Why an akhand diya goes out, and how to keep it lit

An akhand diya is supposed to stay lit from the start of a vrat to its end. When one goes out at two in the morning it is treated as a bad sign, and it very rarely is one. It is usually the wick, the oil, the draught or the vessel.

The wick is too thin

A thin batti drinks faster than it can draw. For a long burn the wick wants to be thicker than the one you would use for an evening aarti, and it wants to sit upright rather than lying along the rim.

The oil is the wrong depth

Too little and it burns dry; too much and the wick drowns and gutters. The wick should stand clear of the surface by roughly the width of a finger, and the level should be topped up without moving the flame.

It is sitting in a draught

A window, a doorway, a fan on low, or the pull of air from a corridor will finish an akhand jyoti long before the oil does. A glass chimney or a deep-walled vessel solves this at almost no cost.

The vessel is too shallow

A wide, shallow diya loses heat and spreads the oil thin. For a burn measured in days, a deeper vessel holds both the oil and the flame more steadily.