lit lamp and then move the right hand from top of the head in front to the bottom of the neck. If for some reason one has not done the camphor aarti then one can take aarti by putting the palms of their hand on the ghee lamp

9. After taking the aarti, say the prayer ‘tvamev maata…’

10. After the prayers offer flowers and akshata (unbroken rice grains).

11. Thereafter do circumambulation. If it is not possible to do around God do it around your own self three times.

12. After circumambulation pay obeisance to God with an attitude of surrender and then say your prayers.

13. Then take tirtha (holy water) and apply vibhuti (or incense stick ash) between your eyebrows.


Science behind aarti, Blowing of the conch



Why is the conch blown before doing Puja (ritualistic worship) or aarti?

By blowing the conch the movement of the negative energies is reduced. It becomes easier to attract the sattvik frequencies from the deities and thus remove the obstacles.

Conch should be blown at both times – prior to ritualistic worship and prior to doing aarti. Blowing the conch before doing ritualistic worship helps to destroy the negative energies that would create obstacles in inviting the deities. It also creates a protective sheath of divine consciousness around the materials used for the ritualistic worship.
 
The ritualistic worship ends by doing the aarti. At this time a large number divine frequencies (from the deities of the universe) get attracted to the place of ritualistic worship. The raja –tama frequencies obstruct the flow of these divine frequencies. Hence in order to destroy these frequencies, the conch is blown prior to the aarti itself.  Due to this the surrounding environment is purified which in turn helps to retain the divine consciousness generated during the ritualistic worship for a longer time.

So try to gain the maximum benefit of the sattvik divine frequencies that get attracted during the ritualistic worship by blowing the conch prior to inviting the deities and prior to doing the aarti

-- (Knowledge obtained from God through the medium of Mrs. Anjali Gadgil on 7th January 2005 at 3:15 pm)

Related links :
# Ritual of Waving Lit Lamps (Aarti) - A Spiritual Perspective
# Correct method and science of doing Namaskar to God
# Why namaskar, not hand shake: Spiritual benefits of namaskaar
# Arrangement of Deities In Temple Room and Queries about Aarti

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