Gayatri Mahatmya

[Sahasranama]

I am opening this thread solely for the collection of information on the greatness of the Gayatri Mantra. Please, don't use this thread for debates. If you would like, you can use this thread to post shlokas on Gayatri or links to other material or contemplate on the material posted..

[Sahasranama]

गायत्री प्रकृतिर्ग़्येय ओङ्कारः पुरुष स्मृत
ताभ्यामुभाभ्यां संयोगाज्जगत्सर्व प्रवर्त्तते
gāyatrī prakṛtirġyeya oṅkāraḥ puruṣa smṛta
tābhyāmubhābhyāṁ saṁyogājjagatsarva pravarttate
"The gayatri is known as prakriti, omkara as purusha. When they come together, the entire universe is created."
(brihad yogi yajnavalkya samhita)


गयत्री साऽभवत् पत्नी प्रणवोऽभूत पतिस्तदा।
पुनरन्योन्दाम्पत्यादिति ताभ्यामभूज्जगत्॥
gayatrī sā'bhavat patnī praṇavo'bhūta patistadā|
punaranyondāmpatyāditi tābhyāmabhūjjagat||
"Gayatri became the wife and the pranava her husband, from both the universe came to existence." (brihad parashara smriti)

सर्ववेदसारभुता गयत्रयास्तु समर्चना।
ब्रह्मादयोपि सन्ध्यायां तां ध्यायन्ति जपन्ति च॥
sarvavedasārabhutā gayatrayāstu samarcanā|
brahmādayopi sandhyāyāṁ tāṁ dhyāyanti japanti ca||
"the worship of gayatri is the essence of the vedas. Even the gods like brahma meditate and do japa of her mantra during Sandhya.

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam: There is a nice little teen reader book meant for American audiences titled 'Ganesh' . Bosse, I think was the author's name. The storyline is that this young chap is an American raised in India with his searching parents but they die and he has to return to live with his Grandmother. So he has an Indian Hindu subconscious and has to deal with the culture shock of America, yet nobody in his peer group knows it because of skin colour. One of the things he does is chant the Gayatri under his breath a lot when the culture shock is kind of overwhelming. Sahasranama, for some reason the thread made me remember this book. It was the most 'Hindu' children's book we had in our library, to be sure.

http://www.amazon.com/Ganesh-Puffin-...0348565&sr=8-5

Aum Namasivaya

[Maya3]

The very first time that I visited the Ashram and heard the Gayatri Mantra I had the most amazing experience. It was so beautiful that I felt shivers up and down my spine in a way that I have never felt before.

Maya

[Sahasranama]

Nice to hear that there is a children's book with a positive look on Hinduism. Maybe I'll pick it up some day for curiousity's sake.

The very first time that I visited the Ashram and heard the Gayatri Mantra I had the most amazing experience. It was so beautiful that I felt shivers up and down my spine in a way that I have never felt before.

Good to hear, the gayatri is a very powerful mantra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7IrmkV3mPM

[Harjas Kaur]

Very beautiful and informative thread!~

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namasté

• gāyatrī - you will also see it as gāyatrá
  • hymn composed in the gāyatrī metre.
  • name of a sāman;
  • consisting in or connected with the gāyatrī e.g. in accordance with the number of syllables of a gāyatrī verse 3 x 8 = 24

A wealth of gāyatrī posts for those that adore this hymn:

http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/sho...hlight=gayatri

http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1935&highlight=gayatri


All glory to Him that breathes out the ved ( brahmā); gāyatrī verse is also personified as goddess , the wife of brahmā and mother of the four vedas.

praṇām

[SanathanaDharma]

Dear Friend,

I had posted the same reply in a different forum and as I found this informative thread here also, I would like to share the same information regarding the Gayatri Mantra here also...

In order to get some more information, lets quickly summarise the background information..
- The Vedas are in the language called "Samskrutha" or "Sanskrit"
- The Vedic Sanskrit(which differs slightly with the current Sanskrit based on rules of Panini and Patanjali) has the following rules or meters. These meters are called "chandas". "Chandas" is a rule or a protocol defined in the Sanskrit grammar, which specifies the way in which the hymns are actually written.

- A Chandas of any specific mantra or hymn specifies the "number of lines[Pada]" and "number of syllables per line"

The prominent "chandas" used to write the "Vedas" are


Name of the Chandas : Gayatri
Number of Lines : 3
Number of syllables per line : 8 + 8 + 8
Total syllables : 24

The other prominant Vedis chandas are
Ushnik
Anushtup
Brihati
Pankti
Trishtup
Jagati

Lets not get into the details of Sanskrit grammar(or the controversies related with it) as that is not what we are discussing here.

Now, coming to the "mantra" under discussion, Bramha Rishi Vishwamitra composed a very powerful "mantra" addressing it to "Savita" in the "Gayatri chandas[8+8+8]" and hence the real name of this mantra is the "Savitur mantra" composed in "Gayatri chandas". The mantra which is present in the Rig Veda is as follows

"ta-t sa-vi-tu-rva-re-nyam"
"bhar-go de-va-sya dhe-ma-hi"
"dhi-yo yo-nah pra-cho-dha-yaat"

The first line "Om bhur bhuva svuah" is actually added(as a Vyahrti) according to the rules of "Taitareeya Aaranyaka" or "Taitareeya Upanishad" of "Yajur Veda".

Now, the question is who is "Savita" and why "Savitur mantra" and what makes it so powerful and what is the meaning of this mantra...

