Gayatri Mantra
Twenty-four syllables that millions repeat at dawn. The Gayatri asks for nothing material — only that the divine light awaken our intellect. Where does it come from, what does each word mean, and why is it called the mother of the Vedas?
The verse
A prayer that asks for understanding
Most prayers ask for something. The Gayatri asks for the one thing from which every good thing follows: "may that light inspire our thoughts". It is addressed to Savitr, the divine power of the sun that awakens and moves all beings. For thousands of years it has been recited at the three sandhyas — dawn, noon and dusk — and it is the mantra traditionally given at the upanayana, the sacred-thread ceremony.
Where it is found
The mantra is Rigveda 3.62.10, seen by the sage Vishvamitra. It is composed in the gāyatrī metre — three lines of eight syllables — which gave the mantra its popular name; its older name is the Savitri. It appears again in the Yajurveda and Samaveda and is praised in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna says "among metres I am the Gayatri" (10.35). But the words "Om bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ" that begin it today are not in the Rigveda verse at all…
The journey continues for members
- The vyahritis: Om bhur bhuvah svah
- Word by word
- Traditional procedure
- Different traditions of recitation
- A note on what mantras promise
- What the Gayatri teaches
Sources
- Rigveda — 3.62.10
- Taittiriya Aranyaka — vyahritis
- Bhagavad Gita — 10.35
- Chandogya Upanishad — 3.12 (on the Gayatri)