Lakshmi Aarti: Om Jai Lakshmi Mata with Meaning

Refrain

ॐ जय लक्ष्मी माता, मैया जय लक्ष्मी माता। तुमको निशदिन सेवत, हरि विष्णु विधाता॥

Om jai Lakshmi Mata, maiya jai Lakshmi Mata, tumko nishdin sevat, Hari Vishnu vidhata.

Arth: The refrain that returns after every stanza — and its claim is startling if you hear it fresh: it is not devotees who are described serving Lakshmi night and day, but Hari, Vishnu, the sustainer himself. The aarti opens by placing her that high: even the preserver of the universe attends on the shakti of abundance, because sustenance is impossible without her.

Stanza 1

उमा रमा ब्रह्माणी, तुम ही जग-माता। सूर्य-चंद्रमा ध्यावत, नारद ऋषि गाता॥

Uma Rama Brahmani, tum hi jag-mata, Surya-Chandrama dhyavat, Narad rishi gata.

Arth: The first stanza dissolves the boundaries between the goddesses: Uma (Parvati), Rama (Lakshmi's own Vedic name), Brahmani (Saraswati) — 'you alone are the world's mother' in all three forms. Then the witnesses: Surya and Chandra meditate on her, Narad sings of her. The lights of the sky and the wandering sage agree on one object of attention.

Stanza 2

दुर्गा रूप निरंजनी, सुख सम्पत्ति दाता। जो कोई तुमको ध्यावत, ऋद्धि-सिद्धि धन पाता॥

Durga roop niranjani, sukh sampatti data, jo koi tumko dhyavat, riddhi-siddhi dhan pata.

Arth: She is Durga's form and niranjani — unstained by what she touches, the way wealth itself is neutral though hands around it rarely are. The stanza's promise is precise: the one who holds her in dhyana receives riddhi (prosperity that grows), siddhi (capability that completes what it starts) and dhan (wealth) — in that order. Attention first, ability second, money last.

Stanza 3

तुम पाताल-निवासिनी, तुम ही शुभदाता। कर्म-प्रभाव-प्रकाशिनी, भवनिधि की त्राता॥

Tum patal-nivasini, tum hi shubhdata, karma-prabhav-prakashini, bhavanidhi ki trata.

Arth: Her range: she dwells even in patal, the lowest world — no place is beneath abundance — and she is shubhdata, giver of the auspicious. Then the aarti's most philosophical line: karma-prabhav-prakashini, she who makes the effects of karma visible. Wealth and its absence, this stanza says, are not random; she illuminates what actions produce, and she rescues from the ocean of worldly existence (bhavanidhi).

Stanza 4

जिस घर में तुम रहतीं, सब सद्गुण आता। सब सम्भव हो जाता, मन नहीं घबराता॥

Jis ghar mein tum rahti, sab sadgun aata, sab sambhav ho jata, man nahi ghabrata.

Arth: The most quoted stanza, because every household recognises it: where she stays, sadgun — the good qualities — arrive first, before any money does. Then everything becomes possible, and the mind stops trembling. Note what the aarti counts as her real gift: not the balance, but the end of ghabrahat — the background anxiety about tomorrow that poverty of any kind produces.

Stanza 5

तुम बिन यज्ञ न होते, वस्त्र न कोई पाता। खान-पान का वैभव, सब तुमसे आता॥

Tum bin yagya na hote, vastra na koi pata, khan-pan ka vaibhav, sab tumse aata.

Arth: Without her no yagya happens — even the offering made to the devas needs ghee, grain and cloth that she provides. Food, clothing, the entire vaibhav (plenitude) of the table: the stanza grounds the theology in the kitchen. Whoever sings this on Diwali night is acknowledging that the year's every meal was her prasad.

Stanza 6

शुभ-गुण मंदिर सुंदर, क्षीरोदधि-जाता। रत्न चतुर्दश तुम बिन, कोई नहीं पाता॥

Shubh-gun mandir sundar, kshirodadhi-jata, ratna chaturdash tum bin, koi nahi pata.

Arth: Her origin story in one line: born of the kshira-sagara, the ocean of milk, when devas and asuras churned it. Fourteen ratnas emerged from that churning — and the stanza reminds the singer that not one of them is obtained without her. Every treasure the world yielded came in her wake; she is the churning's real prize.

Stanza 7

महालक्ष्मीजी की आरती, जो कोई नर गाता। उर आनन्द समाता, पाप उतर जाता॥

Mahalakshmiji ki aarti, jo koi nar gata, ur anand samata, paap utar jata.

Arth: The phala-shruti — the closing stanza that states the fruit of the singing itself: whoever sings this aarti finds anand settling into the heart (ur), and paap slipping away. The aarti ends where stanza four pointed: her measurable effect is inward first — joy where anxiety was — and the outer abundance is treated as a consequence, not the goal.