8/16/2019 The Meaning of GAyatri Mantram

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The Meaning of gAyatri mantram

By Mani ji, orkut community

ओभ   ;ू भ   वु : स   वु : om bhU; bhuva: suva: ओतसवत   ु: वरेणयम    ्om tat savitu: varENyam भगर   :् देवय  धीमह  

bharga: dEvasya dhImahi धय : य : न : पचोदयात    ्dhiya: ya: na: prachodayAt What I write here is applicable

to those who have been inititated to the mantram in a ritual called upanayanam. Gayatri mantram isperhaps one of the most signigicant mantrams that comes in the life of a vaidika. upanayanam means totake the a child (who studies under his father for the first 12 years of his life).. and then child is sent togurukulam by the famly to study one shAkhA of the veda to which that family belongs.. upa means near

and nayanam means the process of taking to or leading to.. The child thus initiated into gAyatri alone isfit to study the veda. om bhU; bhuva: suva: The mantram iself has 8 aksharas.. The first one is to

indicate that the entire creation is nothing but ओम   .्. the meaning of om has been explained in a differentlink in this community.. It represents the waking, dreaming, and deep sleep stages of one's existence..

that represents the entire creation.. the silence that follows the "m" sound it the layam or termination ofeverything.. then.. from that silence the creation starts again.. waking, dreaming, and sleeping, silence..

bhU; is planet earth.. bhuva: and suva: are higher worlds. (now don.t take a space flight tol look forthem.. these are all for upAsanAs) om tat savitu: varENyam bharga: dEvasya dhImahi dhiya: ya: na:prachodayAt| dhImahi: = Let us meditate upon.. what? bharga: = on the effulgence or invisible

presence.. ya:=of whom? and how good is that effulgence? tat savitu: dEvasya = that creator.. thatdEva.. that god.. how good is that god? varENyam = here I do not have a good English word.. superduper.. excellent.. suprior most..utkRShtam.. etc come to my mind.. and meditating upon that effulgence does what?

prachodayAt na: = (Let that meditation) kindle and sharpen our

dhiya: = intellect This prayer is one of the best

Let us meditate upon the effulgence or invisible presence..of that creator.. that dEva.. that god.. (here Ido not have a good English word..) super duper.. excellent.. suprior most.. utkRShtam.. god.. Andmeditating upon that effulgence .. let that process of constatn reflection kindle and sharpen our intellect..

This prayer is one of the best.. becasuse without a shar sharp intellect nothing is understood by us.. Not just the vedas.. not just the upanishats.. not just the sciences.. nothing will stick in our memory.. nothinggets analyzed.. and nothing gets assimilated.. In tatvabodha I have explained the four components ofinternal organs called antah: karaNam.. manas, buddhi, ahamkAram and chittam. All of them get purifiedby the very recitation of gAyatri mantra.. gAyamtam trAyatE iti gAyatri.. Those who reflect uopn gayatriare protected and nourished by the very same mantra.. This mantram has a meter and svarAs associatedwith it.. and one must be initiated into cahanting this by proper vedic rituals.. So those of us who are not

initiated by the upanayanam, can still read this as a mere chant and get the benefit.. adnd those of uswho are initiated into gAyatri can chant this in our mind 24 7..

Continuing on gAyatri mantram

This mantram is so popular that there are gAyatri mantras about many dEvatas.. For example

tatpurushaya vidmahE mahAsenAya dheemahi tanno shaNmukhaprachodyAt. is a gAyatri mantra forsubrahmaNya (or kumara or murugan) Even in atharva vedam there is a small mantram called "gaNEsha

athravasheerSham".. This is very popular in north, especially mahArAshtra.. whree gaNEsha isworshipepd as THE prime deity in many houses. That contains a very potent and highly revered gaNEshagAyatri. It starts with."...... eka dantAya vidmahE vakratuNDAya dheemahi.. tannodantee prachodayAt.."and goes on to extol gaNEsha. How does gAyatri work? It is like every thing else in life we do.. When weget out of school, how do we know the subjects we learnt work? We falter initially in its application.. thenget good at it and eventually see the results of of efforts.. gWyatri being a mantra it produces bothdRShta phalam and adRShta phalam. the seen reslut, if one happens to have shraddhA, is the focus of

8/16/2019 The Meaning of GAyatri Mantram

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the mind and intellect.. It helps actually focus on ANYTHING ELSE we do with clarity and alertness. This

statement is based on personal anubhavam. Then of course, is the unseen result. or puNyam. nobodyhas seen puNyam or pAPam.. so we discard it easily. shruti is NEVER wrong in these areas.. while it

belongs only in vyAvahArik sattaa or relative reality, IT IS THE ONLY REALITY WE AHVE TO DEAL WITH..so I have no trouble in accepting concepts like AK, SK, PK< and CPK. I also know that some of you havebecome as good in your understanding as I myself am at the moment.. To that extent, I consider myself

blessed. So the AK sunseen puNya phalam is added to the SK of the mumuksu and actually when thepast janma pApams want to bubble up to give us a cock roach body, these gAyatri puNya phalamHEAVILY PUSH those papams down and retain the top tier of noticeabilty by bhagavAn. That is why inthese modern days vaidiak rituals have been replaced with simple prayers, charity, and kindness. hari:om Actually Savithavu is not the Physical Soorya but it is the eternal Light of Knowledge. (M: yes.. that iswhy I gave creator as a more apt meaning.. but when I explain these in English, something seems to belost forever..! savitR is the name for sUraya also, but again when you transcend the literal meaning, tibecomes the light of cosciousness as well.. suryA is chidAbhAsam.. where as what really shined is "chit" Ihave heard SDS expalin the meaning as mahAvakyam also.. where he starts with the samskRta dhAtu"bhU sttayAm" in "om bhU;"and straightaway leads a mumukshu to limitless existence of chaitanyam..anantam sat.. in sat chit Anandam.. glad to see your comment.. )^^^^^^^^