Gayatri Mantram 3

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Prayer is carried out for four main reasons:

· to praise and glorify God;

· to thank God;

· to ask forgiveness from God;

· or to make a request from God.

Having carried out the other three parts (praise of His greatness, thanks for

His generosity in Creation and maintaining us through our lives, and

forgiveness by demonstrating our awareness of our own impurity, which we have

realised is present and must be cleansed through contact with God), this part

is now our request from God. Since our soul is the Light of Life within us, and

that acts on our body via the medium of the brain, we ask God to make this

contact pure and righteous. The soul is of course inherently pure, being itself

Divine in nature. The body is under the complete control of the mind. The link

is the mind, which is affected not only by the soul, but also the outside

world. We ask in these four words that God help us to improve our intellect,

and guide it towards what is right.

DHIYO

Sanskrit for "intellect", this is the essence of this part of the Gayatri

Mantra. Having firmly set God in our hearts, we now must try to emphasise His

presence and influence on our mind and intellect.

Material prosperity holds no true meaning for the person who is truly devoted to

God. Pain and suffering are of no consequence to him as, touched by God, he is

imbued with God's own Divine Bliss, and all worldy sorrows pale to nothingness

in comparison. However, still the individual must live in the world. Thus, it

is important that the person's intellect remains focussed on serving God, and

that it is able, through the medium of the body, to serve God to the best of

its ability.

Physical objects can be obtained very easily, if one is intelligent enough to

know how to go about it. Intellect however cannot be obtained, but must be

there from the very first. It is by use of this intellect, in fact, that one is

able to cultivate all other qualities (building of wealth, "success" in life (in

material terms), physical fitness, etc.) Thus, intellect is the key to all else

in life, and as such, it is the most important possession. We ask God in the

Gayatri Mantra to gift us with the highest intellect, and to help us by showing

us the way to use that intellect.

YO

Meaning "Who" or "That", Yo signifies yet again that it is not to anyone else

that we direct these prayers, but to God alone. Only God is worthy of the

highest adoration, only God is perfect and free from all defects. It is That

God to Whom we offer these prayers.

NAH

Nah means "Ours", and signifies the selflessness of the request we make of God

in this part of the Gayatri Mantra. We offer this prayer, and make the request

of God, not simply for ourselves, but for the whole of humanity. We seek the

uplift of the whole of society. Hindu philosophy has since the beginning

recognised the concept of "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" - "The whole world is one big

family". Thus, we pray not only for ourselves, but for each and every member of

that great family, that we may all benefit from the greatness and generosity of

the All-loving God.

PRACHODAYAT

Prachodayat, the final word of the Gayatri Mantra, rounds off the whole mantra,

and completes the request we make of God in this final part. This word is a

request from God, in which we ask Him for Guidance, and Inspiration. We ask

that, by showing us His Divine and Glorious Light (cf. BHARGO), He remove the

darkness of Maya from our paths, that we are able to see the way, and in this

manner, we ask Him to direct our energies in the right way, guiding us through

the chaos of this world, to find sanctuary in the tranquility and peace of God

Himself, the root of all Happiness, and the source of true Bliss.

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).AdiyEnLakshmi Narasimhan Tat

Twam Asi

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