GAYATRI MANTRA

GAYATRI MANTRA  

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. 

Ombhur bhuvah  swah 

Tat savitur varenyam 

Bhargo devasya dheemahi 

Dhiyo yo nah  prachodayat 

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 center in 22.5 crore years. All  galaxies including ours are moving away at a terrific velocity of 20,000  mile s 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  ever 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 heard 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  riverbank just by drawing a triangle. So was the scientific method  suggested by Vishvamitra in the mantra in the next portion as under:-  

C) 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 realize 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 of 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) Realizing 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.