Finding Wonder in a Living Universe
What does worship look like when the whole cosmos becomes the offering?
What does worship look like when the whole cosmos becomes the offering?
There is a moment that arrives on a clear night, far from city lights: standing still, one’s breath pauses, eyes searching the dark velvet above for the scatter of stars. In that wide hush, the mind loosens its grip. Galaxies whirl unseen, nebulae birth suns, black holes swallow light. Yet here, under this endless bowl of sky, the heart feels small and whole at once.
Long before humankind charted the galaxies with telescopes, or measured the cosmic background radiation humming from the universe’s first breath, there was a traveler, a seeker, a voice who looked up at this same sky and offered a simple truth: the sky itself is the platter, the sun and moon are the lamps, the stars are scattered pearls.
The first Sikh Guru, Nanak Sahib, uttered these words at Jagannath Puri, a grand temple renowned for its elaborate ārti, the ceremonial waving of lamps before the divine idol of Jagannath. When asked why he did not join the ritual, Guru Nanak spoke not in opposition but in wonder, singing a sabad that reveals a living, breathing worship woven through the very fabric of existence.
This is that sabad. Preserved in Rag Dhanasari in the Guru Granth Sahib, it invites every heart to step outside the walls of constructed ritual and glimpse the entire cosmos as an ever-flowing, uncontainable prayer.
ਰਾਗੁ ਧਨਾਸਰੀ ਮਹਲਾ ੧ ॥
Rāg Dhanāsarī Mahalā 1
Rag Dhanasari, First Embodiment (Guru Nanak Sahib)
ਗਗਨ ਮੈ ਥਾਲੁ ਰਵਿ ਚੰਦੁ ਦੀਪਕ ਬਨੇ ਤਾਰਿਕਾ ਮੰਡਲ ਜਨਕ ਮੋਤੀ ॥
Gagan mai thāl(u) ravi chand(u) dīpak bane tārikā manḍal janak motī.
The sky is the platter; the sun and moon are the lamps; the star clusters are like scattered pearls.
Guru Nanak invites the gaze to lift from temple walls to the open vault of the heavens. Instead of crafted brass trays, the entire expanse of sky is the offering plate; instead of oil lamps, the blazing sun and the gentle moon light the vast hall of creation. The stars, beyond count, shine like shimmering beads on this endless canvas. Each is a glimmering pearl testifying that the Divine is not seated in one shrine but throbs in the entire expanse above and within.
ਧੂਪੁ ਮਲਆਨਲੋ ਪਵਣੁ ਚਵਰੋ ਕਰੇ ਸਗਲ ਬਨਰਾਇ ਫੂਲੰਤ ਜੋਤੀ ॥੧॥
Dhūp(u) malānlo pavaṇ(u) cavaro kare sagal banrāi phūlant jotī.
The fragrant breeze is the incense; the wind fans gently like a whisk; all the forest blooms offer flowers to this Light. (1)
Here the ritual elements of temple ārti dissolve into the choreography of nature itself. The scented winds that drift down from sandalwood forests are the incense no human hand must light. The air swirls and stirs like a servant waving a royal fan before a sovereign. Yet no attendant is needed, for the wind itself performs this act. Trees and vines, fields and groves, all burst into blossoms as if laying floral offerings at the feet of the Radiance which sustains them. It is a worship alive, spontaneous, without beginning or end.
ਕੈਸੀ ਆਰਤੀ ਹੋਇ ॥ ਭਵ ਖੰਡਨਾ ਤੇਰੀ ਆਰਤੀ ॥
Kaisī ārtī hoi. Bhav khaṇḍnā terī ārtī.
How wondrous is this ārti! O Destroyer of birth and death, this is Your ārti!
Guru Nanak marvels aloud — how can human hands replicate such grandeur? What lamp or incense could compete with a sun or mountain breeze? This ārti unfolds by itself, every moment. To the One who breaks the endless cycle of birth and death, this vast, self-sustaining, unspoken ceremony is the true worship: not confined by ritual timing, but woven into every heartbeat, every gust of wind, every rising sun.
ਅਨਹਤਾ ਸਬਦ ਵਾਜੰਤ ਭੇਰੀ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
Anhatā sabad vājant bherī.
The unstruck sound echoes like a kettledrum. (1) Pause.
Beneath the bustle of creation hums a sound not struck by drum or string: a primal vibration, a hum that holds galaxies together, a resonance modern science names as background radiation, the leftover breath of the universe’s first cry. Nanak calls it the unstruck sabad, an eternal kettledrum that beats without hands, echoing through our own pulse if we quieten enough to listen.
ਸਹਸ ਤਵ ਨੈਨ ਨਨ ਨੈਨ ਹਹਿ ਤੋਹਿ ਕਉ ਸਹਸ ਮੂਰਤਿ ਨਨਾ ਏਕ ਤੋੁਹੀ ॥
Sahas tav nain nan nain hahi tohi kau sahas mūrat nanā ek touhī.
You have a thousand eyes — yet no eyes; a thousand forms — yet not one form.
The sabad turns from sky to the One within it all: a Being so boundless it peers through every eye yet remains unseen; manifests in countless shapes yet has no fixed form. Each living being’s sight, movement, thought, and breath is a window through which the Infinite perceives the Infinite. There is no idol, yet all are living idols of this Presence.
