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Gayatri
mantra has been bestowed the greatest importance in Vedic dharma. This
mantra has also been termed as Savitri and Ved-Mata, the mother of the Vedas.
Om bhur
bhuvah swah
Tat savitur varenyam
Bhargo devasya dheemahi
Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat
The
literal meaning of the mantra is:
O
God! You are Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Almighty, You are all Light.
You are all Knowledge and Bliss. You are Destroyer of fear, You are
Creator of this Universe, You are the Greatest of all. We bow and
meditate upon Your light. You guide our intellect in the right
direction.
The
mantra, however, has a great scientific importance too, which somehow
got lost in the literary tradition. The modern astrophysics and
astronomy tell us that our Galaxy called Milky Way
or Akash-Ganga contains approximately 100,000 million of stars. Each
star is like our sun having its own planet system. We know that the
moon moves round the earth and the earth moves round the sun along with
the moon. All planets round the sun. Each of the above bodies revolves
round at its own axis as well. Our sun along wit its family takes one
round of the galactic center in 22.5 crore years. All
galaxies including ours are moving away at a terrific velocity of
20,000 mile s per second.
And now the alternative
scientific meaning of the mantra step by step:
(A).
OM BHUR BHUVAH SWAH:
Bhur
the earth, bhuvah the planets (solar family), swah the Galaxy. We
observe that when an ordinary fan with a speed of 900 RPM (rotations
Per minute) moves, it makes noise. Then, one can imagine, what great
noise would be created when the galaxies move with a speed of 20,000
miles per second. This is what this portion of the mantra explains that
the sound produced due to the fast-moving earth, planets and galaxies
is Om. The sound was heard during meditation by Rishi Vishvamitra,
who mentioned it to other colleagues. All of them, then unanimously
decided to call this sound Om the name of God,
because this sound is available in all the three periods of time, hence
it is set (permanent). Therefore, it was the first ever revolutionary
idea to identify formless God with a specific title (form) called
upadhi. Until that time, everybody recognized God as formless and
nobody was prepared to accept this new idea. In the Gita also, it is said , "Omiti ekaksharam brahma", meaning
that the name of the Supreme is Om , which contains only one syllable
(8/12). This sound Om heard during samadhi
was called by all the seers nada- brahma a
very great noise), but not a noise that is normally heard beyond a
specific amplitude and limits of decibels suited to human hearing.
Hence the rishis called
this sound Udgith musical
sound of the above, i.e., heaven. They also noticed that the infinite
mass of galaxies moving with a velocity of 20,000 miles/second
was generating a kinetic energy = 1/2 MV2 and this was
balancing the total energy consumption of the cosmos.
Hence they named it Pranavah, which means the body (vapu) or store
house of energy
B). TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM:
Tat
that (God), savitur the sun (star), varenyam worthy of bowing or
respect. Once the form of a person along with the name is known to us,
we may locate the specific person.Hence the two titles (upadhi) provide
the solid ground to identify the formless God, Vishvamitra suggested.
He told us that we could know (realize) the unknowable formless God
through the known factors, viz., sound Om and light of suns (stars). A
mathematician can solve an equation x2+y2=4; if x=2; then y can be
known and so on. An engineer can measure the width of a river even by
standing at the riverbank just by drawing a triangle. So was the
scientific method suggested by Vishvamitra in the mantra in the next
portion as under:-
(C). BHARGO DEVASYA DHEEMAHI:
Bhargo
the light, devasya of the deity, dheemahi we should meditate. The rishi
instructs us to meditate upon the available form (light of suns) to
discover the formless Creator (God). Also he wants us to do japa of the
word Om (this is understood in the Mantra). This is how the sage wants
us to proceed, but there is a great problem to realize it, as the human
mind is so shaky and restless that without the grace of the Supreme
(Brahma) it cannot be controlled. Hence Vishvamitra suggests the way to
pray Him as under:
(D).
DHIYO YO NAH PRACHODAYAT:
Dhiyo
(intellect), yo (who), nah (we all), prachodayat (guide to right
Direction). O God! Deploy our intellect on the right path. Full
scientific interpretation of the Mantra: The earth (bhur), the planets
(bhuvah), and the galaxies (swah) are moving at a very great velocity,
the sound produced is Om , (the name of formless God.) That God (tat),
who manifests Himself in the form of light of suns (savitur) is worthy
of bowing/respect (varenyam). We all, therefore, should meditate
(dheemahi) upon the light (bhargo) of that deity (devasya) and also do
chanting of Om. May He (yo) guide in right direction (prachodayat)
our(nah) intellect dhiyo.
So
we notice that the important points hinted in the mantra are:-
1)
The total kinetic energy generated by the movement of galaxies acts as
an umbrella and balances the total energy consumption of the cosmos.
Hence it was named as the Pranavah (body of energy). This is equal to
1/2 mv2 (Mass of galaxies x squre of velocity.)
2)
Realizing the great importance of the syllable OM , the other later
date religions adopted this word with a slight change in accent, viz., Amen and Ameen.
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Related Tags : Mantra, God
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