Gayatri Mantra

[Guest guest]

Meaning of Gayatri Mantra !

 

 

 

(Reply of Poojya Guruji to a query in the Arjunas List)

Hari

om ! Nice receiving your first mail to the Arjunas List. I am happy

receiving a mail which pertains to one of the most important objectives

of this dynamic List - bringing about awareness of the heritage &

culture of Hindus.

Gayatri Mantra is a highly

revered & extremely famous mantra from Vedas and is even today

given at the time of Yagnopavita samskar to youngsters. Even though it

is given for japa purpose, gayatri mantra is basically a prayer,

associated with a daily ritual of the Hindus called Sandhya-vandana.

This Sandhya-vandana is a short ritual done three times a day, at the

time of sun-rise, sun-set & when the sun is right on top. Here is

the word by word translation of the Gayatri Mantra :

Om : Name of Ishwara. O Lord !

Bhur - bhuvah - swah

: These are names of the three lokas. These represent the higher,

middle & lower realms of our experiences & existence. (The

objective is to take in its ambit all possible realms of our existence

& experiences.)

 

 

tat : That,

varenyam : who is adorable,

devasya : effulgent, illuminator,

dhiyo : intellect,

nah : our,

 

savetur : Sun,

bhargo : resplendent,

dhimahi : I meditate,

yo : That,

prachodayat : brighten & enlighten.

 

 

Thus the full meaning of the mantra is as follows :

O Lord Sun ! you

are adorable, resplendent and the illuminator of everything in the

three worlds. I pray to you that 'May my intellect be as bright &

resplendent as you are.'

The beauty

of the Gayatri Mantra is it is a prayer where we wish, pray and work

for making our intellect all the more sharp & bright. Success &

happiness of everyone basically depends on this single factor alone.

Vedas have a fanatic penchant for establishing importance of knowledge

over everything. The mantra reveals the priorities of our scriptures

& ancestors.

 

Can Gayatri be chanted by women !

(Reply of Poojya Guruji to Sh. Dinakaran Chief Sub-Editor, The Hindu -Business Section)

Question :

There is a view (especially in the orthodox Vaishnavaite mutts and

ashrams of Tamil Nadu) that the Gayatri Mantra must not be chanted by

women. Is it true?

Dear Sh.Dinakaran,

 

Hari om ! Ref. your

mail regarding prohibition of women for chanting Gayatri Mantra in some

Mutts & Ashrams. Well ! I am not a spokesman of any of these

Ashrams or Mutts, but I can certainly share with you my understanding

& perceptions in this matter.

The Vedas which have revealed

to us this great mantra do not prohibit the women folk from chanting

it. This prohibition which is practiced or suggested in some places is

certainly of a later origin, which the authors of this mantra obviously

did not share. The reason for this prohibition could be that in some

places the Yagnopavita was later given only to boys & not the

girls. There have been two schools of thought in this regard. One

professes that Yagnopavita samskar should be done only of boys, while

there is another school of thought which professes giving it to girls

too. If the Yagnopavita is done for girls too, then it is obvious that

they could very well chant the Gayatri too.

The Harita-dharma Sutra says

that there are two kinds of women. 1) Brahmavadini, and 2) Sadyovadhu.

The former use to devote her life for the pursuit of Brahma-vidya,

while the latter entered the Gruhasta Ashram. The first one was allowed

Yagnopavita, agni-sewa, veda-adhyayana, and even bhiksha-atana. The

Sadyo-vadhu was also given Yagnopavita, but at the time of Vivaha. Even

Manu accepts doing of all the samskars for the women, but with a slight

difference. Apart from these pramanas there are various other pramanas

also which do not share the prevalent perceptions.

The tradition of prohibiting

women for various religious practices is certainly of a later origin,

and could be either because of some social factors of those times, or

absence of traditions of right education. They have no scriptural

sanction and therefore deserve to be rejected & changed.

 

With love & om,

Swami Atmananda

From : The Free Monthly E-zine of Vedanta Mission

http://members.tripod.com/vedantamission/

-- devishakti_india( divyabhakti )( http://spiritualhinduism.blogspot.com

)