Hello Friends!
After receiving positive responses for this series of posts earlier, I have decided to add more to this!
"Aarthi"- for the lord is a ritual that all of us across India follow.
The 'Why' bug bit and I probed more into this!
My first search...Internet.
"Aarti is said to have descended from the Vedic concept of fire rituals, or homa. The word may also refer to the traditional Hindu devotional song that is sung during the ritual. Aarti is performed and sung to develop the highest love for God. "Aa" means "towards", and "rati" means "the highest love for God" in Sanskrit."[ source- Wikipedia]
The holy light is first moved around the whole of the idol/image of the Lord, in a belief that the 'light' or 'jyothi' captures the power/ blessings/ positive energy and goodwill from the Lord and then its given to the devotees.
- My reasons---- In my review on Gopaalaswamy Betta, I have mentioned about the priest showing us the God using the light that he used as aarti and then did the aarti and gave it to us!
Thats when I realised that during the Vedic Era, there was no electricity for the devotees to get a complete view of the idol. The main idol also in all temples is placed rather inside, in Kannada we call it "garbha gudi".
So they used the aarti light to show the Almighty to the devotees and became a ritual!!!
- Cultural Heritage speaks---- The pious flame of light is a symbol of eradicating all the darkness and evil that surrounds our body, mind and soul! Light represents the Almighty!
I found this amazingly interesting to know how its been practised all over the country!!
Some food for thought eh?
Do you have more queries that bother you off and on??
Do mail them to me or add it as a comment and I will give my best shot to resolve the 'Why' bug !!!
Take care
Thanks for reading!!
Feedback please :)
Regs,
Suj
