G A Y A T R I

G A Y A T R I


Gayatri is the mother of Vedas. "Gayantham Trayate Iti Gayatri" Gayatri protects and redeems one who chants it. Pranava OM is included in the mantra since Gayatri originated from OM. The sound OM is the music produced in the rotation of innumerable planets in the galaxy. OM is otherwise termed as the sound energy of Brahman. Thus Brahman is the potential energy and OM is the kinetic energy from which Gayatri came and subsequently Vedas.OM is the musical sound (udgeeta) of heaven. Probably, this OM only has been adopted by some other religion as AMEN. When sage Vasishta blessed Sage Viswamitra as "Brahma Rishi" and touched his forehead Viswamitra could hear the celestial music from which Gayatri came. Viswamitra was a king prior to his sanyasa. When he went to the hermitage of Vasishta with all his entourage, all of them were treated with all comforts and fed well, because of the power of Kamadenu Vasishta was having. King Viswamitra wanted to possess Kamadenu. When Vasishta declined to fulfil his wish for the reason that the King was not spiritually qualified to have Kamadenu, the king used force, but miserably failed and accepted defeat before the spiritual strength of Sage Vasishta. As soon as he returned to his kingdom he relinquished the kingdom and started doing tapas to gain spiritual strength. This tapas was not backed up by tatwa gnanam. Alas, when the charming Urvasi came and danced before him, he, overwhelmed by lust, fell prey to her and he begot a daughter Sakunthala in the relationship with Urvasi. Thus lust took away all the tapa-sakthy he had acquired so far. Again, after some years, another charming maiden- Rambha came ; but this time he was full of anger and in rage he cursed Rambha to become a stone. For the second time he lost all the tapa-sakthy because of anger. There was another incident - when a king by name Trisanku expressed his desire to go to heaven with this human body, sage vasishta sent him away for he was asking for the impossible. Viswamitra took up this as a challenge and sent Trisanku to heaven using his tapa-sakthy. When he saw Trisanku falling from heaven he built another swarga in the middle as the king was falling. The egoistic act of Viswamitra took away all the tapa-sakthy he had acquired so far. Thus lust, anger and ego overpowered him. Again he started tapas and after many years Lord blessed him as 'Rishi' and asked to him to approach Vasishta to confer the status of Brahma Rishi which Vasishta was only qualified to do so being a Brahma Rishi himself! Rishi Viswamitra was full of jealous and he wanted to do away with Vasishta . When he approached the hermitage of Vasishta with that intention, he overheard the conversation between Sage Vasishta and his wife to the effect that Vasishta was waiting for the arrival of Viswamitra to confer the Brahmarishi title. Viswamitra was ashamed of his behaviour and shed the jealousy and approached Sage Vasishta with all humility. He was made Brahma Rishi and he could hear the music of the Cosmos when Sage Vasishta touched his forehead and blessed him. Thus Viswamitra atlast got intiation of OM and Gayatri from Vasishta.

The chanting of gayatri is a saguna worship leading to krima mukthy. Gayathri has 24 sylables grouped in 3 padas. There is a belief that it has a fourth pada which is invisible, but eternal, transcending the earlier three padas which represent the three worlds, 3 vedas and prana sakthy.Each of the vedic mantras has three aspects viz rishy, chandas and devada. For Gayathri, Viswamitra is the rishi, Gayathri is the chandas and Savida is the Devada. So, from this, we understand that Savidha is the Devada and Gayathri is the chandas (vedic metre) For the pranava mantra OM, Brahma is the rishi, gayathri is the chandas and Paramatma is the devada. For the vyahrities (bhu, bhuva, swah, maha, jana, tapa and satyam) rishies are Atri, Brihu, Kutsa, Vasishta, Gowthama, Kasyapa, Angeerasa, and chandas are gayatri, ushnik, anushtup brahathee, pankthy, drushty and jagathee. The devadas are agni, vays, soorya, Brahaspathy, Varuna, Indra and Viswadeva. Rishi is one who has, as a result of his tapa-sakthy, realised the purport of the mantra and benefitted by it. So when the name of the rishi of the mantra is chanted, one has to place his hand on his head. Similarly when the name of the chandas is chanted one has to place his hand on the upper lip and when Devada's name is chanted one has to place his hand on the heart. These three, rishi, chandas and devada are together known as 'nyasam'.

As mentioned above Gayatri has 24 syllables; some persons are of the opinion that it has only 23 1/2 sylables and only when the word varenyam is pronounced as vareniyam it would count 24. It doesn’t matter whether it is 23 or 24; the meaning of it is important. All the same there is a commandment that Gayatri should be chanted correctly and also understanding the meaning of it. There is a story that King Janaka while riding on an elephant came to know from the elephant about its previous birth and the elephant told the king that he was not chanting gayatri properlyin his earlier birth and that has resulted in his rebirth as an elephant. The 24 syllables are connected to different organs of the body viz. Toes, feet, ankle, knee, urinary tract, reproductive organ, hip, navel, stomach, breast, lungs, heart, veins, neck, face, jaws, nose, eyes, arms, forehead, ear, scalp, nerves and brain!!

