Gayatri Mantra is one of the oldest Vedic hymns, traditionally called shloka (verse), composed in gayatri vedic metric style and attributed to the rishi Visvamitra. It can be interpreted as an invocation to the vedic deva Savitri, a solar divinity. According to the latter attribute of god Savitri, the hymn can also be viewed as an prayer to the Sun, with all its cosmologycal implication, that is to say the creative power of making the universe exist. We can find the Gayatri Mantra in many other vedic texts, as in the Bhagavad Gita or in the Manusmirti. It is also related to one of the most important samskara (hindu brahmanical rites of passage), the upanayana, in which the devote becomes part of the twice-born brahmanical society. The opening formula Om Bhur Bhuva Swaha has a lot of symbolic meanings and is called the Mahavyarhti, "the great utterance".
By the way, besides its story and old significance, Gayatri Mantra is still popular today among hindus and during the centuries has been variously interpreted by many intellectuals, guru or member of religious movement, like the neo-Hinduism movements from the beginning of twentieth century.
Here I report the devanagari verses and their IAST translitteration:
- ॐ
- भूर्भुवः॒ स्वः ।
- तत्स॑वितुर्वरे॑ण्यं ।
- भ॒र्गो॑ दे॒वस्य॑ धीमहि। ।
- धियो॒ यो नः॑ प्रचो॒दया॑त्॥ ।
- Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ
- tát savitúr váreṇ(i)yaṃ
- bhárgo devásya dhīmahi
- dhíyo yó naḥ pracodáyāt
This can be roughtly traslated literally as:
"May we attain that excellent glory of Savitar the god:
So may he stimulate our prayers."
(The Hymns of the Rigveda, 1896, Ralph T. H. Griffith)
Regarding the actual meaning of the verses, as I mention before there are lots of different versions of the hymn.
Personally, I feel Swami Vivekananda's and S. Radhakrishnan's paraphrases to be more likely and so I quote:
- "We meditate on the glory of that Being who has produced this universe; may He enlighten our minds." (Swami Vivekananda, 1915)
- "We meditate on the effulgent glory of the divine Light; may he inspire our understanding." (S. Radhakrishnan -1-,1947)
- "We meditate on the adorable glory of the radiant sun; may he inspire our intelligence." (S. Radhakrishnan -2-, 1953).
I will like to share also the free traslation of Sir William Jones, one of the first indologist who was a real admirer of Indian tradition, because I appreciate his poetic choices of words and expressions:
- "Let us adore the supremacy of that divine sun, the god-head who illuminates all, who recreates all, from whom all proceed, to whom all must return, whom we invoke to direct our understandings aright in our progress toward his holy seat." (William Jones, 1807)
......I hope you can enjoy it........
