Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Look at the sky. That cosmic plate is Yours. The sun and the moon are Your lamps. The stars are the pearls scattered across it.
The fragrance rising from the sandalwood forests is Your incense. The wind moving through the world is Your fan. All the plants and flowers of the earth are Your offerings.
This — all of this — is Your ceremony of light, O Luminous Lord.
This one says the whole sky is already holding a ceremony of light for the One.
Aartee is a Hindu way of worship. A lamp on a plate is waved in front of the deity while people sing. Guru Nanak was reportedly at a famous Hindu temple while a grand aartee was going on.
He looked up at the sky and pointed. Gagan mai thaal — the sky is the plate. Rav chand deepak banay — the sun and the moon are the lamps. The stars are the pearls. The wind is the fan.
Picture a birthday cake with candles. Now picture the whole night sky as the cake, with the sun and the moon as its two big candles. The whole world is already celebrating.
A small lamp lit indoors is beautiful. It is also a tiny echo of the ceremony going on above us every day.
Guru Nanak does not throw the ritual away. He makes it bigger, so that it belongs to no one group and to everyone.
When you have seen something in nature that took your breath away — a sunset, a storm, a forest — did it feel like you were watching something sacred? What was that feeling?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI