The Meaning of gAyatri mantram

By Mani ji, orkut community

; : : om bhU; bhuva: suva: : om tat savitu: varENyam :

bharga: dEvasya dhImahi : : : 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 is
perhaps one of the most signigicant mantrams that comes in the life of a vaidika. upanayanam means to
take the a child (who studies under his father for the first 12 years of his life).. and then child is sent to
gurukulam 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 is
fit 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 .. the meaning of om has been explained in a different
link 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 of
everything.. 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 for
them.. 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.. that
dEva.. that god.. how good is that god? varENyam = here I do not have a good English word.. super
duper.. 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 I
do not have a good English word..) super duper.. excellent.. suprior most.. utkRShtam.. god.. And
meditating 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.. nothing
gets analyzed.. and nothing gets assimilated.. In tatvabodha I have explained the four components of
internal organs called antah: karaNam.. manas, buddhi, ahamkAram and chittam. All of them get purified
by the very recitation of gAyatri mantra.. gAyamtam trAyatE iti gAyatri.. Those who reflect uopn gayatri
are protected and nourished by the very same mantra.. This mantram has a meter and svarAs associated
with 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 us
who 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 for
subrahmaNya (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 is
worshipepd as THE prime deity in many houses. That contains a very potent and highly revered gaNEsha
gAyatri. 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 we
get out of school, how do we know the subjects we learnt work? We falter initially in its application.. then
get good at it and eventually see the results of of efforts.. gWyatri being a mantra it produces both
dRShta phalam and adRShta phalam. the seen reslut, if one happens to have shraddhA, is the focus of

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. nobody
has 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 have
become 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 the
past janma pApams want to bubble up to give us a cock roach body, these gAyatri puNya phalam
HEAVILY PUSH those papams down and retain the top tier of noticeabilty by bhagavAn. That is why in
these 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 is
why I gave creator as a more apt meaning.. but when I explain these in English, something seems to be
lost forever..! savitR is the name for sUraya also, but again when you transcend the literal meaning, ti
becomes the light of cosciousness as well.. suryA is chidAbhAsam.. where as what really shined is "chit" I
have 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.. )
^^^^^^^^