Gayatri Mantra - Scientific Studies

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Gayatri Mantra

Om bhur bhuvah swah

Tat savitur varenyam

Bhargo devasya dheemahi

Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat

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.

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 import too, which somehow got lost

in the literary tradition.The modern astrophysics and astronomy tell us that

our Galaxy called MilkyWay 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

with its family takes one round of the galactic centre in 22.5 crore (225

million) years. All galaxies including ours are moving away at a terrific

velocity of 20,000 miles 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 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 =

½ 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

(prana).

(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 river bank just by drawing a triangle. So was the

scientific method suggested by Vishvamitra in the mantra in the next portion as

under:-

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 realise 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 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 ½ mv2 (Mass of

galaxies x velocity2).

2) Realising 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.

3)The God could be realised through the saguna (gross), upasana (method), i.e.,

a) by chanting the name of the supreme as OM and

b) by meditating upon the light emitted by stars (suns).

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