Even though I’m calling Sanatana Dharma a religion – commonly known as Hinduism – it is actually not a religion but a way of life, a manner of thinking. Therefore, in India’s ancient or medieval history, you will never find an episode of two kings or states going to battle just because they prayed to a different form of God. It is quite remarkable that in a country with tens of languages and hundreds of dialects, a country with extraordinary cultural and historical diversity, where states were eternally fighting territorial and political wars, there had never been any persecution in the name of religion. That’s because Sanatana Dharma allowed peaceful co-existence of contradictions.
Wherever you might have been in this beautiful country, through any period in its several millennia-old history, Sanatana Dharma has stood on four pillars – Gau , cow; Gita , the Bhagavad Gita , which means the Song of the Lord, and is our scripture; Ganga, Mother Ganga; and Gayatri.
Adi Shankaracharya wrote in Bhaja Govindam , “Gaiyam gita naam sahasram, dheyam shripati roopamajasram, neyam sajan sange chitam, deyam deen janaye chavittam .”
The purpose of human life is fourfold. Gaiyam gita naam sahasram; Shankaracharya urges that whenever your mind has a moment to spare, chant the holy names, sing the divine glories and express your gratitude to the Divine. (It’s better than gossiping, sulking or speaking ill of anyone.) Because, as you have heard in my earlier discourses, nothing gives you strength like gratitude, happiness and inner peace. Happiness is a direct outcome of your gratefulness. The more grateful you are, the happier you will feel.
Dheyam shripati roopamajasram : Meditate upon the divine energy. Neyam sajan sange chitam : Spend your time in the company of good people – it’s the hardest thing to do.
When you socialize with other people, you will discover that they spend more of their time gossiping than doing anything else, and it goes beyond the standard exchanging of pleasantries: “Hey, how are you doing today?” It’s just plain gossiping. This weakens you, because when you relax in your free time, your mind always plays back what it had heard during the day. That’s how the mind works. If you don’t feed it garbage, it won’t feed you garbage back.
Shankaracharya said, “Neyam sajan sange chittam.” Spend your time in the company of good people. I once read somewhere that at any point in time, you will discover that you are a reflection of the five most significant people in your life. We become the kind of people we surround ourselves with. The whole premise of meditation, of bhakti , of devotion, is based on this alone – that if I have to derive my inspiration from somebody, let that person not be an ordinary person with ordinary challenges; with ordinary, petty thinking. Let me derive my inspiration from something grand, something extraordinary; something beautiful.
“Deyam deen janaye chavittam” means be charitable to those who are needy. Such a life is useless where you live just for yourself. Somewhere your life has to have meaning. It has to be of use to somebody else, to some other people, because the unfailing law of the universe is whatever you give, it will grow. With that in mind, share your resources with those who need it. So these four pillars of Sanatana Dharma form the basis of a meaningful life, of a purposeful life: So that we speak our words carefully, use our resources judiciously to help ourselves and those around us and be eternally grateful for everything in our lives.
This particular book is about the fourth pillar: the Gayatri mantra. My view is that by the time you finish this book, you will know, a) How to invoke the Gayatri mantra because until you invoke it, you won’t benefit from it and b) Even more importantly, how to put it to use. Merely accumulating the energy of the mantra is not enough, one needs to know how to benefit from it. It’s like having a million dollars in your bank account but not knowing how to withdraw the money; you don’t have any cheque book or an ATM card.
Mantra science is something like that. The wealth that you seek, the spiritual wealth, is inside you. It’s already there. The question is, how do you put it to use? Now, there are many methods and I don’t want to give you more methods. (I did that extensively in my book The Ancient Science of Mantras .) Here, I want to make it extremely simple for you.
A wife was leaving home to go to the market.
She said to her husband, “Honey, I’m going out for a couple of hours, do you need anything from the market?”
He smiled and said, “Thanks, that’s enough!”
Chanting is a little like this. What I am going to share with you may seem like nothing at the end of the day, but depending on your state of mind, this is going to be enough. Notably, mantras, including the Gayatri mantra, have no creators. Mantras have what we call seers, which means rishis or sages who saw them first. So the wisdom is already there – we only need eyes to see it.
Of the four Vedas, Rig Veda is considered the oldest. In the Rig Veda, 3rd canto, 61st chapter, Mother Divine is referred to as Usha. Usha means dawn; Usha means daybreak, the first light. Mother Divine is referred to as the light. But it is in the 3rd canto, 62nd chapter and 10th verse where the Gayatri mantra is first featured in any scripture.
The verses in Vedas are organized in meters, called chanda in Sanskrit, and Krishna says, “Gayatri naam chandasaam aham” 2 (The Bhagavad Gita 10.35). Here, Krishna says, of all the Vedic meters, I am Gayatri. The meter of Gayatri has many mantras, with Gayatri mantra being the most significant. In other words, the meter of the Gayatri mantra is also Gayatri. Under Gayatri chanda , the meter of Gayatri, the Gayatri mantra sits in the 3rd canto, 62nd chapter, 10th verse, and it does not begin with the usual Bhur-bhuvah-svah . The mantra found there is:
Tat-savitur-varenayam
Bhargo-devasya-dhimahi
Dhiyo-yo-nah-prachodayat.
The complete and recommended mantra, however, begins with Om bhur-bhuva-svaha . To understand the structure, power and energy of the Gayatri mantra, we have to revisit a chapter in our ancient history, when, how and under what circumstances the first rishi invoked this mantra.
1 Siddhis are supernatural powers stated in various yogic and Puranic texts.
2 The full verse is: bṛihat-sāma tathā sāmnāṁ gāyatrī chhandasām aham māsānāṁ mārga-śhīrṣho ’ham ṛitūnāṁ kusumākaraḥ . Thus: Of the Vedas, I’m Samaveda; of meters, I’m Gayatri; of months, I’m Margashirsha; and of seasons, I’m spring, Krishna says. This also hints at the esoteric aspect of Gayatri sadhana, that is, if one wishes to invoke the mantra of Gayatri for both material and spiritual upliftment, the month of Margashirsha (usually mid Nov–mid Dec, but please consult panchangam for the exact lunar dates) or the spring season is the best time to begin your purushcharana.
The First Practitioner
The valiant king Kaushika was returning with a large number of men – his troops and his entourage. They were tired and worn out from the long battle they had just won. Passing through the woods, they thought they should camp somewhere but, the trouble was, they had run out of provisions. And without food, even the greatest warriors can’t survive, so the king was concerned. How am I going to feed my people? My soldiers are weary now, I cannot let them starve.