tat savitur varenyam
bhargo devasya dhimahi
dhiyo yo nah pracodayat
OM
We meditate upon the glorious splendor of the Vivifier divine.
May he himself illumine our minds!
OM
“There is nothing more exalted than the Gayatri.” l It is the most renowned mantra of the Vedas. It is addressed to the divine life-giver as supreme God, symbolized in Savitri, the Sun. 2 For this reason this prayer is also called Savitri. It is recited daily at sunrise and at sunset, usually at the moment of the ritual bath. This mantra derives its name from the meter in which it is written, the gayatri being a Vedic poetic meter of twenty-four syllables, of which the author according to tradition was the sage Vishvamitra.
To grasp the relevance of this sacred text we must recall the importance of a mantra, especially in the Vedic period, though the mantra is a primordial human phenomenon to be found in practically all religious traditions. Mantras are not magic formulas, nor are they merely logical sentences; they connect, in a very special way, the objective and subjective aspects of reality. A simple example is often given to illustrate this function. A king asks his minister, who is advanced in the spiritual life and practices japa (i.e., the recitation of mantras), to teach him his mantra. The minister declines but the king insists. The minister tells a page who is standing nearby to lay hold on the king, but, despite repeated injunctions, the page does not move. Finally, the enraged king tells his page to lay hold on the minister and the boy does so immediately. The minister bursts out laughing and explains to the king: our orders were the same and so was their recipient; yet in the one case the command was not heeded and in the other it was. In the case of a mantra all depends on the authority and the spiritual preparation of the one who says it. The word “mantra” means that which has been thought or known or that which is privately--or even secretly by initiation (diksa)--transmitted and which possesses power to liberate. It is sacred speech, sacrificial formula, efficient counsel. 3 The Brhadaranyaka Upanisad explains how the world came into being by the union of Mind (manas) with Word (vac). 4 The mantra is neither a mere sound nor sheer magic. Words have not only a sound but also a meaning, which is not apparent to all those who simply hear the sound. Living words have, furthermore, a power that transcends the purely mental plane. To acquire this energy of the word one has to grasp not only its meaning but also its message, or its vibrations, as they are sometimes called in order to stress the link with the sound itself. 5 Faith, understanding, and physical utterance, as well as physical continuity (the mantra has to be handed down by a master), are essential requisites for an authentic mantra. Every word links us up with the source of all words. The ultimate character of the word, shabdabrahman, is a fundamental concept in Indian spirituality.
Several hymns of the Atharva Veda allude to the privileged position occupied by the Gayatri mantra. When the poet is attempting to define the First Principle, the Absolute, and to locate the “Unborn,” he says, in order to give us a notion of his inaccessibility, that he is:
Loftier even than the lofty Gayatri,
beyond the Immortal he strode forth.
Where was the Unborn then? This even
the knowers of Vedic lore cannot tell. 6
In another hymn, composed in honor of Rohita, the Sun, which also extols the grandeur of an earthly king, the poet describes the king’s subjects assembled at dawn for the offering of the sacrifice; he depicts them awaiting the appearance of the rising Sun, called in this passage the “tawny Calf,” and his “mother” the Dawn, here identified with the Gayatri:
Your people, the offspring of sacred Fervor,
have come in the wake of the Calf and the Gayatri.
May they enter your presence with intentions of peace, preceded by the tawny Calf and his mother! 7
In similar fashion another verse calls the Gayatri “Mother of the Vedas.” 8
The Gayatri is not necessarily connected with a sacrificial rite; it may be murmured or repeated without the accompaniment of ritual offering. It underwent a process of sublimation or interiorization, but not always successfully.
The Brhadaranyaka Upanisad gives a very elaborate symbolic explanation of the Gayatri based on its poetic compostion, three feet of eight syllables each: the first foot is made up of the three worlds: the earth, the heavens, and the sky or rather the in-between; 9 the second foot is composed of the threefold knowledge, that is, the wisdom of the three Vedas; the third foot is composed of the three vital forces (prana or in-breath, apana or out-breath, and vyana or diffused breath, which together compose eight syllables). All this is said in order to introduce the fourth foot, which is rendered visible precisely in and through the Gayatri, Savitri, the Sun “above the dark skies.” Through an interior process effected by reciting the Gayatri with insight the whole of reality is reflected and thus also mastered in Man, this mesocosmos, this mirror of total reality.
