When it is sung
Sung at the end of a puja, after the deity-specific aarti, as the lamp is circled and passed around the room. Because it addresses god as Jagdish — lord of the universe — rather than any one form, it works as the universal closing aarti at temple ceremonies, satsangs, weddings, housewarmings and daily home worship alike.
Full text, with meaning
Each line of the verse, with its romanisation beneath and what the verse says after it.
Tek (the refrain)
ॐ जय जगदीश हरे, प्रभु! जय जगदीश हरे।
Om Jai Jagdish Hare, Prabhu! Jai Jagdish Hare
भक्तजनोंके संकट छिनमें दूर करे॥ ॐ जय०॥
Bhakta-janon ke sankat, chhin mein door kare
Meaning
Victory to the lord of the universe, who removes the troubles of those who trust him in a moment. This couplet is the tek — the line the whole room sings back after every verse.
Verse 1
जो ध्यावे फल पावै, दुख विनसे मनका॥ प्रभु०॥
Jo dhyave phal pave, dukh vinase man ka
सुख-सम्पति घर आवै, कष्ट मिटै तनका॥ ॐ जय०॥
Sukh-sampati ghar aave, kasht mite tan ka
Meaning
Whoever holds him in mind receives the fruit of it: the grief in the mind is undone, ease and plenty come to the house, and the body is released from its suffering.
Verse 2
मात-पिता तुम मेरे, शरण गहूँ किसकी॥ प्रभु०॥
Maat-pita tum mere, sharan gahun kiski
तुम बिन और न दूजा, आस करूँ जिसकी॥ ॐ जय०॥
Tum bin aur na dooja, aas karun jiski
Meaning
You are my mother and father — whose shelter would I go to instead? There is no second besides you in whom I could place a hope.
Verse 3
तुम पूरन परमात्मा, तुम अन्तर्यामी॥ प्रभु०॥
Tum puran parmatma, tum antaryami
पारब्रह्म परमेश्वर, तुम सबके स्वामी॥ ॐ जय०॥
Parabrahma Parameshwar, tum sabke swami
Meaning
You are the complete supreme self, and the one who knows what is inside — the absolute, the highest lord, master of everything there is.
Verse 4
तुम करुणाके सागर, तुम पालन-कर्ता॥ प्रभु०॥
Tum karuna ke sagar, tum palan-karta
मैं मूरख खल कामी, कृपा करो भर्ता॥ ॐ जय०॥
Main moorakh khal kaami, kripa karo bharta
Meaning
You are an ocean of compassion and the one who sustains. I am a fool, coarse and full of wanting — sustainer, be kind to me anyway. The verse is the hinge of the whole aarti: the singer stops praising and starts admitting.
Verse 5
तुम हो एक अगोचर, सबके प्राणपती॥ प्रभु०॥
Tum ho ek agochar, sabke pran-pati
किस बिधि मिलूँ दयामय! मैं तुमको कुमती॥ ॐ जय०॥
Kis bidhi milun dayamay, main tumko kumati
Meaning
You are the one beyond the reach of the senses, the life of every living thing. By what method could someone as poor in judgement as I am ever reach you, merciful one?
Verse 6
दीनबन्धु दुखहर्ता, तुम ठाकुर मेरे॥ प्रभु०॥
Deenbandhu dukh-harta, tum thakur mere
अपने हाथ उठाओ, द्वार पड़ा तेरे॥ ॐ जय०॥
Apne haath uthao, dwar pada tere
Meaning
Friend of the helpless, remover of sorrow, you are my lord. Raise your hand — I am lying at your door. The image is deliberately undignified: not a worshipper standing, but someone collapsed on a doorstep.
Verse 7 (closing)
विषय-विकार मिटाओ, पाप हरो देवा॥ प्रभु०॥
Vishay-vikar mitao, paap haro deva
श्रद्धा-भक्ति बढ़ाओ, संतनकी सेवा॥ ॐ जय०॥
Shraddha-bhakti badhao, santan ki seva
Meaning
Erase the appetites that distort me, carry off the wrongdoing, god. Increase faith and devotion in me, and the service of the good. The aarti ends not by asking for anything material but for a changed character.
About this aarti
Pandit Shraddha Ram Phillauri (1837–1881) was born in Phillaur in Punjab. He was a preacher, an astrologer and the author of Bhagyavati, generally counted among the earliest novels written in Hindi. He wrote this aarti around 1870. He died in 1881, so the text has been in the public domain in India for well over a century.
The aarti is unusual among Hindu devotional songs in how little it describes. Most aartis are portraits — they list the deity’s crown, mount, weapons, ornaments. This one has almost no visual detail at all. It moves instead through a sequence of relationships: you are parent, you are shelter, you are the only hope, and I am foolish and lying at the door.
That plainness is why it travels. Because it names god only as Jagdish, Parabrahma and Parameshwar — titles rather than a particular form — it can close a puja to Ganesha, Durga, Shiva or Lakshmi without contradiction, and it is one of the few aartis sung in nearly identical words across most of northern India.
The tune is shared with Om Jai Shiv Omkara, the Shiva aarti, and the two are frequently sung one after another at the end of a ceremony.
A note on the text
The text here follows the Gita Press Aarti Sangrah, the standard printed collection, from the scanned copy cited below; obvious scanning errors in that copy have been corrected against the same page’s surrounding text. This edition carries seven verses after the tek. Other editions and regional traditions add further verses — most commonly one beginning “तन-मन-धन सब है तेरा” — and some sing “श्रद्धा-प्रेम बढ़ाओ” in the final verse. Those are genuine variants, not errors; a household usually sings the version it inherited.
Sources
- Aarti Sangrah (Gita Press) — scanned copy, Internet Archive
- ओम जय जगदीश हरे — Hindi Wikipedia (authorship and date)
These texts are in the public domain. The verse is reproduced from the cited source; the English meaning and the background notes on this page are original writing.