What Is the Significance of Lighting a Lamp while Performing Rituals?

             

  What Is the Significance of Lighting a Lamp                       while Performing Rituals?

In all religions of the world, ‘light’ universally symbolizes both the Almighty and knowledge. It is the very source of all life in the universe and, therefore, light is worshipped as the Supreme Lord himself, the enlivener and illuminator of all knowledge. Similarly, just as light removes darkness, knowledge dispels inner ignorance. True knowledge is an unending, ever-growing wealth by which all outer objects can be acquired. Hence, we light a lamp to bow down to and acknowledge light and knowledge as the greatest of all forms of being that exist on this planet.

In traditional Indian homes, a lamp filled with pure ghee is lit daily before the altar of the Lord. In some houses, it is lit at dawn; in some twice a day, at dawn and dusk. In certain homes, it is kept lit twenty-four hours of the day. Such a lamp is known as akhanda jyoti or deepam. All auspicious functions commence with the lighting of a lamp, which is considered as a propitious beginning for any ceremony.

When a lamp filled with pure ghee from cow milk is lit, it attracts divine or positive vibrations from the atmosphere and divinizes the place. This ghee, on evaporating, has the potency to attract positive vibrations which is its unique property. It is for this reason that only ghee lamps should be lit for gods and on auspicious occasions. But, nowadays, we are unmindful of this tradition and use oil instead. Oil lamps are used for the arati of a person and not of a deity as oil has the property to ward off negativity but does not attract divine vibrations. When a war hero returns, or when a bridegroom goes for marriage, the lady of the house performs his arati with an oil lamp to ward off the evil eye.

A lit lamp has a spiritual message. The ghee in it denotes human vasanas or desires and negative tendencies whereas the wick in it symbolizes man’s ego. When it is outwardly lit—when a man mentally concentrates on the Supreme Lord—it is an inward action, but when he lights a lamp outside, it becomes an outward action; it removes negativity and attracts divinity. When it is lit within, through knowledge, it destroys the vasanas from their very root and gradually, the ego is decimated. The flame of a lamp always burns upwards and that inspires us to acquire such knowledge that will take us towards higher goals, ideals and noble deeds.

In traditional homes, a candle or bulb is not lit before the altar as it does not have the potency to create the desired effect. It is, however, an unpleasant truth of the modern age that we resort to short cuts as it is convenient but, in reality, these short cuts will not yield any tangible results except the psychological satisfaction of being religious.

According to a  research (Source: 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society held in September 2007) carried out in the US, candles made from paraffin wax are harmful for humans. This is because the chemicals released by these candles discharge substances such as toluene and benzene, which cause cancer and can affect the nervous system. However, beeswax candles, apparently, do not release harmful air pollutants and are comparatively safer.

Interestingly, thousands of years ago, Indian seers and saints studied in depth the effects of air pollutants released by lamps filled with different types of oils and ghee. They found that ghee from cow milk, mustard oil and coconut oil were agreeable to humans, in that order. Other oils were found to be unsuitable.