Mantras can enhance your practice in myriad ways. The repetitive chant or sound can focus your mind, elevate your consciousness through specific vibrations or frequencies, and calm your nervous system.
The Gayatri mantra, one of the oldest and best known mantras, is said to ensure happiness for anyone who chants it faithfully, holds it in their heart, and follows their calling.
It first appeared in the Rig Veda, an early Vedic text written between 1800 and 1500 BCE. It is mentioned in the Upanishads as an important ritual and in the Bhagavad Gita as the poem of the Divine.
According to Douglas Brooks, PhD, a professor of religion at the University of Rochester and a teacher in the Rajanaka yoga tradition, the Gayatri is the most sacred phrase uttered in the Vedas.
Gayatri Mantra in Sanskrit:
ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः
तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं ।
भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि
धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ॥
Phonetic translation in English:
Om bhur bhuvah svaha
tat savitur varenyam
bhargo devasya dhimahi
dhiyo yonah prachodayat
Meaning: Om. We worship the transcendental Glory of the Deity Supreme, who is inside the heart of the earth, inside the life of the sky and inside the soul of Heaven. May He stimulate and illuminate our minds.
How to recite Gayatri Mantra
Reciting the Gayatri mantra for 108 beads (i.e one round) can purify one’s soul and heart and leave a calming effect on the mind. It is chanted on three time period – in the morning (two hours before sunrise), at midday and in the evening (one hour after sunset).
You choose one time that fits you most and stick with it during the whole Gayatri Mantra practice. If you practice in the morning, face the East, if you opt for evening chant, you should face the West.
This mantra can be recited in the morning on an empty stomach.
Gayatri Mantra has its own Chandas, metre for reciting and we should remember that most of the versions available in various online media are wrong and following the same will not bring the desired benefit. The following is the right way of changing this:
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