Goddess of the Week : Gayatri Devi, The Personal Mother.

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SUPREME, pure consciousness is Parabrahman, the impersonal Godhead.

This transcendental consciousness as power is Mother. She is known as

Gayatri. She is the primal cause of everything that was, that is, and

that will be. When she manifested the triguna-s or three qualities,

known as sattva (poise), rajas ( passion), and tamas (stupor), these

three qualities, possessing the pure consciousness that is

Parabrahman, took three forms known as Brahma, Vishnu and Siva.

Brahma was possessed by rajas, Visnu by sattva, and Siva by tamas.

Gayatri was worshipped by the Trinity as The Mother. When Brahma,

Visnu and Siva were just children, GayatriDevi put them into the

cradle of Void ( akasa ) that was hung by the chains of the four

Vedas ( wisdom ) and with Om lullaby. She put them to sleep. Seeing

that Her children possessed by guna-s were sleeping, Devi disappeared.

 

After a long time, the Trimurti got up and began crying. They grew up

and were wandering in Void by the power of the guna-s and then they

thought of finding their Mother. They sat in mediatation for a long

time. As the fire of their austerity was scorching the universe, the

Universal Mother, being compassionate, decided to appear before them.

Even though She is all-pervasive, still for Her divine lila ( sport),

She manifested Her divine form.

 

She was the most beautiful Mother, She wore a red sari, Garlands

dangled round Her neck and Her face was like the full moon. She had

three eyes and Her forehead carried a round mark of red powder. She

had eight arms holding lotuses, mace, conch, and toerings, bangles

and many shining rings, jewels and ornaments, all of which were

supraphysical ( aprakrta )

 

She came running for Her children and perspiration was dropping from

Her face like pearls. Then, She hurried to Her children and called

them by their names as Brahma, Visnu and Siva. The Trimurti ran to

their mother, who kissed and caressed them again and again. Holding

them in Her arms, she said :

 

O divine children, I made you undergo this great agony of separation.

I should have come to you long before. I just wanted you to gain

powers of creation, preservation and dissolution through austerity,

so that the souls who partake their role in this cosmic lila should

see the ideal of austerity and penance shown by you three. I was

always with you; within yourselves by My grace, then I took a

transcendental form also so that the soul thereafter might worship My

divine form as the Divine Mother Gayatri. I shall be pleased with

their worship and confer on them all prosperity and bhakti. Let

Brahma, by the rajas ( passion and activity ) create; and Visnu, by

the quality of Sattva ( equilibrium ) maintain and preserve, and let

Siva, by tamas ( destruction ) bring dissolution at the end of

cycles. Pray to Me during the times of confusion and difficulty for

guidance.

 

Saying thus, the most blessed Mother disappeared. This is the

mythological description of Devi Gayatri. This shows that Gayatri is

Vedamata or Mother of the Vedas, ie sources of divine wisdom. She is

the inseparable power of Parabrahman, the Supreme pure consciouness.

 

 

Om Shantih Shantih Shantihi

Om ParaShaktiye Namaha

 

from Sadguru Sant Keshavadas

Gayatri, The Highest Meditation