While lighting the lamp

While lighting the lamp

A four-line shloka chanted as you light the evening lamp. The verse makes a striking claim: the small flame in front of you is Parabrahman, the Supreme, and also Janardana, a name of Vishnu. It then asks one specific thing of the lamp — "may this light burn away my sins" — before bowing to the Sandhya-deepa, the lamp lit at the junction of day and night. Recite it at dusk, the traditional moment for lighting the household lamp, as you place or kindle the wick.