We sing Bhagat Sain Ji’s prayer as part of Aarti in many Gurdwaras. We receive these words as Gurbani, the Guru’s Word. Yet a writer quoted by Professor Sahib Singh Ji says that the worship in this prayer goes against Guru Nanak Sahib Ji’s teaching. I do not accept that judgement. It would mean that part of the Bani we receive under Shabad Guru Granth Sahib Ji teaches against the Guru.
The writer says Bhagat Sain Ji offered Aarti to Ramanand, a human teacher, and calls Bhagat Sain Ji a committed Vaishnav, a devotee of the Hindu god Vishnu. Professor Sahib Singh Ji records and answers this claim in Darpan, his commentary on Gurbani. The note does not give the writer’s name.
But answering the writer means understanding what we sing. Bhagat means devotee, and this prayer is a Shabad, a composition in Gurbani. It opens with incense, lamps and ghee, or clarified butter. In the next line, Bhagat Sain Ji offers himself to the Creator. I follow Professor Sahib Singh Ji’s explanation that giving oneself is the Aarti.
The Roman line is only a reading aid, not the translation. The English sentence gives the plain meaning.
Panna means page. A stanza is a numbered group of lines. Dhanasari is the raag, or musical measure, for this Shabad.
Bhagat Sain Ji says:
ਧੂਪ ਦੀਪ ਘ੍ਰਿਤ ਸਾਜਿ ਆਰਤੀ ॥
ਵਾਰਨੇ ਜਾਉ ਕਮਲਾ ਪਤੀ ॥੧॥
Simple reading: Dhoop deep ghrit saaj aartee.
Vaarane jaau kamalaa patee.
Plain meaning, following Darpan’s interpretation: O Master of Kamala, I am a sacrifice to You. This self-offering is my Aarti, my offering of incense, lamps and ghee.
Reference: Dhanasari, Bhagat Sain Ji, Panna 695. Complete stanza 1; read with the Rahao and all four stanzas. “This self-offering” is added in English to show how Darpan explains the two lines together.
Kamala is a name of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess. Professor Sahib Singh Ji takes “Master of Kamala” here as a name for the Creator. If you open the SriGranth website, Dr Sant Singh Khalsa’s English translation describes incense, lamps and ghee prepared for Aarti and also says “I am a sacrifice”. Professor Sahib Singh Ji joins the two lines: giving oneself to the Creator is the Aarti. The SriGranth translation does not explain them in that way.
In Darpan’s reading, the next stanza names the Creator as the finest lamp and the pure wick. The Rahao, the pause carrying the Shabad’s main thought, speaks of joy through the Creator’s grace, His help and blessing. At the end, Bhagat Sain Ji asks the mind to remember the One who carries us beyond fear. The whole prayer turns to the Creator in this way, and that is why I follow Darpan’s explanation. Readers should be able to ask whether Darpan’s explanation fits the whole Shabad, and whether I have understood it properly.
We can also hear this in Bhagat Ravidas Ji’s Aarti. Here, Naam, the Creator’s Name, takes the place of the things used in worship:
ਨਾਮੁ ਤੇਰੋ ਆਰਤੀ ਮਜਨੁ ਮੁਰਾਰੇ ॥
ਹਰਿ ਕੇ ਨਾਮ ਬਿਨੁ ਝੂਠੇ ਸਗਲ ਪਾਸਾਰੇ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
Simple reading: Naam tero aartee majan Muraare.
Har ke Naam bin jhoothe sagal paasaare.
Plain meaning: Your Naam is my Aarti and bathing, O Murari. Without Hari’s Naam, all these displays are false.
Reference: Dhanasari, Bhagat Ravidas Ji, Panna 694. Complete Rahao; read with all four stanzas. Plain meaning informed by Professor Sahib Singh Ji’s Darpan.
Hari and Murari are names for the Creator in Darpan’s explanation. Bhagat Ravidas Ji takes us through the objects used in worship. Naam is the seat, the stone used to grind sandalwood and the water. Naam is the lamp, wick and oil. The Shabad asks what we can give the Creator when everything we bring already belongs to Him. The Shabad closes by offering Sat Naam, the True Name.
Remembering the Creator is the Aarti we are being taught to offer. If we stop at the words for lamps and offerings, we miss what Bhagat Ravidas Ji is telling us to do. Guru Nanak Sahib Ji’s Aarti at Panna 663 opens with the sky as the tray and the sun and moon as lamps. That prayer ends by asking for grace to live in the Creator’s Naam.
The writer’s claim also rests on Ramanand in Bhagat Sain Ji’s third stanza. Professor Sahib Singh Ji reads the word as the joy of being united with Ram, a name for the Creator here. In that reading, the person who praises the Creator comes to know that joy through devotion.
Dr Sant Singh Khalsa reads Ramanand as a person’s name and says that Ramanand knows devotion to the Lord. A line saying that Ramanand knows devotion does not tell us that Bhagat Sain Ji is offering Aarti to Ramanand.
Guru Arjan Sahib Ji also tells us that the Creator lived in Bhagat Sain Ji’s heart and that Bhagat Sain Ji was counted among the Bhagats. We can read this in Asa, Mahalla 5, stanza 3, at Panna 487. Mahalla 5 identifies the Fifth Guru, Guru Arjan Sahib Ji, and the full Shabad continues onto Panna 488.
I cannot put the Guru’s words aside because a later writer calls Bhagat Sain Ji a Vaishnav.
We already sing these Shabads in our Gurdwaras. I want those who teach and lead the singing to make time to explain them, in words the sangat, the congregation, can understand. Take one complete Shabad, read the Rahao with the other verses and show how they fit together. Where translations differ, explain the difference and let people ask questions.
We can learn together at home too, but we cannot simply tell parents to teach their children when no one has helped the parents learn. Our Gurdwaras, and people who can explain Gurbani, should support those families. Someone who comes to the Guru with love deserves patient help to understand the words more fully.
Bhagat Bani already stands within the Guru we bow before. Its place is not for a later writer to approve or take away. Our responsibility is to learn what the Guru is teaching us, so that the prayer we sing becomes part of the life we lead.
This article is the short version of a full study, Who Decides What Bhagat Bani Means? That study also examines the story of Bhagat Dhanna Ji offering food to a stone, Bhagat Namdev Ji’s prayer asking the Creator to drink milk, and the Shabad naming Ram Chand as Dasarath’s son. Those passages need the same care. The discussion and sources are there.
Errors will be corrected publicly with a dated note.
Strong disagreement is welcome. Contempt is not.
Bhul chuk maaf karni Ji.
Gurjit Singh Sandhu
PanthSeva
London