Jai Ganesh Deva Aarti

The text follows the aarti collection on sanskritdocuments.org and has been checked line by line against Drik Panchang. The two agree on all five stanzas apart from the small differences listed below. In singing, each line is usually repeated and the opening line 'jay gaṇeś jay gaṇeś jay gaṇeś devā, mātā jākī pāravatī pitā mahādevā' is sung as a refrain after every stanza.

Drik Panchang prints one more stanza, in brackets, which is sung in some regions and families. It is not in the sanskritdocuments.org text.

Because the aarti lives mainly in oral tradition, small differences are common:

The aarti names no author directly. The last stanza contains the chhāp (poet's signature) 'Sūr Śyām', which has led many devotional publications to attribute it to Surdas, the sixteenth-century blind poet-saint of Krishna devotion from the Braj region. That attribution rests on the signature line alone. The phrase can also be read as two names, 'Sur and Shyam', and it is safest to describe the authorship as traditional.

Whatever its origin, the aarti is now part of the daily worship of millions of households in North India and the diaspora, and of the public pandals of Ganesh Chaturthi. In Maharashtra the Marathi aarti 'Sukhakarta Dukhaharta', attributed to Samarth Ramdas, holds a similar place, and both are often sung together.

The aarti is a portrait of Ganesha drawn in a few strokes. He is the child of Parvati and Mahadeva; he has one tusk (ekadanta), having lost the other according to Puranic stories; he is compassionate (dayāvanta) and four-armed; he wears a tilak or vermilion on his brow; and he rides a mouse, the small creature that can go anywhere, a symbol of mastery over the restless mind. The third stanza lists the simple offerings he loves, betel, fruit, dried fruit and above all laddus (modak in many regions), and pictures the saints serving him.

The fourth stanza turns to his grace: sight to the blind, health to the sick, children to the childless and wealth to the poor. In the last stanza the poet takes refuge and asks that his service be made fruitful, which is the whole spirit of aarti.

In Hindu worship Ganesha is prathama-pūjya, the one honoured first, because he is Vighnaharta, the remover of obstacles, and lord of beginnings. Before a wedding, a house-warming, the start of a business or the first day of school, families invoke him. For the same reason his aarti is often sung at the start of an evening of aartis, before those of Lakshmi, Vishnu, Shiva or the Goddess. On Ganesh Chaturthi (Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturthi) and the ten days that follow, it is sung morning and evening before his image.

1. Arrange a lamp (ghee or camphor), flowers, durva grass, incense and an offering of laddus or modak on a plate. 2. Stand before the image of Ganesha and ring the bell. 3. Wave the lamp clockwise while singing all five stanzas, returning to the refrain after each. 4. Offer the lamp to everyone present, who pass their palms over the flame and touch their eyes. 5. Offer the laddus as prasad and distribute them.

The aarti is sung once in full. Wednesdays and the Chaturthi tithis (especially Sankashti Chaturthi) are considered especially dear to Ganesha.

The fourth stanza states the traditional blessings: healing, children, prosperity. Devotees believe that singing Ganesha's aarti with devotion removes obstacles from new undertakings, brings wisdom and good fortune to the home, and makes all the worship that follows fruitful. As with all aartis, these are expressions of faith; its deepest gift for many families is the joy of singing together.