If he, the knower of the Gayatri, receives these three worlds with all their fullness he will be receiving only the first foot of the Gayatri. If he receives all that is conferred by the threefold knowledge [of the Vedas], he will be receiving only the second foot. If he receives all that lives and breathes, he will be receiving only the third foot. But that fourth, the foot apparently visible above the dark skies yonder, that [sun] which glows, is not obtainable by anyone at all. How could anyone receive so much? Salutation to the Gayatri: O Gayatri, you are one-footed, two-footed, three-footed, four-footed. Yet you are footless, because you do not go afoot. Salutation to you, the fourth, the clearly visible foot, above the dark skies! 10
Furthermore, as another important commentary on the Gayatri says: “The Gayatri, indeed, is this whole universe, all that has come to be. And the Word, indeed, is Gayatri, for the Word sings forth and protects this whole universe that has come to be.” 11
The Maitri Upanisad also gives an account of the Gayatri, explaining its symbolism verse by verse:
That glorious splendor of Savitri: the Sun in the heavens is assuredly Savitri: He it is who is to be sought by one desirous of the Self. So it is affirmed by those who disclose the knowledge of Brahman for us.
May we meditate on the Vivifier divine: Savitri assuredly is God. Therefore I meditate on that which is called his splendor. So it is affirmed by those who disclose the knowledge of Brahman for us.
May he himself illumine our minds: Mind assuredly is intelligence. May he breathe it into us. So it is affirmed by those who disclose the knowledge of Brahman for us. 12
The same Upanisad introduces us to the Savitri by reciting the following hymn:
The Swan, the bird of golden color,
abiding both in the heart and in the Sun,
the diver-bird of glorious light--
to him we sacrifice in this fire. 13
Prayer would be next to nothing or merely the expression of our wishes to a more powerful agency which knows them already, if it did not consist in this assuming, realizing, even becoming the whole of reality; it is a recapitulation, a summing up, of all that there is in the mind and heart, and also in the body of the worshiper. Prayer is participation in the systole and diastole of the whole universe.
What the Gayatri is, that indeed the earth is also, for it is on the earth that this whole universe is established; it does not extend beyond it. What the earth is, that indeed the body in man is also, for on it these vital breaths are established; they do not extend beyond it. What the body in man is, that indeed the heart within man is also, for on it these vital breaths are established; they do not extend beyond it. The Gayatri has four feet and is sixfold. About this a verse of the Rig Veda says: “Such is the measure of his greatness, but greater still is the Man.” 14 All beings form a quarter of him, three quarters, the immortal in the sky. What is called Brahman, that indeed the space outside a man is also; what the space outside a man is, that indeed the space within a man is also; what the space within a man is, that indeed the space within the heart is also. That is the full, the unchanging. Whoever knows this obtains good fortune, full and unchanging. 15
One of the traditional words for the fundamental act of prayer is concentration, and we should understand it in the most precise fashion. The man of prayer, in and through his spiritual concentration, really concentrates more and more parts of reality; he condenses, as it were, the less concentrated sparks of the universe floating around him, so as to reduce them to their essence. He can do so because he has found the center of reality which allows him really to concentrate, that is, to center his worlds in one single center. This can be done when the three centers, that of outer reality, that of inner reality, and that of man himself, coincide. The result is harmony and peace. Real prayer is always an act that embraces, all in one, the Divine, the Human, and the Cosmic, that is, the adhidaivika, the adhyatmika, and the adhibhautika. That is what the different texts on the Gayatri have been telling us in their different ways.
The Gayatri accompanies man not only on his daily round, but also in the most solemn moments of his life. It forms an important part of the initiation ceremony. 16 Henceforward the young man, having received the mantra from his master, will have the right of uttering it and thus of participating in the spiritual world that links him with all others who praise and worship God through the living words of this cosmic prayer.
Many Shastras have indicated the way the Gayatri has to be recited. Daily, the student of sacred lore should stand at dawn and recite the Savitri (as the Gayatri is often called) until he sees the rising sun, and at dusk, seated, recite it until he catches sight of the emerging stars. 17 Another Shastra adds that while facing the East at the morning twilight and the West in the evening, one may control his breath while reciting the Savitri a hundred times. 18 These and other injunctions tend to harmonize one’s heart and mind with the cosmic powers. The chanting of the Gayatri at dawn purifies from the sins of the previous night, and the evening prayer of the mantra purifies from the sins committed during that day. 19 The Gayatri is a complete symbol of light. It is certainly much more than the epiphany of light; it is light itself when the recitation is a real prayer, an assimilation to and identification with that which is prayed. Each line emphasizes one aspect of light: the glorious splendor of the Ultimate, his own internal radiance, that is, the uncreatedness of light (line 1); the creating light, the communicative brightness of the uncreated Sun, Savitri, the brilliance of the living God who illumines everything (line 2); and, finally, the incidence of this divine light in our beings, and especially in our minds, making us refulgent ourselves and transmitters of the same refulgence and converting us into light: light from light, splendor from splendor, oneness with the source of light, not in a ponderous ontological identity but in a “lightsome” identity of luminosity, totally transparent--atman-brahman (line 3). 20