Meaning of Gayatri Mantra #1

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

 

Upon reading Sri Sidha's wonderful posting on the Gayatri Mantra, I

realised that I had made a compilation in March this year and had

not posted it to Advaitin. Here it is. Information on the referencing is

below this email and for each of the five faces (lines) of the Gayatri

Mantra, there will be one posting. Comments are welcomed.

 

 

--------------- "Gayatri"

 

Gayatri: "Gayantham Trayate ithi Gayatri" , that which protects the

one who recites it. (SSB, 10-Feb-2000)

 

--------------- First face: OM (Pranava)

 

"Pranava is present in every living being The pranava mantra ranks

higher than all this music. It is all pervasive and ever present. There

cannot be a single moment when we are not listening to this pranava . Nor

can we dispense with it even for a second. The Pranava is present in every

living being. The Pranava is the primordial sound on which all sounds are

based. The Pranava has been equated with the Brahman (the Cosmic Self)."

(SSB, 1-Oct-1987)

 

"In this sense, Om is the Pratiika or representative of the Radical

Vital Potential of the Universe and the Trinity of Energies by which It

actualises and materialises Itself as the five forms of 'matter' ...

Through the worship and meditation on this Pratiika, with all its

implications, man, according to Advaita VedAnta, realises himself as the

one vital Shakti who is the Mother of all." (JW, p. 220)

 

"The four parts of Pranava The sound, OM , known as pranava has

also four parts or stages. The sound ' A ' (as in 'manna') is a basic

sound in speech and is universally utilized. It is parallel to the Viswa

or Wakeful phase of man's daily life. The sound ' U ' (as in 'input') is

indicative of the breathing process (inhaling and exhaling), which ensures

thejas (the glow of Vitality). The breath persists in the dream stage and

so it corresponds to the dreaming phase. Then we have in OM the ' M '

sound (as in 'am'), which closes all externalizing and internalizing

outlets and inlets of consciousness and enables man to be alone with his

Reality, prajna or Brahma. So it symbolizes the condition during sushupthi

and can be defined as the prajna phase. The silence into which the OM

tapers is the consummation, the thuriya phase, when the veil of ignorance,

that has prevented the ecstasy of Brahman from illumining the awareness,

is removed and one is conscious of the mergence." (SSB, 30-Dec-1986)

 

A, U, M also symbolizes the roles of Brahma, Vishnu Shiva

according to sources.

 

--------------- To be continued...

 

The above were excerpted from the discourses of Sri Sathya Sai

Baba (SSB) and from Sir John Woodroffe's book, "The Garland of

Letters" (3rd Edition 1955) (JW). Anything that is not referenced

are comments.

 

 

 

--

Warmest regards,

Ruben

rubenn

_____________