My friend, Leka, posted this picture on a forum a few days ago. It depicts the Arati ceremony which plays a big role in Hindu ritual service. He took it in the Radha Gopinatha temple in Vrindavan, India when we visited there earlier this year. It reminded me of my 5 months in a Hindu monastery where I performed aratis daily. Aratis are a form of meditation. In general we equate meditation with silence in the Western world, but within Hinduism meditation encompasses every aspect of our lives. Everything is holy and worthy of meditation. It’s colorful and melodic as much as it silences desire.

“Among Hindu rituals there is perhaps no one ritual more well known than the arati ceremony. Anyone who has visited a Hindu temple has been allured, or due to insufficient knowledge perhaps frightened, when the lamp of fire passes from the altar to the congregation and circulates from person to person.” From: “Arati: From Darkness to Light”

ps Look closely at the picture and you’ll see the lamp of fire being swung in front of the altar.

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