ਸਹਸ ਪਦ ਬਿਮਲ ਨਨ ਏਕ ਪਦ ਗੰਧ ਬਿਨੁ ਸਹਸ ਤਵ ਗੰਧ ਇਵ ਚਲਤ ਮੋਹੀ ॥੨॥
Sahas pad bimal nan ek pad gandh binu sahas tav gandh iv calat mohī.
You have a thousand pure feet — yet no feet; a thousand noses — yet none; such wonders baffle the mind. (2)
So too, the same One walks on countless feet yet is never bound by them; breathes through countless noses yet is untouched by scent. This paradox tangles the mind but frees the heart: the Divine is not elsewhere. It is nearer than our own breath yet vaster than the farthest star. Wonder blossoms where logic collapses.
ਸਭ ਮਹਿ ਜੋਤਿ ਜੋਤਿ ਹੈ ਸੋਇ ॥
Sabh mahi jot(i) jot(i) hai soi.
In all is the Light, and that Light is the same.
This same Light flickers in every cell, every star, every blade of grass. The grand truth modern physics glimpses. That everything is made of the same stardust, bound by the same force finds its echo here: the One Light dances through the seen and unseen, binding the ordinary to the infinite.
ਤਿਸ ਦੈ ਚਾਨਣਿ ਸਭ ਮਹਿ ਚਾਨਣੁ ਹੋਇ ॥
Tis dai chānaṇ(i) sabh mahi chāṇaṇu hoi.
By that Light, all are illuminated.
Whatever shines - mind, sun, moon, thought - shines by that Light. Without it, there is only darkness, no matter how bright the bulb or how sharp the mind. Everything brightens by borrowing a fraction of that radiance, as the moon borrows the sun’s fire.
ਗੁਰ ਸਾਖੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਪਰਗਟੁ ਹੋਇ ॥
Gur sākhī jot(i) pargaṭu hoi.
Through the Guru’s teaching, this Light becomes visible.
Eyes may be open, but without a lens they do not see clearly. The Guru Wisdom is this living lens: a guide who aligns the heart’s sight with the Light already within. This is no theoretical wisdom but a practical knowing. A flame lit in darkness so that one lives not as blind but as seeing.
ਜੋ ਤਿਸੁ ਭਾਵੈ ਸੁ ਆਰਤੀ ਹੋਇ ॥੩॥
Jo tis(u) bhāvai su ārtī hoi.
Whatever pleases That One, that is the true ārti. (3)
So what remains to be done? Only this: live so that each thought, each breath aligns with what pleases that Light. This is the ārti no priest can perform for another. It unfolds as each life shaped by the Divine Will, each action fragrant with harmony.
ਹਰਿ ਚਰਣ ਕਵਲ ਮਕਰੰਦ ਲੋਭਿਤ ਮਨੋ ਅਨਦਿਨੋੁ ਮੋਹਿ ਆਹੀ ਪਿਆਸਾ ॥
Hari caraṇ kaval makrand lobhit mano andinou mohi āhī piāsā.
The mind longs daily for the nectar of the Lord’s lotus feet.
A longing wells up when the heart tastes this vision: a hunger sweeter than any satisfaction. Like a bee drawn to nectar, the mind circles and hovers around the sweetness found in surrender to the One’s presence, thirsting again each day.
ਕ੍ਰਿਪਾ ਜਲੁ ਦੇਹਿ ਨਾਨਕ ਸਾਰਿੰਗ ਕਉ ਹੋਇ ਜਾ ਤੇ ਤੇਰੈ ਨਾਇ ਵਾਸਾ ॥੪॥੩॥
Kripā jal(u) dehi Nānak sāriṅg kau hoi jā te terai nāi vāsā.
Grant mercy’s water to this soul-bird, O Nanak, so it may dwell in Your Name. (4) (3)
Guru Nanak concludes with a gentle plea: as a rainbird cries for rain, so the seeker cries for the shower of grace. That nourishing drop that quiets wandering and lets the heart settle in the shelter of the Name, forever refreshed, forever at home.
Guru Nanak’s song at Jagannath Puri did not reject ārti; it revealed it everywhere. Where priests waved lamps in a fixed rhythm, Nanak saw a living lamp lit by stars, incense drifting as mountain wind, and hymns echoing as the hum of space itself. In the language of today’s science, this is the same universe discovered by astronomers full of galaxies spinning, black holes devouring light, atoms vibrating with primordial energy. Where physics explains, Gurbani enlivens: it invites wonder, reverence, and a living relationship with the One Light dancing through it all.
Even now, in an age of satellites and space telescopes, the sabad stands fresh. It is a gentle reminder that no ceremony, however elaborate, can contain the vastness that already contains us. The entire cosmos, from the swirl of Andromeda to the hush between breaths, is the true ārti. To join it is not to add anything new but to soften into what already is: the sun’s lamp, the moon’s lamp, the mind’s lamp.
Tonight, stand outside. Let the eyes drink the stars. Let the mind taste the quiet hum under thoughts. If longing stirs - a longing without shape, without name - let it be a prayer lit by the sky’s own flame. Nothing more is needed. Nothing less will do.
Learn more about this shabad at The Guru Granth Project from Sikh Research Institute.
Listen to this sabad being sung by Dr. Gurnam Singh at Darbar Sahib:
Listen to it being sung dramatically by Satinder Sartaj (starts at 1:40):
Watch the scene from Jagannath Puri recreated in the film Nanak Shah Fakir (watch from the 1:08 point)