Aarti Shri Ramayan Ji Ki

By the BhaktiRas Editorial Team · Updated 14 July 2026

Unlike most aartis that wave a lamp before a deity’s image, this one turns the flame toward a book. Goswami Tulsidas addresses his praise to the Ramayana as living scripture, calling it the story that Brahma, Narada, Valmiki, Shuka, and Shesha never tire of singing. Devotees recite it to mark the completion of a Ramcharitmanas path, before opening the text for daily study, and on Ram Navami. The four short stanzas move from who sings this story, to which scriptures affirm it, to the sages who keep it alive, and finally to what it does for the listener: burning away the impurities of the Kali age and standing in for Tulsidas as both mother and father.

Aarti Shri Ramayan Ji Ki Lyrics

Meaning & Significance

The striking thing about this aarti is its object. Tulsidas is not waving the lamp before Rama’s murti but before the Ramayana as a text — the Ramcharitmanas he himself wrote. The refrain fixes this by naming the scripture whose fame is “the glory of Sita’s beloved,” folding the book and the Lord it describes into one act of reverence.

Stanza one lines up the story’s eternal reciters: Brahma, Narada, Valmiki, Shuka, the Sanaka sages, Shesha, Saraswati, and Hanuman. The point is authority through lineage — this is not one poet’s invention but a telling the highest beings keep alive. Stanza two widens the claim to the whole scriptural canon: Vedas, eighteen Puranas, six shastras. The Ramayana is presented as their concentrated essence, the “distilled truth all traditions agree upon.”

Stanza three grounds it in the specific transmission Tulsidas trusted most — Shiva narrating to Parvati, and the crow-sage Kagabhushundi telling it to Garuda, the framing devices of the Ramcharitmanas. The final stanza turns to the listener’s benefit: it dissolves the moral grime of the Kali Yuga, makes sense-pleasures lose their pull, and cures the “disease of worldly existence.” The closing line is the most personal in the whole composition — Tulsidas calls the Ramayana his mother and father, the source of everything he is.

How Do You Perform the Aarti?

1. Choose the moment — Recite this aarti at the end of a Ramcharitmanas path (recitation), before you begin daily study of the text, or as part of Ram Navami worship.
2. Set up simply — Keep the Ramcharitmanas or a Rama image before you with a lit ghee or oil lamp; a bell and a small offering of flowers are optional.
3. Sing the refrain first — Open with the refrain, then sing each of the four stanzas in order, returning to the refrain after every stanza.
4. Circle the lamp — During the singing, move the lit lamp in slow clockwise circles before the text or image.
5. Close with pranam — End by offering the aarti flame to yourself and others, bow, and take a moment of silent remembrance of Rama.

What Are the Benefits of Singing This Aarti?

Reciting Aarti Shri Ramayan Ji Ki is a way to honour the Ramcharitmanas as sacred scripture and to steady the mind after a session of Rama devotion. Devotees associate it with several benefits:

• Completes a Ramayan path: It provides the traditional closing for a recitation of the Ramcharitmanas, sealing the reading with gratitude.
• Honours the scripture itself: The aarti trains attention on the text as a living source of guidance, not just an object on the shelf.
• Anchors Ram Navami worship: It is a natural part of Ram Navami and Rama-centred festivals and satsangs.
• Settles the mind: The short, repeating structure calms the mind and shifts focus away from restless sense-pleasures, as the fourth stanza describes.
• Connects to a devotional lineage: Singing it places the reciter within the long line of sages and saints the verses name.

Who Wrote This Aarti?

Goswami Tulsidas (c. 1511–1623) was the poet-saint of Awadh who composed the Ramcharitmanas, the Awadhi retelling of the Rama story that became the most widely read devotional text of northern India. Devoted entirely to Rama, he also wrote the Hanuman Chalisa, Vinaya Patrika, Kavitavali, and other works.

This aarti belongs to the tradition around his Ramcharitmanas and is sung to honour that scripture. Its final line — where the poet calls the Ramayana his mother and father — reflects Tulsidas’s own life, in which the story of Rama became the centre of his devotion and identity.

Frequently Asked Questions

॥ बोलो सियावर रामचन्द्र की जय ॥