A scientific interpretation for Gayathri mantra

[Guest guest]

Just came across this interpretation for Gayathri mantra.

 

Gayatri Mantra: A scientific view - Dr Tanmaya

>

>

>Gayatri mantra has been bestowed the greatest importance in Vedic

>dharma.This mantra has also been termed as Savitri and Ved-Mata, the mother

>of the Vedas. The literal meaning of the mantra is:

>

>O God! You are Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Almighty. You

>are all Light. You are all Knowledge and Bliss.

>You are Destroyer of fear, You are Creator of this Universe,

>You are the Greatest of all. We bow and meditate upon Your

>light. You guide our intellect in the right direction.

>

>The mantra, however, has a great scientific import too, which

>somehow got lost in the literary tradition.

>The modern astrophysics and astronomy tell us that our Galaxy called Milky

>Way or Akash-Ganga contains approximately 100,000 million of

>stars. Each star is like our sun having its own planet system. We know that

>the moon moves round the earth and the earth moves round the sun along with

>the moon. All planets round the sun. Each of the above bodies revolves

>round

>at its own axis as well. Our sun along with its family takes one round of

>the galactic centre in 22.5 crore years.

>All galaxies including ours are moving away at a terrific velocity of

>20,000 miles per second.

>

> And now the alternative scientific meaning of the mantra step by

>step:

>(A) Om bhur bhuvah swah:

>Bhur the earth, bhuvah the planets (solar family), swah the Galaxy.

>We observe that when an ordinary fan with a speed of 900 RPM

>(rotations Per minute) moves, it makes noise. Then, one can imagine, what

>great noise would be created when the galaxies move with a speed of 20,000

>miles per second. This is what this portion of the mantra explains that

>the

>sound produced due to the fast-moving earth, planets and galaxies is Om.

>The sound was heard during meditation by Rishi Vishvamitra, who mentioned

>it

>to other colleagues. All of them, then unanimously decided to call this

>sound Om the name of God, because this sound is available in all the three

>periods of

>time, hence it is set (permanent). Therefore, it was the first

>never revolutionary idea to identify formless God with a specific title

>(form) called upadhi. Until that time, everybody recognized God as formless

>and nobody was prepared to accept this new idea. In the Gita also, it is

>said, "Omiti ekaksharam brahma", meaning that the name of the Supreme is

>Om,

>which contains only one syllable (8/12). This sound Om heard during samadhi

>was called by all the seers nada-brahma a very great noise), but not a

>noise

>that is normally beyond a specific amplitude and limits of decibels suited

>to human hearing. Hence the rishis called this sound Udgith

>musical sound of the above, i.e., heaven.They also noticed that the

>infinite mass of galaxies moving with a velocity of 20,000 miles/second was

>generating a kinetic energy = 1/2 MV2 and this was balancing the total

>energy consumption of the cosmos. Hence they named it Pranavah, which

>means the body (vapu) or store house of energy (prana).

>

> (B) Tat savitur varenyam:

> Tat that (God), savitur the sun (star), varenyam worthy of

>bowing or respect. Once the form of a person along with the name is known

>to us, we may locate the specific person. Hence the two titles (upadhi)

>provide the solid ground to identify the formless God, Vishvamitra

>suggested. He told us that we could know (realize) the unknowable formless

>God through the known factors, viz., sound Om and light of suns (stars).A

>mathematician can solve an equation x2+y2=4; if x=2; then y can be known

>and

>so on. An engineer can measure the width of a river even by standing at

>the

>river bank just by

>drawing a triangle. So was the scientific method suggested by

>Vishvamitra in the mantra in the next portion as under:-

>

>© Bhargo devasya dheemahi:

>

>Bhargo the light, devasya of the deity, dheemahi we should meditate. The

>rishi instructs us to meditate upon the available form (light of suns) to

>discover the formless Creator (God). Also he wants us to do

>japa of the word

>

>Om (this is understood in the Mantra). This is how the sage wants us

>to proceed, but there is a great problem to realise it, as the human

>mind is so shaky and restless that without the grace of the Supreme

>(Brahma) it cannot be controlled. Hence Vishvamitra suggests the way to

>pray

>Him as

>under:

>

> (D) Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat:

>

> Dhiyo (intellect), yo (who), nah (we all), prachodayat (guide

>to right Direction). O God! Deploy our intellect on the right path. Full

>scientific interpretation of the Mantra: The earth (bhur), the planets

>(bhuvah), and the galaxies(swah) are moving at a very great velocity, the

>sound produced is Om, (the name of formless God.) That God (tat), who

>manifests Himself in the form of light of suns (savitur) is worthy of

>bowing/respect(varenyam). We all, therefore, should meditate (dheemahi)

>upon the light (bhargo) of that deity (devasya) and also do chanting of Om.

>May He (yo) guide in right direction (prachodayat) our (nah)

>intellect dhiyo So we notice that the important points hinted in the

>mantra

>are:-

> 1) The total kinetic energy generated by the movement galaxies

>acts as an umbrella and balances the total energy consumption of the

>cosmos. Hence it was named as the Pranavah (body of energy). This is equal

>to 1/2 mv2 (Mass of galaxies x velocity2).

>

> 2) Realising the great importance of the syllable OM, the other

>later date religions adopted this word with a slight change in accent,

>viz.,

>amen and Ameen.

>

>3)The God could be realised through the saguna (gross), upasana

>(method), i.e., a) by chanting the name of the supreme as OM and

>b) by meditating upon the light emitted by stars (suns).

>

>

>

 

AdiyEn

Lakshmi Narasimhan

[Guest guest]

Dear Lakshmi Srinivasan:

 

This is an interesting conjecture, but can hardly be seriously

justified. The Gayatri Mantra is a profound prayer addressed to

the Indweller of the Sun, who is asked to guide our thoughts. If

the big bang were one of its intended meanings, one would have

expected the rishis and acharyas of yore who experienced the Gayatri's

truth first-hand to have mentioned it, at least in an indirect way.

But they have not, sticking to less far-fetched ways of understanding

the mantra.

 

The beauty of the Vedas is that it iss easy to extrapolate almost

anything from some of their more cryptic statements. This is also

why they are problematic, and why one can come with philosophies

that differ as radically as sAnkhyA, advaita, dvaita, and pUrva-mImAmsA,

and viSishtAdvaita. But for this very reason, it is important to

be very careful. If we are at all interested in the original intent

of the Vedic rishis, it is best that we stick to the canons of

interpretation adopted by our predecessors.

 

Re: the praNava (OmkAra) and Amen

 

Although some (particularly politicians today) are fond of thinking

that all great thoughts first arose in India, in this particular

case, it is clear that the Judeo-Christian religious word "Amen" has

no relationship to the praNava. The only thing common between the

two is that both words have been used to signify acceptance or affirmation,

something that is common to many languages in the world. However, this

is where the similarity ends. To begin with, "Amen" comes from Hebrew,

which is linguistically unrelated to the Indo-European language family

to which Sanskrit belongs. Second, the praNavAkAra is a composite

of 'a', 'u', and 'm', condensed together in the form we commonly know it.

It would indeed be a strange metamorphosis for a composite syllable

used so precisely in a religious context and treasured so carefully to

have transformed into the multisyllabic "amen".

 

aDiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan

Mani