Answers are again very simple
- who is "Savita"
- Savita is yet another name of the "Sun". The Sun God has many names which include "Aditya, Savita, Surya, Anshuman, Pusha, Maartanda, Bhaskara, Ravi, etc....(please refer to Aditya Hrudaya for other names)"

- why "Savita"
- For us humans, who live on this planet called "Bhumi"[earth], Sun or Surya or Savitur is considered as the "Parabramha[Ultimate supreme soul]" swaroopa[form]. He is the one who is visible to us, He is the one who gives us energy[and that is the reason why people work during day time as there is constant energy supply from Him]. He is the food provider as photosynthesis is impossible without His energy. He is the one due to whom moon provides energy at a subtle level during night.He gives us energy[its due to the ultraviolet rays emitted by the Sun, the human body gets the natural Vitamin D ]He is the one who enlightens us as the energy from Him allows us to get up and do our daily work. He is Bramha, Vishnu and Parameshwara personified[as mentioned in the Aditya Hrudaya].

Now lets understand the meaning of the mantra...
The first line of this Savitur mantra which says

"Om Bhur Bhuva Suvah"

According to Vedas in our Sanathana dharma(which is purely scientific and logical), the entire Universe is divided into 14 regions or Lokas [Athala, Vithala,
Suthala, Talaatala, Rasatala, Mahaatala, Paathala, Bhu loka, Bhuvar loka, Suvar loka,
Mahar loka, Janar loka,Tapa loka, and Sathya loka]

The Puranic texts give beautiful yet scientific explanation of these lokas. Lets understand the three mentioned in this mantra.

The Bhu Loka: The planet earth where we live
The Bhuvar Loka: The Solar system
The Suvar Lokar: The region till the polar star(or the Dhruva Nakshatra). This is also near the Ursa Minor and Ursa Major[the Saptha Rishi mandala][almost the milky way galaxy]

The second line of the mantra says

"Tat Savitur Varenyam"

Combining the first two lines, we have

"Om Bhur Bhuva Suvah"
"Tat Savitur Varenyam"


To that "Sun" whose rays extend or reaches the earth, the solar system and till the point where the polar star is present, we pray
[It has been scientifically also discovered that Sun is among one of the brightest stars of Milky way galaxy and the rays reach as far as the polar star]

"bhargo devasya dheemahi"
"dheyo yonah prachodayat"

The term life which is materialistic is always made up of materialistic joy and sorrow. One is ever bound by the results of the duty and instead of giving up the results, we on the contrary are more attracted towards it. The result oriented approach is such a faulty one, because when we perform any action or duty, we start "hoping" for the "best". The term best already means we expect a fair amount of "success" from anything we do. The term hope leads to "anxiety" and "curiosity" regarding the result. Once we get to know about the result we fall into two categories
- if the result is success, then we feel "joy", and slowly this "joy" gives birth to the term "desire" and "lust" as the taste of success "motivates" one to desire for more "success"...and when "desire" sets in, it automatically gives birth to "pride"...and pride always comes along with "ego"...and with "ego" ruling the mind, one is sure to fall down as "ego" is the root cause for the term "competition"..and once "competition" exists, the terms "rank" and "status" begin to flourish and man, forgets everything, becomes selfish and starts hurting people, committing sins and falls down....
- if the result is failure, "frustration" starts to emerge as "hope" was persistent earlier... and this leads to "anger"...and when mind is slave of "anger", there is no control over anything..and due on "anger", the term "revenge" begins to creep in and with "revenge", all negative things flow in automatically and again man commits mistakes and falls down....

The reason for above explanation is that, all the above are experienced by us only when the mind, controlled by the senses starts to suppress the intellect in us. The cause for all this is the "lack of knowledge" as ignorance and knowledge cannot co-exist...and hence we pray to that "Savitur" to help us gain the true knowledge which helps us remove the darkness in us. This knowledge needs to be gained by our intellect or "budhi" or "dhe" and with real knowledge, the mind and the senses can be always controlled ... so the next question is what and where is this knowledge.

"Yat vid iti Veda"...Whatever that is knowledge is Veda...and Sri Gayatri Godess is knowledge personified, She is the term "Vidya" or knowledge, She is the Ultimate reality and Hence while chanting the "Savitur Gayatri" mantra, one needs to concentrate the mind, request the Sun to give us that energy to enlighten our intellect and surrender ourselves completely to Godess Gayatri and gain the real knowledge...

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namasté SanathanaDharma

Originally Posted by SanathanaDharma

The prominent "chandas" used to write the "Vedas" are

Name of the Chandas : Gayatri
Number of Lines : 3
Number of syllables per line : 8 + 8 + 8
Total syllables : 24

Please be aware that chandas ( which has several meanings¹) is meter. Meter is the instruction for how a hymn is to be sung or chanted. How a hymn is written-down is another story and gets into grammar ( which we can pursue if you wish).


You are correct that gāyatrī has 8 phonemes ( ~syllables~) per stanza, ~per line ~. Let me ask you why is 8 significant?


You were kind enough list out 7 types of meter ( chandas) e.g. gāyatrí and triṣṭúbh , etc. What is your opinion on an 8th meter virāj ?


praṇām

words

• chandas - is considered metrical science; yet other definitions are offered:
  • intention , purport
  • roof
  • desire , longing for , will

[Skull]

If I recall Swami Chinmayananda mentioned an added fourth line that is rarely heard. Where does that line come from?