In the early vedic period women folk were also chanting gayathri and there were women like Gargi and Maitreyee who excelled in the knowledge of vedas. Now only men, that too only those who are born in the brahmin community are initiated Gayatrhi and after initiation he is known as a dwija. There are stories that Lord Rama explained the Gayatri mantra to Lakshmana and Bhishma explained the same to Kowravas and pandavas. So at that time kshatriyas were also chanting gayatri (God forbid Lord Rama is an incarnation and He doesn’t belong to a particular community!) Similarly Lord Krishna says in Geetha that among mantras He is Gayatri.

Savitha in the mantra is Light of Consciousness and Dhiya is the meditative mind. Gayatri is both a prayer and meditation.For prayer, Gayatri is personified as Goddess with five heads and ten arms to have control over 5 elements and for controlling the cosmic rays emanating from 10 directions through the nine planets.(Thus the total number comes to 24 - sylables of gayaytri!) Again the word GA YA THRI represent the three essential things for life viz Air, Fire and Water! Another concept - this Savitha has three names Gayatri (presiding deity of senses) Savitri (prana tatwa) and Saraswathy (presiding deity of speech).Yet another concept is that Gayatri represents Saraswathy (Brahma swaroopini), Durga (Rudra swaroopini) and Lakshmi (Vishnu swaroopini)!

Vaishnavites equated Gayatri with Ashtakshari mantra OM Namo Narayanaya and declared that all inviduals irrespective of cast, creed or sex can chant this Ashtakshari and gain the same benefit which one derives from Gayatri. Chanting of Gayatri has been confined to the male members of the brahmin community and that too lot of discipline is required for chanting whereas Ashtakshari is free for all and at all times and not with strict discipline!
OM TAT SAVITHUR VARENYAM
BARGO DEVASYA DEEMAHI
DEEYO YONA PRACHODAYAT

WE MEDITATE ON THE MOST ADORABLE GLORY OF THE EFFULGENT SUN THE SUPREME BEING WHO PURIFY AND ILLUMINE OUR INTELLECT


Pranayama is an important anga to Gayatri. The Pranayama mantra also begins with OM followed by seven lokas Bhu, Bhuva, Swah, Maha, Jana, Tapa, Satyam which represent the different stages in the progress in Self Realisation. Bhu loka is the world we live in and through Bhuva one has to reach swarga loka. These three are to benefit mankind with material benefits. The next three are for tapsvee, saint , sage or brahmavith, brahmavaran and brahma vareeyan. The seventh one is for Brahma varishtan. There is another concept that they represent the shad-chakra which leads to sahasraram. These chakras are physical (mooladharam), sexual(swathishtanam), psychological (manipuram)mental state of equipoise (anahada) spiritual (visuddhi), spiritual transcended (agna) and finally sahasraram (cerebrum?)

Followed by the names of the seven lokas , gayathri is chanted and in continuation the mantra 'Om apo jyoti rasa amritham brahma bhurbhuvswarom" is chanted which means five elements, aham tatwam, mahat tatwam and prakrithy. The last mentioned three aspects are Sankya concept of creation; aham (ego), mahat (germ of the Universe and prakrithy (primary cause). At the beginning and end OM is there as if the entire Universe is condensed in OM ..Here 'amritham' represents the eternal air and 'brahma' represents the all pervading ether.

While chanting pranayama mantra it is recommended that breathing also should be regulated in the ratio of 1:3:2 for inhaling, retaining and exhaling the breath. The purpose of this is to be attentive on breathing as well. In Vipasana meditation (anapana-sati yoga ?) it is said that we need be just a witness to our breathing. The length and shortness of breath does not matter.It is not that the breath controls the mind ; it is the otherway. The mind and breath are however closely interlinked and that might be the reason certain section of people give importance to breath-control to control the thoughts. As per the vedantic concept, our negating the prapancham is symbolically 'rechakom', bringing the thought 'aham Brahmasmi' is 'poorakam' and remaining quiet without any vritties is 'kumbakom'. Without the backing up of tatwa gnanam our controlling the breath would only be an exercise on breath with some benefit for the time being.

Like Pranayama, the meditation of 'Aikya anusandanam' is a very important anga to Gayatri. ASAVADHITYO BRAHMA -- BRAHMAIVA SATYAM -
BRAHMAIHAVASMI - THIS SUN IS BRAHMAN; BRAHMAN IS THE ONLY TRUTH; I AM BRAHMAN.

While Gayatri, Pranayama and Aikya anusandanam are the three important aspects in 'Sandhyavandanam', it does not mean that other aspects like marjanam, argya pradanam, abhivadanam, digdevada vandanam are less important. Let us make an attempt to understand the significance of the mantras in sandyavandanam instead of doing the karma as a matter of routine and habit.