Who Composed 'Om Jai Jagdish Hare Swami Jai Jagdish Hare' Aarti- Shraddha Ram Phillauri or Shivanand Swami Ji

Astro-devam
'Om Jai Jagdish Hare Swami Jai Jagdish Hare' can undoubtedly be called the most popular aarti of Hinduism, especially if we consider North India and Hindi in mind. This aarti is one of the most popular aartis not only among Hindi people but also among other language speakers all over India who have faith in Hinduism and is sung in every households and place on special occasions and temples every day. 

It is generally believed that this is an aarti of Lord Vishnu and is very popular among Vaishnavites. But the truth is that it is more related to the Brahma Ishwar (formless god) described in the Vedas. If we read the 'Om Jai Jagdish Hare' aarti carefully, then there is no discussion of the form of Lord Vishnu, the form of Narayan anywhere in it that people generally ignore. So, we made it a point to make it a part of this topic. For Lord Narayan, Shivanand Swamiji composed the 'Om Jai Lakshmi Ramana Swami Jai Lakshmi Ramana' aarti separately for Lord Vishnu or Lord Satyanarayan. 




Time and again the question arises that who composed this aarti? There is a lot of material available on the Internet in this regard and it is a common belief that it was composed by the Punjab litterateur Pandit Shraddha Ram Phillauri in the year 1870. Pandit Shraddha Ram Sharma Phillauri was born in Phulauri village near Ludhiana in Punjab, hence his surname Phillauri. Pandit Shraddha Ram Ji was a famous Hindi writer. He was the author of many books, a religious preacher, astrologer, freedom fighter, and author of immense literature in Hindi and Punjabi languages. His novel Bhagyavati is considered to be the first novel in Hindi. At the same time, he is considered the father of Punjabi prose. So, it may be assumed, as is a common belief, that Pandit Shraddha Ram Sharma Phillauri Ji composed the popular aarti Om Jai Jagdish Hare. 

But the problem is that in the last lines of this aarti there is a description of some Shivanand Swami and Harihara Swami. The last lines are in such a way that 'Kahat Shivanand Swami, Kahat Harihar Swami' So if Shraddha Ram Sharma Phillauri Ji had composed this popular aarti, then how did the name of Shivanand Swami or Harihar Swami appear in this aarti? Then a new concept came that this popular aarti was composed by Swami Shivanand Ji. Swami Shivanand Ji (Shivanand Saraswati Ji), who started the famous organization named Divine Life Society in Rishikesh and who became internationally popular as a great scholar of Vedanta. So we researched whether Swami Shivanand Ji had composed this aarti, then after much research, it was found that Swami Shivanand Ji also did not compose this aarti. 

If not, then who composed this Aarti, and who is the Swami Sivananda discussed in this Aarti? When very thorough research was done by the author of this article i.e. Acharya Kalki Krishnan Ji from AstroDevam.com, it came to knowledge that the author of this aarti is Swami Sivananda or Sivananda Swami, but it was not the one we mentioned above. Rather this Shivanand Swami was born in Surat. His full name was Shivanand Vamdev Pandya. Shivanand Vamdev Pandya was born in Surat to Vamdev Harihar Pandya in 1541. Shivanand Ji's grandfather's name was Harihar Kaka Dev Pandya who was a resident of Vadnagar in Gujarat and later settled in Surat in the fourteenth century. Harihar Pandya Ji had great respect and that is why Shivanand Ji not only gave his name in this aarti but also gave his grandfather's name respectfully. 

Shivanand Vamdev Pandya Ji became very famous in Gujarat as Shivanand Swami, he not only composed Om Jai Jagdish Hare Aarti in 1601 but also composed Ambe ji's Aarti which is sung in Garba on the occasion of Navratri in Gujarat. This aarti is very popular in Gujarat and Garba is not complete without it being sung. It is believed that he did the sadhana of Mother Ambe and when Mother Ambe appeared pleased with her Yagya, he composed Ambaji's aarti. He also composed many other popular Aartis like 'Om Jai Shiv Omkara Swami Jai Shiv Omkara' and Satyanarayan Bhagwan's Aarti 'Jai Laxmi Ramana Swami Jai Laxmi Ramana' and Mother Durga's Aarti 'Jai Ambe Gauri Maiya Jai Shyama Gauri'. He composed them on the banks of the Narmada river. Unfortunately, such a great writer remains forgotten in the History of India. 

A question arises here when Shivanand Swami Ji composed these aartis then how did the name of Shraddha Ram Phillauri Ji become famous, so it happened that Shraddha Ram Phillauri Ji used to give very effective discourses all over Punjab such as that on Mahabharat. At the end of those discourses, he used to make a group rendition of 'Om Jai Jagdish Hare' aarti, then due to his continuous singing of this aarti, this aarti became very famous all over India, especially in Punjab, and got associated with his name as composer of the Aarti whereas this was not true. 

So, the time has come that we give credit to the original author of this famous aarti Om Jai Jagdish Hare Swami Jai Jagdish Hare, so that the soul of Shivanand Swami Ji, who is the author of these famous aartis, rest in peace. 

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