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By KRISHNA ACHARYA BHATNAGAR

A human being’s most important and sacred duty is to remember God by singing His glory for all the bounties he has bestowed on humankind. For the Hindus, Vedic prayers are very sacred. Hymns of the Vedas are known as mantras. Some of the mantras are prayer-mantras. One such hymn in the Yajur Veda is the Gayatri mantra. It is a Beej mantra or seed syllable, derived from ancient primeval sounds.

The origin of the text of the Gayatri mantra has been elaborated in the Manu Smriti: “Brahma milked out, as it were, from the three Vedas or Rig Veda, Yajur Veda and Sama Veda, the letter ‘A’, the letter ‘U’ and the letter ‘M’ and formed by their coalition three monosyllables, together with three mysterious words — Bhur, Bhuvah and Svah or earth, sky and heaven”. Thus the text of the Gayatri mantra was composed as Om bhur bhuvah, svah, tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dheemahi dhiyo yo nah prachodayat. The mantra is conceived as the worship of Lord Hari, of Aditya or the Sun and also as pure Nirguna worship of Brahma.

Japa or chanting of this mantra with concentration and understanding, ushers in inexplicable mental peace, calm and solace. According to Agni Purana, the syllable ‘ja’ destroys the birth and death cycle and the syllable ‘pa’ destroys the sins. Thus japa of this mantra has the potential to unite the soul with the supreme being.

It has miraculous powers which can infuse us with courage and confidence. In the battle-field of Kurukshetra, in the Mahabharata Bhishma advises Yudhishthir to recite the ‘spiritually powerful’ Gayatri mantra. A wonderful miracle was witnessed when the late Swami Gitananda performed Guru Puja in Pondicherry. “The flower plates shook with powerful vibrations of the chanted mantras, and glasses of water shivered, bubbled and frothed”. In this mantra there is latent spiritual power which by regular japa and meditation can transform the mind into pragya or wisdom.

Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “Amongst the mantras I am Gayatri”. The Goddess Gayatri Devi is the incarnation and manifestation of Brahma, who resides in all living beings. The Gayatri mantra is also known as Savitri or Sun mantra. It is addressed to the divine power in the Sun.

The Svetasvatara Upanishad says, “The one affluent divinity is hidden in all beings. He is all-pervading and is the inner-self of all creatures. He presides over all actions and all beings reside in Him. He is the inner-witness. He endows all with consciousness and He is Nirguna or free from the three gunas”. Almost similar exposition of this mantra has been given in Isa Upanishad. However, the Rig Veda has defined this mantra from a different angle. “The illumined sages like Surya constantly see that infinite all-pervading supreme reality Vishnu without any obstruction as though their vast intuitive eye or vision was spread over the spiritual sky”.

All Vedic prayers have emerged from Om, which is synonymous with Brahma, and have ‘Om’ as prefix. “Om is a primeval sound. Exhaustive exposition of this mystic word has been given in Mandukya Upanishad. The gist of which is, “The word Om is this very soul that was in the past and all that would be in future. That which is beyond all this is also AUM”. Om represents all physical and astral bodies, both manifested and unmanifested, from the external most physical to the internal most spiritual core in their manifestation in four cosmic planes”.

Before recitation of the Gayatri mantra pranayama is immensely beneficial both for the mind and body. This helps in concentration. There is a very simple mechanism for this breathing exercise. Plug the right nostril by right hand thumb and then breathe deeply by left nostril as long as possible. Then exhale slowly through the right nostril. This exercise may be repeated as many times as possible.